We are happy to announce the (beta) launch of a new digital resource: the Creators’ Earnings Calculator. This resource provides a dynamic, open access database allowing you to explore authoritative and independently gathered data on creators’ earnings in the UK.
How do I use it?
First, you can use the Individual Track to calculate anticipated income, based on a number of demographic characteristics and creative professions. You can use this to explore your own anticipated income if you are a creator, or to explore how demographic factors impact a creator’s likely income.
Second, you can use the Dashboard to get an overview of the data and filter by different professional and demographic characteristics.
In both of these options, the income you see is the anticipated income directly from creative activities, and doesn’t account for e.g., income from a second job or another member of the household. This can also be considered the income that is most relevant for copyright-related activities, like royalties or fees from buy-outs.
If you are a creator, you can also submit your data to help us get a more accurate profile of people who share your demographic characteristics.
How was it made?
The Calculator concept was developed by the Creators’ Earnings Hub team: Amy Thomas, Arthur Ehlinger, Martin Kretschmer, Michele Battisti and Helena Saenz de Juano Ribes. The website and visualisations were developed by Dietmar Aumann (Veste Software – also creator of our Evidence Wiki Viz).
The data in the Calculator is populated from our Creators’ Earnings Hub surveys on authors (including independent authors), directors, journalists, performers, and visual artists. This digital resource was developed in line with our ongoing commitment to making our research data accessible and transparent.
The Calculator was supported by seed funding from an ESRC Impact Acceleration Account from the University of Glasgow, and an AHRC Infrastructure award granted to CREATe (2023 – 2028) enabling scope and sustainability. We also thank our partners to the Creators’ Earnings Hub: the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society; the Alliance of Independent Authors; the British Equity Collecting Society; the Design and Artists Copyright Society; Directors UK; and the National Union of Journalists.
Why is it interesting?
The value of this resource is that it enables you to visualise what demographic characteristics impact income from different creative professions. This means it could be a powerful tool for understanding diversity, equality, and sustainability of certain creative professions.
Because we limit the measurement of income to only those activities which are ‘copyright-relevant’, it’s also a way of understanding how important this income is to a creators’ overall earnings profile.
What next?
We encourage you to use the tool and share your findings and feedback with us on social media or through our email (contact@create.ac.uk).
We are also interested in expanding our findings into other industries enabling us to see trends across different sectors – some notable gaps in coverage are in the areas of music and video games. So please do get in touch if you are interested in our Creators’ Earnings Hub work!