You can’t have failed to notice that these are high times for British and Irish music. After a rocky period marked by industry uncertainty and a relative lull in global breakthroughs, the past 18 months have seen a new wave of talent firmly restore the region’s chart and cultural clout.
The numbers tell part of the story. In December 2025, the BPI reported that the U.K. recorded music sector surged both domestically and internationally last year, powered by breakout stars including Lola Young, whose viral smash “Messy” became the year’s biggest British single. Olivia Dean, meanwhile, cemented her transatlantic rise by becoming a Billboard Hot 100 darling, with top 10 entries for “Man I Need” (No. 2) and “So Easy (To Fall In Love)” (No. 5).
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Elsewhere, Mercury Prize nominee CMAT has continued her ascent, while Sienna Spiro, Skye Newman and Scouse rapper EsDeeKid have forged their own unique paths into the mainstream. The momentum has lifted sterling albums from established stars, too: Charli xcx’s Brat and Sam Fender’s People Watching both notched platinum-selling status in the U.K. There is, unmistakably, a renewed sense of possibility in the air.
For Andy Sloan-Vincent, who recently stepped into his new role as managing director at Spotify (U.K., Ireland, and Netherlands) after 11 years at the streaming platform, this resurgence has been “the culmination of a long-term strategy from a lot of labels developing artists.” The region, he argues, has always possessed the foundations required to develop world-class artists, pointing to how Young and Dean are success stories of the free-to-attend BRIT School in Croydon, south London.
“The U.K. has always been a hotbed for nurturing talent,” he tells Billboard U.K. over video call. “We have places like the BRIT School that form part of our cultural identity; we have TV moments throughout the year where artists are put at the forefront. We’ve always been a musical nation.”
According to the most recent Loud and Clear report, which shares data behind Spotify’s royalty payments, U.K. artists generated over £860 million ($1.138 billion) in revenue from the streaming platform in 2025, representing a 6% increase year-on-year. In 2026, 75% of all royalties generated by British artists on Spotify came from listeners outside the U.K., with recorded growth in key markets including Germany, Australia, Brazil and Mexico, while the U.S. remains the region’s biggest export partner.
From Sloan-Vincent’s position, those figures represent not just a U.K. music ecosystem that “has reached a level of maturity and confidence,” but Spotify’s role in amplifying that reach. As he looks towards his first year in the new role, the London-based executive — who featured on Billboard‘s 2026 U.K. Power Players list — is focused on how the platform can further support artists at every stage of their careers, pointing to the upcoming initiatives such as Reserved, Spotify’s new, fan-focused ticketing offering, as evidence of that ambition.
“We want to keep growing and become bigger, but we’re also a mature and profitable business,” Sloan-Vincent explains. “We want to continue building on that success while growing into the next chapter.”
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2025 was a breakthrough year for British artists — such as Olivia Dean, Lola Young, and Sam Fender — globally. What have you seen in Spotify’s data that has perhaps helped to explain that resurgence?
The U.K. has always been a strong export business. We’ve always been quite powerful in that regard, and a kind of cultural leader. Last year was perhaps the culmination of a long-term strategy from a lot of labels developing artists. The artists you reference have been signed for five, 10-plus years, and then we’ve hit this world at Spotify where we’re paying out £860 million [in streaming royalties] in the U.K..
Those two things map neatly together, in the sense that the industry has now reached a level of maturity and confidence where we’re really breaking artists through again. I think you can see with the industry itself fishing for British artists from labels all over the world. It’s confidence in British music that’s coming through.
To what extent do you believe this huge, new level of success for U.K. artists is being driven by international audiences?
We have a huge export success story with Spotify. We have this £860 million figure, but 75% of those royalties come from outside the U.K., so listeners from other markets are pretty significant for us. The U.K. would previously export to Canada, America, Australia, New Zealand, and now we’re seeing our artists bubbling in places like Mexico and Brazil. There’s always been a handful of British acts that can go out and play those monster shows at football stadiums all over the world, but now that number is going up.
I’ve been with Spotify for 11 and a half years, during which we have launched our Radar, Equal, and Glow programs, supporting emerging artists, female artists, and then LGBTQ+ artists. A big focus for me and for the company has always been taking people from early days and carrying them through to a career arc. Part of it comes from finding artists early and thinking, “This could be a generational act, let’s build something here.”
We shot some live performance with Skye Newman at Hackney Church a week ago, for a one-night-only show. Skye is a Radar artist in the U.K., which means we’ve made the commitment to develop her. She has an incredible voice; when you go into the room with her, everyone wants her to win. I think the reason we want to get behind artists like that is because we want the artist to win. That’s our outlook on things.
How do the headlines from the U.K. and European findings in this year’s Loud & Clear report compare with the wider global picture?
We’re one of four net exporters, so the U.K. has been very, very strong in that regard. I think globally we have seen our payments go up pretty considerably. Europe was obviously a bit of a powerhouse in terms of the amount of money that gets driven to the industry. From a U.K. and a European perspective, we’re seeing growth in the independent sector. So, 45% of royalties in the U.K. are generated by independent artists. I would say that those are kind of the core things: independent sector growth, export growth, and overall revenue going up.
When you speak to newer or independent artists, what concerns about streaming economics do you hear most often? And how do you respond?
The first and main kind of myth that’s important to dispel is the ‘per stream’ rate. It’s not a thing; most, if not all, streaming platforms work in exactly the same way, by paying a certain percentage out on a flat revenue model, and the way that an artist then gets paid is by their percent of the overall revenue pie. I think it’s important for artists to understand that that’s how it works: there are fluctuations in that revenue and the way it comes in.
I’d also say that it’s very important to understand that Spotify and other streaming platforms pay out to rights holders, so we aren’t paying the artists directly, it goes to the rights holder. The rights holder then has their jurisdiction, and they work out how it then goes on to the artists. It’s important to understand that you’re not going to get [the name] Spotify on your bank statement, you’ll probably get your distributor or record label.
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On Substack earlier this year, you wrote that “there’s so much to be optimistic about” across the U.K. music industry in 2026. Who, or what, is inspiring you at the moment?
It’s really nice to talk about the Olivia Deans, the Lola Youngs, the Sienna Spiros of the world who are blowing up. My remit also takes me to Ireland, and we’ve recently announced some statistics around an artist called Femi and how they’ve blown up recently. But we’ve also been committed early to artists like Florence Road and Kingfishr.
The thing I love is that it never ends, in the sense that there’s always something new to discover. We’re not like a fashion department, and I think that’s kind of a strange statement to make, but we’re focused on building sustainable, lifelong careers where artists can make a living. We’re not playing an overnight, snap-numbers game. It’s about who’s out there doing the work, building a fan base, playing the shows, being someone who is inspiring to new fans, and how we can help them and develop them. For us as a platform, that’s always been our focus.
It’s that discovery, that love that comes when people sit and really listen. I think we’ve made product innovations in that space to help open up those doors. We’re consistently trying to get fans closer to their artists, and I think giving artists control is a really important part of that.
The live touring market has become an increasingly contentious topic throughout 2026 with conversations around pricing and access. How do you see Reserved improving the fan experience?
There’s this sense that the secondary market is quite chaotic at best, and it has been for a long time. I explicitly remember going to shows and trying to find a ticket from a guy outside the Tube station. Technology has essentially given that guy outside the Tube station the ability to bot and buy up all the tickets to a show, and then sell them at an increasingly crazy markup.
I think the reason Reserved works, and the reason our partners want to get involved with it, is that it helps drive that artist-fan relationship, cuts through some of that chaos, and puts tickets in the right hands. I love it from a fan perspective, too. Speaking personally, it’s about being able to get tickets for the things I genuinely want to go and see.
I think, first and foremost for me, it’s that responsibility element. As a business, we are number one in each of the markets I look after, and I think it’s important for us to remember that comes with a level of responsibility to the music industry and the wider creative industries in the countries we’re operating in. A big focus for us is making sure we’re still helping artists, podcasters, and authors find new audiences. That’s a huge part of what we do.
