State of UK Music Exports: Why New Artists Can't Break

The United Kingdom has long been a powerhouse in the global music industry. From the Beatles to Adele, UK artists have made a profound impact on music culture worldwide. Today, the country accounts for 12% of the global market, and is the third-largest domestic music market after the US and Japan.

According to the newly released annual report by UK Music, this number is only growing. Recorded music revenue for 2023, including streaming, other digital formats and physical sales, reached £1.3 billion, up from £1.1 billion in 2022. Employment in the industry also rose by 3%, while music export revenues hit an all-time high of £4.6 billion, marking a 15% increase.

Despite these figures, however, UK artists are absent from the global charts compared to a decade ago. Superstars such as Ed Sheeran, One Direction, Coldplay, and Sam Smith made up half of the world’s top ten acts in 2015. As of 2025, just five UK artists have made it to the Global Charts, and just one artist, Lola Young, has cracked Spotify’s Top Ten.

This may come as a surprise considering UK successes such as Charli xcx, whose viral album BRAT and its remix counterpart, Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat, dominated popular culture last year. In terms of global streams, however, it did not chart as well as one might expect. The only global #1 hit was the Guess remix featuring Billie Eilish, an American artist.

Four months later, UK band WHAM!’s “Last Christmas” also achieved a #1 spot, though given its 1984 release date, it is hardly a recent hit and only received a bump due to the holiday.

Though “Last Christmas” is their most well-known song, WHAM! have sustained their status as a legacy artist with other hits like “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.” To that point, the lack of UK presence in the Spotify charts suggests that similar legacy artists, rather than new stars, are sustaining the recent growth in UK music exports. While this may not appear problematic for the UK’s bottom line right now, it could highlight potential concerns for the future. If the UK does not foster the careers of new talent today, the contributions of current legacy artists would be expected to diminish, without being replenished.

Why UK Legacy Acts Dominate

The UK was once well-known for taking big chances on unknown artists. A common phrase to hear in the UK industry was to “follow Route 1,” as in BBC Radio 1, a station known for popularizing Queen, The Rolling Stones, and many others. Since the influence of broadcasting has decreased in the digital age, so has the prominence of institutions like BBC Radio.

The UK is now majorly cashing in on legacy acts borne from the former discovery era. At the end of August 2024, around 14 million people flooded Ticketmaster in hopes of scoring one of 1.4 million seats for the Oasis reunion tour. The run for the 90s legends consists of 38 shows from July to November 2025 and is expected to easily gross around £400 million. The enormous queue crashed Ticketmaster. Similarly, the ongoing ABBA Voyage London residency, which features holographic recreations of the Swedish band members alongside live musicians, pulled in £1.6 million per week last year across seven shows.

Sustained reliance on legacy artists in the UK is an industry anomaly — albeit a fortunate one for UK legacy artists, considering they have been able to remain global stars long after their heyday. The difference between the ratio of legacy stars in the US versus the UK Top 50 is drastic. While the UK has 14 legacy acts in its Top 50 — based on an average of total engagement across platforms — the US only has one: Michael Jackson.

Although the US does have a larger population of 346 million compared to the UK’s 69 million, as well as a substantial cushion as the operating base of the world’s three major labels (Warner, Universal, and Sony), data from even smaller countries than the UK shows that resources are not a requirement for enabling the success of new artists.

Currently, countries like Puerto Rico, Korea, and Colombia are generating a far higher proportion of today's emerging global stars. Puerto Rican star Bad Bunny, for example, is the third most-streamed artist on Spotify with over 85 million followers, as revealed by Chartmetric’s 2024 Year In Music Report. South Korea and Colombia have also seen acts like BTS, Rosé, Karol G, and Feid rising to superstardom.

The Role of Streaming in Listening Habits

Industry experts point to a combination of factors regarding the lack of emerging UK stars. Alongside the continued prevalence of UK legacy artists, the streaming format has made its impact on listening habits. Since streaming predominantly focuses on songs rather than artists or albums, and listeners are often consuming music through playlists, a track selection by a big editorial playlist is the most impactful way an artist can rapidly increase stream count. This has posed a challenge for the UK as well as other non-US artists, as many of the most popular editorial playlists are American and disproportionately feature American acts. “It’s very difficult to get British acts on [big playlists], which can make a massive difference to your campaign,” describes Hannah Neaves, President of Universal Music Recordings UK.

Spotify’s editorial playlist “Today’s Top Hits” has the most followers on the platform with 35.2 million. Seven of the top 10 tracks are from American artists. The one UK artist in the top 10, Lola Young, has the lowest editorial playlist count of the other top artists with 126.

Differing Genre Prioritization

Another influencing factor specific to the UK is the country’s relative decline of pop artists. According to music journalist Alim Kheraj, the UK music scene has largely prioritized hip-hop artists and singer-songwriters in recent years. While this is a positive thing for these genres, local references and cultural nuance in UK hip-hop may make the genre less approachable for a global audience. While artists like Central Cee, Stormzy and Dave have achieved significant success, their listenership has yet to reach the same level as their U.S. counterparts.

While Central Cee tops the UK hip-hop charts ahead of other leading UK artists, his listenership still falls below American artists like SZA, Tyler, The Creator, Kendrick Lamar and Post Malone by several million. Another dimension of market penetration is evident when comparing regional audience percentages.

For both UK and US artists, their primary listenership is largely based in their country of origin. In the compared secondary markets, however, UK artists attract US-based listeners as their largest international audience, whereas US secondary markets extend their reach into countries like Germany and the Philippines.

This reflects a broader historical pattern in the industry. The success of US hip-hop in the 2000s and 2010s led the UK industry to focus on cultivating its own domestic hip-hop scene. While UK subgenres like grime enjoyed domestic success during the 2000s, they struggled to break into the global market. It wasn’t until UK hip-hop saw increasing international recognition in the late 2010s that UK drill artists, like Central Cee and Dave, began making waves outside the UK, and reaching new audiences in established export markets. The UK’s main export market has since remained by and large the US, and is otherwise experiencing a decline in global traction. Between 2023 and 2024, the UK’s percentage of worldwide streams decreased from 7.9% to 8.49%.

Challenges for New Artists

In spite of challenging industry conditions, emerging UK artists continue to pioneer a large sector of the industry landscape. “DIY” artists in the UK make up one third of UK independent music streams, and many emerging UK artists continue to make strides forward. Indie rock band English Teacher, for example, released their debut album This Could Be Texas last year, winning them the prestigious Mercury Prize.

English Teacher has seen a steady increase in global Spotify streams since the release of their first LP This Could Be Texas in April 2024, with 600k streams as of late January 2025.

If industry trends are any indication, however, bands like English Teacher may face a difficult path forward — at least compared to that of UK legacy acts due to reduced opportunities for playing live.

Changes in the commercial property market have led to the construction of ever-larger multi-purpose venues, which have in turn eroded the grassroots music scene. The UK experienced 125 grassroots venue closures in 2023 — about a third of the country’s total. This included Bath’s iconic venue Moles, where acts like The Cure and Radiohead began their careers. “Live music at a grassroots level is no longer economically viable,” described former Moles co-owner Tom Maddicott of the closure.

Chartmetric spoke to Adam Crisp, a London-based experimental pop artist recording as Clarence Clarity, about the hurdles that emerging artists face. Despite an impressive discography of six EPs, four mixtapes and five LP releases over the past 12 years, including his recent album VANISHING ACT II: ULTIMATE REALITY,” Crisp has opted out of touring his own music for over a decade.

“Making a living wage purely from my own music is over for me,” he told Chartmetric. “The time [and] costs of rehearsing and gigging is better spent on making new music.” Alongside support from his label and tours with larger pop projects, he additionally relies on merchandise, sample packs, and Patreon funds to support his career. “If you have a talent for music, you’re going to need to develop that alongside business skills, branding [and] social media prowess.”

Even while the UK music sector reports record growth, conditions like legacy act dominance and detrimental streaming practices continue to limit opportunities for emerging artists from the region. To truly invest in the future, the UK industry must support new talent as it has supported legacy acts.

UK Music’s Tom Kiehl has recommended that the UK government introduce safeguards for up-and-coming artists, including youth music programs, capped ticket resale prices, and visa-free touring. Crisp further advocates for targeted support for small, pioneering artists with proven fanbases. Without taking action, the UK risks stifling its next generation of stars, as well as a rich history of musical innovation.