2025 Year in Review

In 2025, DACS distributed £17.6 million in royalties to over 104,000 artists, helping creators earn a living and estates safeguard artistic legacies.

Key figures include:

• £9.2m from Artist’s Resale Right to 2,000 artists
• £6.5m in Collective Licensing, including Payback royalties, to 102,000 visual creators
• £1.9m through Copyright Licensing to 2,800 artists

These numbers show the scale and impact of DACS’ work, ensuring artists are fairly rewarded, their creative output valued, and that the UK visual arts sector continues to thrive. 

Christian Zimmermann, DACS Chief Executive

2025 has been an important year for DACS and the wider creative sector. Across the UK and internationally, there has been growing recognition that a thriving creative economy relies on fair pay, respect for artists’ rights, and real control over how work is used.

AI was a defining theme, and DACS has worked hard to ensure technology supports creativity rather than undermines it. We’ve advocated for clear, copyright-respecting frameworks, emphasising the need for transparency, consent, and fair payment, while showing how licensing can offer practical solutions. Aligned with this, DACS launched DACS Images in May as a fully integrated, user-friendly platform that combines image licensing and copyright clearance to maximise visibility and revenue for artists and their estates.

Complementing these efforts, artists’ earnings have been strengthened through Payback, Copyright Licensing, ARR, and ongoing calls for the Smart Fund. This year, our focus remains on protecting rights, increasing income, supporting fair collaboration between creators and technology, and building a sustainable, vibrant, artist-centred creative sector. 

Margaret Heffernan, DACS Chair

In 2025, we welcomed four new board members, Tiphaine des Déserts, Lira Mendonca, Jen Holdsworth and Mike Muller, bringing a wealth of expertise across the visual arts, IP, business development and strategic leadership. Their guidance strengthens oversight, ensures robust governance, and positions DACS to respond effectively to the evolving challenges facing artists.

ARR is approaching its 20th anniversary in the UK. Introduced into law in 2006 amid concerns it might hinder the market, nearly two decades on it has not only endured but thrived. In its 2025 report, the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) shows that the UK collected around €14 million in ARR royalties in 2024, nearly a third of the €49 million global total, making it the top collecting country worldwide. This achievement shows how ARR continues to return significant value to artists and estates in the UK and demonstrates that strong rights protections support a vibrant and sustainable art market.

ARR’s success provides valuable lessons for the future, particularly as we navigate the challenges posed by AI. Transparency, fair remuneration, and control, principles at the heart of ARR, are equally critical in shaping frameworks that ensure technology supports rather than undermines artists’ rights.

That the government has identified Culture as one of the 6 pillars of its industrial strategy is very welcome, as is the additional funding that turns strategy into reality. At the same time, it remains part of DACS’ mission to focus not just on artists but on the ecosystem required to sustain their vital economic contribution long term. To that end, we will continue to campaign for fair remuneration for the use of artists’ work, for the Smart Fund which aims finally to recognize the huge contribution of visual art to the Internet, and for a fair deal with regard to AI.

Providing vital income and recognition for artists, reinforcing the value of collective licensing

In 2025, more than 100,000 artists, estates and their representatives benefited, including many who rely on Payback as a significant, predictable, and unrestricted income stream.  

Through collective licensing, Payback ensures that creators receive fair remuneration when their work, originally reproduced in books, journals, or TV broadcast, is photocopied, scanned, or recorded, in situations where it would be impractical for the rights holder to arrange a licence themselves.

In response to member feedback, in 2026, our aim is to open Payback even earlier, with a view to open the system all year round for editing. This will offer members greater flexibility to edit claims, making the scheme as accessible and user-friendly as possible.

Ensuring artists benefit when their work changes hands in the art market

In the UK, the Artist’s Resale Right (ARR) is a royalty that pays artists when their work is resold by an art market professional for £1,000 or more. DACS, which supported the campaign for ARR and helped bring it into law in 2006, collects and distributes these royalties. In 2025, artists and estates received £9.2 million in ARR royalties, bringing the total distributed amount in the UK to £144 million for more than 7,000 artists and estates.

ARR continues to provide vital income for UK artists while also supporting international artists through reciprocal agreements. Highlights in 2025 included DACS receiving the first resale royalties from Australia for UK-based artists and estates, over NZ$1 million collected in New Zealand’s first year since implementation of the right in December 2024, and ongoing progress towards ARR in Canada and in South Korea. 

Delivering fair, transparent licensing that puts artists and their rights first

Licensing enables brands to bring their projects to life using images from modern and contemporary art, while ensuring artists’ rights are protected. In 2025, DACS issued 1964 licences to 719 customers making thousands of images available and generating £1.9 million for artists and estates.

This year also saw the launch of DACS Images, a refreshed platform designed to put artists at the centre of image licensing. The platform prioritises transparency, fair remuneration and consent, making it easier for customers to access artworks while safeguarding artists’ rights. At the end of 2025, DACS Images had a library of over 44,000 images, contributed by 421 artists and estates – a collection that continues to grow.

Notable licences in 2025 included:

• Tish Murtha for Sam Fender – We licensed works by Tish Murtha for Sam Fender’s People Watching album artwork, which went on to win the prestigious Mercury Prize later that year.
• Wayne Thiebaud for Courtland - We licensed a number of works by Wayne Thiebaud for an extensive range of products to coincide with the American Still Life exhibition. Products included notebooks, scarfs, prints, tea towels and more.
• Julian Opie for Uniqlo - We licensed artwork by Julian Opie for Uniqlo's PEACE FOR ALL project, with all proceeds of the T-shirt being donated to international organisations supporting those affected by violence, discrimination, armed conflict, and poverty.

Prioritising copyright, transparency and consent as AI policy continues to evolve

AI remained a defining topic throughout our advocacy work in 2025. In December, DACS responded to the UK Government’s Progress Report on its 2024 consultation on copyright and AI, welcoming results that showed most creators want control and fair pay when their work is used in AI training and urging the development of a licensing framework that supports both innovation and artists’ rights.  

Throughout the year, including at the House of Lords AI & Copyright inquiry, DACS called for statutory transparency and equitable licensing, highlighting the need for artists’ voices to help shape AI policy and ensure fair compensation. 

Championing strategic investment and sector resilience in 2025

In 2025, DACS continued its active role as joint secretariat of the APPG for Visual Arts and Artists, alongside a-n and CVAN, ensuring artists’ voices are heard in Westminster. An important milestone for the APPG was the launch of the report, Framing the Future: The Political Case for Strengthening the Visual Arts Ecosystem, supported by leading visual arts organisations, including DACS and the APPG.  

The report called for strategic government investment in the sector, highlighting the visual arts’ contribution to economic growth, skills, wellbeing, and the UK’s global cultural profile, alongside practical recommendations for policy and funding.

APPG meetings over the year brought MPs, peers and artists together to discuss these recommendations and wider challenges, from affordable studio space to fair pay and creative education. By combining evidence, sector insight and lived experience, the APPG helps build cross-party understanding of how to support a vibrant, sustainable visual arts ecosystem. 

Driving policy support and securing government recognition for freelance creators

In June 2025, the Government published its Creative Industries Sector Plan, part of a wider Industrial Strategy outlining economic priorities for the next decade. For the first time the plan recognises the visual arts as a high-growth subsector alongside music, video games, and performing arts. Importantly, it includes the appointment of a Creative Freelance Champion to advocate for freelancers within government.  

Because of the way artists tend to work, DACS has long called for such a role to highlight the vital contribution of freelance, self-employed, and atypical workers and to address challenges artists face, because of these structures. The appointment of a Creative Freelance Champion is welcome news for visual artists and testament to DACS’ efforts in driving policy change. 

Building a sustainable solution for the visual arts through collective licensing

In 2025, DACS continued to advocate for the Smart Fund as a long-term solution to the funding gaps facing the visual arts. The proposal would ensure creators and performers are fairly paid when their work is copied on digital devices, funded by a small levy on sales, at no cost to government, taxpayers, or consumers.

Throughout the year, DACS took part in high-profile roundtables with policymakers, artists and sector leaders, sharing evidence and practical ideas for how the fund could work. We also welcomed public backing from MPs ahead of the Autumn Budget, strengthening the political case for systemic support.

By advocating for the Smart Fund, DACS highlighted how fair, collective funding can address long-term challenges, support artists’ incomes, and ensure a vibrant, resilient visual arts sector that benefits creators, audiences, and the UK’s wider cultural economy.  

The Smart Fund is supported by organisations across the creative industries, including ALCS for writers, BECS for performers, DACS and PICSEL for visual artists and image rights holders, and Directors UK for screen directors, bringing together cross-sector expertise to safeguard and grow income for creators. 

Preserving and sharing creative histories for future generations

In 2025, DACS continued to administer Recollect: Artists, Legacies, Futures, a 12–18 month bursary programme, funded by Arts Council England, supporting 10 UK artists and estates in preserving and sharing their creative legacies. Each participant received £10,000 and bespoke guidance from archivists and specialists to organise, document, and present their work through films, publications, or public events.  

Following the completion of Recollect, participants’ journeys will be captured through interviews and blog features, creating an ongoing resource that deepens understanding of artistic legacies and provides fellow artists and estates with practical tools and insights for their own archival processes. 

Strengthening international partnerships and cross-border royalties

In 2025, DACS strengthened its international impact through new reciprocal agreements with Poland’s ZAIKS and Resale Royalties Aotearoa Toi Huarau (RRA) in New Zealand, expanding its sister society network from 36 to 38 organisations. Through this global network, DACS now helps represent over 180,000 artists worldwide, ensuring creators are paid when their works are used or resold in other countries The agreement with RRA supports the rollout of New Zealand’s newly adopted Artist’s Resale Right, enabling artists in both countries to receive royalties internationally and reflecting growing global momentum behind fair remuneration for artists.

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