New emerging music markets such as South Korea, Brazil, and Mexico kicked Australia out of the Top 10 music markets in the world in 2025.
But Australia still remains the United Kingdom’s fourth-largest export market.
The United States remains the lead, with 40% of that share. Germany and France are before Australia, which is before Canada.
This is according to new figures from the London-based British Phonographic Industry (BPI), covering 2025.
Spotify stated over 75% of the revenue generated on its streaming platform by UK artists last year occurred overseas.
67 UK artists each generated over more than one billion audio streams globally in 2025 with Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, Dua Lipa, Arctic Monkeys, and Calvin Harris.
Long-established icons such as The Beatles, Elton John, and Oasis continued to fly the Union Jack.
The Beatles for instance generated 3.1 billion Spotify streams around the world in 2025, with tracks Here Comes The Sun streaming 240 million times, Let It Be 133.4 million times, and Hey Jude 129.1 million times.
Oasis’ streams jumped by almost 320% after the launch of their reunion tour, which shifted 320,000 in its two-city Australian run and 2.2 million globally. Gen Z listeners made up half of the 16.6 million new user discoveries on Spotify.
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What’s exciting for the British music industry is that relatively younger acts Charli xcx, Olivia Dean, and Central Cee created milestones internationally.
Charli xcx hit #1 with Brat on the ARIA chart and had eight entries in the triple j Hottest 100. She headlined Laneway which drew over 200,000 patrons.
Olivia Dean also had a successful year in Australia. Her Art Of Loving peaked at #1 on the ARIA chart, she performed at the ARIA awards in Sydney, and a show at the UNSW Roundhouse sold out.
Man I Need this year took out the spot on triple j’s annual Hottest 100 (with two other tracks in the Top 20).
ARIA noted that she generated 236 million streams locally and 4.5 billion global streams. Australians were the third biggest streaming consumers for her (after the UK and US).
According to Spotify two Australian cities rank among her two largest fan bases. Sydney had 620,000 monthly listeners with 500,000 in Melbourne. Little wonder her debut tour sold out in under an hour.
Central Cee’s Can’t Rush Greatness was the first by a British hip hop artist to reach the US Top 10. It topped the Apple Music charts in 71 countries and broke the Spotify record for the biggest single-day streams for a UK rap album.
In Australia and New Zealand, after his debut on the Field Day and Wildland festivals, his first major headlining tour sold 54,709 tickets.
Billion Plus
Other UK artists with a billion plus worldwide streams in 2025 include beabadoobee, Fred again.., Lola Young, and RAYE.
YUNGBLUD, PinkPantheress, Sleep Token, Dave, Lewis Capaldi, EsDeeKid, Sam Fender, Sienna Spiro, Myles Smith, and Lily Allen continued to make their mark on markets around the world including Australia.
Dr Jo Twist OBE, BPI Chief Executive, said: “What was notable about last year’s record-breaking recorded music export figures was not just the contribution of a new generation of UK stars, but also the long journey they often had to undertake to build and connect with audiences.
“It is harder than ever to break an artist internationally, and it now takes longer for the mainstream to embrace new artists.
“While these figures are impressive, the slowing rate of growth highlights the need for continued international trade and export initiatives like the Music Export Growth Scheme (MEGS), and for a supportive business environment in the UK to enable label businesses to continue to invest in British talent.”
Over 24 rounds, MEGS has invested over £9.2 million (AU$17.5 million) in British music.
This led to an estimated £81.5 million ($155.4 million) financial return to the UK economy and a return on investment from completed rounds of nearly £14 ($26.70) for every £1 ($1.90) received from the Government.
UK recorded music exports reached £800.3 million ($1.52 billion) in 2025 – the highest annual total since BPI began measuring the value of music exports in 2020
While this represents a rise of more than 50% in the last five years, the organisation pointed out that the figure also shows a slowing in the rate of growth to just 0.8% year-on-year in 2025 as competition in the global market intensifies.
Australia’s official reaffirmation as a major supporter of British music comes at a time when a British trade mission is heading to Brisbane and the Gold Coast in September. The idea is to foster greater partnerships between the countries. The Music had the details on their plans.
Before the UK trade mission arrives in Australia, it will also visit Japan from August 13 to 20.
The BPI has set a target of £1 billion ($1.90 billion) in recorded music exports by 2030.
This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body
