British recorded music exports reached £800.3 million, or roughly $1.7 billion, in 2025, marking the first time the figure has crossed that threshold since the British Phonographic Institute began tracking the data in 2020. The number represents a 50% increase from the £533 million recorded five years ago, according to Billboard.
The BPI credited a new generation of artists for driving the milestone. Among the most significant contributors was Olivia Dean, whose profile rose sharply during the second half of 2025. Dean earned her first Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hit with the single Man I Need, which peaked at number two, and her sophomore album The Art of Loving debuted at number eight on the Billboard 200.
Lola Young and PinkPantheress also contributed to the record export figure. All three artists made their maiden appearances on the Billboard Hot 100 during this period alongside several other British acts, including Sam Fender with Rein Me In featuring Olivia Dean, Myles Smith with Nice To Meet You, Sienna Spiro with Die On This Hill, and Dave with Raindance featuring Tems. RAYE's Where Is My Husband! peaked at number 11, marking her biggest U.S. hit to date.
The United States remained the largest overseas market for British recorded music, accounting for roughly £328 million, or $438 million, of total export revenue. That represents more than 40% of the annual figure.
A June report from Luminate found that British artists increased their share of the U.S. streaming market by 0.8% during the first quarter of 2026, driven by Dean, Young and PinkPantheress as well as returning global stars including Harry Styles. The same report found that 67 British artists each accumulated more than one billion streams globally during 2025. Coldplay ranked as the most-streamed British act worldwide last year, followed by Ed Sheeran, Dua Lipa, Arctic Monkeys and Calvin Harris.
The top 20 most-streamed British artists of 2025 also included Charli xcx and Central Cee, whose debut album Can't Rush Greatness became the first album by a British rap artist to reach the top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart, doing so in January of this year.
Despite the record figure, the BPI noted that the rate of growth slowed to 0.8% compared to the prior year. The organization said the emergence of newer artists suggests the pipeline for British talent breaking internationally is strengthening, even as it has become more difficult to build that kind of profile on the global stage in recent years.
