Songwriter income is distributed unevenly. UK evidence from 2019 found that 47% of music creators earned less than £10,000 from music, while only 9% earned more than £50,000. Royalty data also shows a small high-income group alongside a much larger base of creators earning below common income thresholds.
Contents
- UK music income distribution
- Songwriting royalty earners
- Streaming revenue estimates
- Where creators earn money
- Income differences between creator groups
- How income changed with streaming
UK music income distribution
The clearest broad snapshot comes from a survey of 708 UK music-creator respondents covering 2019. It measures income from music, rather than songwriting royalties alone, so it can include several kinds of creative and performance work.
In 2019, 37% of respondents earned £5,000 or less from music. The proportion earning less than £10,000 was 47%, and 62% earned £20,000 or less. A larger 72% earned £30,000 or less, leaving 28% above that level. At the upper end, 9% reported more than £50,000 from music.
The results were more constrained for people relying entirely on music. Among respondents whose only income source was music, 43% earned £20,000 or less in 2019. In the same group, 64% earned £30,000 or less. These figures describe the distribution of reported music income, not take-home pay or profit after career expenses.
The following thresholds show the shape of the 2019 distribution:
| Reported music-income threshold | Share of UK respondents |
|---|---|
| £5,000 or less | 37% |
| Less than £10,000 | 47% |
| £20,000 or less | 62% |
| £30,000 or less | 72% |
| More than £50,000 | 9% |
The survey also recorded a sharp change during the early pandemic period. The share reporting no income from music doubled from 4% in 2019 to 8% in 2020. Because those are survey results for different years, the change should be read as a reported shift in this respondent group, not as a universal measure for every songwriter in the UK. These distribution and year-to-year findings come from Music Creators Earnings, the Digital Era, and On-Demand Streaming Revenues.
Songwriting royalty earners
Royalty-distribution data provides a narrower view of songwriter and composer income. PRS distributions showed 36,170 UK songwriter or composer members earning income in 2009. By 2019, that count had risen to 62,505, an increase of 73% before considering inflation or changes in membership and reporting.
The number reaching higher thresholds grew too, but the high earners remained a minority. In 2009, 2,573 PRS members earned more than £10,000 from songwriting and composition. In 2019, 3,882 did so, a 51% increase. Those above £10,000 represented 7.11% of songwriting earners in 2009 and 6.2% in 2019.
At the £50,000 level, 719 PRS songwriters reached the threshold in 2009, compared with 1,168 in 2019. That is a 62% increase in the count before inflation adjustment. The increase in the number of earners therefore did not mean that most members moved into high-income territory.
Mechanical-royalty data from MCPS shows a still smaller group at the upper thresholds. MCPS distributions went to 11,314 members in 2014 and 13,189 in 2019. Members receiving more than £10,000 in mechanical royalties numbered 271 in 2014 and 309 in 2019. Those receiving at least £50,000 numbered 101 in 2014 and 126 in 2019.
The report estimated that around 5,000 UK songwriters might earn more than £20,000 a year from songwriting alone in 2019. This is explicitly an estimate, not a complete census of all UK songwriters. The PRS and MCPS figures, thresholds, and estimate are reported in Music Creators Earnings, the Digital Era, and On-Demand Streaming Revenues.
Streaming revenue estimates
Streaming revenue is divided among several rights and business participants. The UK publishing share of music-streaming revenue rose from 8% in 2008 to 12% in 2012 and approximately 15% in 2021. The recording-rights share was 51% in 2008 and 53% in 2021, while the music-streaming service share fell from 41% in 2008 to 32% in 2021.
Those shares help explain why a stream does not translate directly into a songwriter’s payment. Evidence given to the UK DCMS inquiry put one million streams at £4,000–£5,000 in recording-rights-holder payments during the 2020–2021 inquiry period. Using £4,000 and a 52% recording share, the report estimated just over £7,692 in gross revenue per million streams.
Applying the approximately 15% publishing share produced an estimated £1,153 in publishing-rights revenue per million streams. Applying a 75% songwriter royalty rate to that figure produced an estimate of about £865 per million streams for songwriters. These are modeled estimates based on stated assumptions, not a guaranteed universal rate. Contract terms, ownership, territory, platform, collection arrangements, and the split among co-writers can change the amount received by an individual.
The report also described records from a self-released creator covering 1,837,202 stream-equivalents and generating US$7,268.12 before distribution-service retention. The service retained 15% of the creator’s DSP payments, leaving 85% paid to the rights-holder. Across those records, the result equated to US$4,654.85, or £3,394 at August 2021 exchange rates, per million streams. This example covers the creator’s records and the stated period from 2014 to 2021; it is not a standard payment rate for all songwriters.
Where creators earn money
Before COVID-19, live performances generated 31% of respondents’ music-related income on average. No individual non-live source accounted for more than 9% of music-related income. This makes live work the largest single source in the survey, while also showing that many creators relied on a mix of smaller sources.
Digital sources combined accounted for 14% of music creators’ income on average in 2019. Within that total, audio-streaming royalties accounted for 6%, video streaming for 3%, and downloads for 5%. Physical music sales also accounted for 6% on average. When streaming, physical sales, and downloads were combined, recorded music accounted directly for an average 20% of respondents’ income.
Mechanical royalties accounted for about 2.9% of music creators’ income. The percentage is smaller than the combined recorded-music figure because the categories measure different parts of the income mix and should not be treated as interchangeable. In particular, a share of average income does not show how much any one songwriter earned from that source.
The figures point to two practical distinctions. First, streaming can be important without being the largest source of a creator’s total income. Second, a market-level publishing share does not describe the cash received by every individual writer. The survey’s income-source findings and the streaming-share analysis are in Music Creators Earnings, the Digital Era, and On-Demand Streaming Revenues.
Income differences between creator groups
The 2019 median reported music income was £13,057 for women and £20,160 for men. The difference appears across other thresholds as well. Across the three reported years from 2018 to 2020, 59%–62% of male respondents earned less than £20,000 from music. In the same period, 9%–11% of men reported high music earnings, compared with 4%–5% of women.
For 2019 specifically, 79% of female respondents earned £30,000 or less from music, compared with 71% of male respondents. At least £40,000 was reported by 14% of male respondents and 6% of female respondents.
The dataset also reports a difference by ethnicity. In 2019, 81% of ethnic-minority respondents excluding white minorities earned £30,000 or less, compared with 76% of white respondents. The category definition matters: the comparison excludes white minorities, so it should not be generalized to every possible ethnicity grouping.
Age was associated with reported earnings as well. Creators aged 35–49 had the highest reported earnings in 2018–2019, while respondents aged 16–24 and those over 50 reported lower earnings. The available statistic describes the pattern across age groups; it does not give a separate median or threshold percentage for each group.
These are differences in survey-reported music income. They do not by themselves identify the causes, and they should not be read as a direct comparison of songwriting ability, productivity, or royalty rates.
How income changed with streaming
Among creators who were active before 2015, 40% said their music income increased after streaming’s rise, comparing the period before 2015 with income through 2019. Another 32% said their income decreased, while 28% said it stayed the same. Within those responses, 15% reported a significant increase and 17% a significant decrease.
The same group reported a widening gap between career spending and earnings. The share spending more on music than it earned rose from 40% before 2015 to 44% in 2019. In 2019, 44% spent more on their music careers than they earned, including 21% who spent a lot more. By comparison, 34% earned more from music than they spent, including 12% who earned a lot more.
Together, these figures describe a mixed transition rather than a single streaming outcome. Some established creators reported higher income, while others reported lower income, and a substantial share continued to spend more than it earned. The measures are self-reported comparisons for creators active before 2015, not a forecast of future songwriter income.
The royalty thresholds, survey distributions, income-source percentages, and streaming-era comparisons above are drawn from Music Creators Earnings, the Digital Era, and On-Demand Streaming Revenues.