Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the net annual benefit to the UK economy of recording studios.

The UK’s network of recording studios are central to our position as the world’s third-largest music market and play an important role in ensuring the continuation of our talent pipeline. The creative industries, and music within that, are a priority growth sector in the government’s Industrial Strategy.

Up to now, recording studios have been classified by a four-digit SIC code that combined sound recording with music publishing. While this broader group contributed £1.9 billion to the UK economy in 2024, we are not able to disaggregate the contribution of recording studios specifically. Given these long running data limitations, we have in the past commissioned bespoke research to better understand this part of the sector, including a Music Studio Market Assessment in 2021.

Since then, we’ve worked with industry trade bodies to improve the accuracy of industrial classifications, in particular to make the case for revisions to the ONS's proposed SIC 2026 framework. Several of the recommendations have been accepted and once in place, future economic estimates will be available for both music publishing and sound recording separately.