DACS 2025 Year in Review: £17.6 million distributed to over 104,000 artists in another landmark year
We take a look back at 2025, where DACS continued over four decades of championing artists’ rights, ensuring creators are fairly rewarded and their work valued in a changing creative landscape.
Our year in numbers
Across the UK and internationally, 2025 saw us distribute £17.6 million in royalties to over 104,000 artists, estates and visual creators.
- £9.2 million from Artist’s Resale Right (ARR) to 2,000 artists and estates
- £6.5 million in Collective Licensing, including Payback royalties, to 102,000 visual creators
- £1.9 million through Copyright Licensing to 2,800 artists
Copyright Licensing and DACS Images
Licensing also grew this year, with nearly 2,000 licences issued to 719 customers. These included some notable projects, such as:
- 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.
The launch of DACS Images put artists at the centre of image licensing, offering transparent, fair, and artist-first solutions. By the end of 2025, the platform featured over 44,000 images from more than 421 artists and estates.
The power of Collective Licensing
Collective licensing allows organisations like DACS to receive money when your work is reused in ways that are difficult for you to monitor individually, and then we pay you your fair share. We do this through a service called Payback; an annual royalty payment if your work or work you own the copyright to was published in a book or magazine or used in a TV programme.
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. Last year also saw us open the service earlier than usual, in a bid to offer members greater flexibility to edit claims.
Worldwide support for the Artist's Resale Right
Now in it's 20th year here in the UK, the Artist's Resale Right is a royalty that pays artists when their work is resold by an art market professional for £1,000 or more. 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.
As the value of ARR continues to spread globally, DACS began to receive the first resale royalties from Australia for UK-based artists and estates. 2025 also saw 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.
Advocacy work and campaigning for artists' rights
Advocacy remained central to DACS’ work, particularly around the topic of AI, freelancer rights, and sector sustainability. We called for transparency, consent, and fair payment in AI usage, promoted the Smart Fund to secure long-term artist income, and continued to work with parliament and the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Visual Arts and Artists to strengthen the UK visual arts ecosystem.
2025 was a year of impact, collaboration, and forward-looking action, reinforcing DACS’ mission to protect artists’ rights, increase income, supporting support a vibrant and thriving creative sector that values the creators who sustain it.
