UNESCO Report: AI Could Slash Artist Incomes by Nearly a Quarter by 2028

When musician Sarah Chen released her third album last year, she expected the usual grind—promoting on social media, booking small venues, hoping for playlist placements. What she didn’t anticipate was competing against an endless stream of AI-generated tracks flooding streaming platforms, many indistinguishable from human-created work to casual listeners. Her story is becoming increasingly common.

“Music creators could see their revenues fall by 24 per cent, while those working in the audiovisual sector may lose 21 per cent of their income.” — UNESCO Re|Shaping Policies for Creativity Report

The $24 Billion Question

The numbers are stark. According to UNESCO’s latest flagship report released this week, generative AI is projected to drive significant income losses across the global creative economy by 2028. The report, covering more than 120 countries, warns that disruptions are occurring at a pace that outstrips current policy responses, threatening the livelihoods of millions of cultural workers worldwide.

The shift isn’t happening in a vacuum. Streaming platforms have already transformed how artists earn money, with per-stream payments often measured in fractions of a cent. Now, AI-generated content is entering these same marketplaces, competing for the same listener attention and playlist placements—without the years of training, practice, or human experience behind it.

Intellectual property violations are escalating as AI systems train on copyrighted works without compensation. Diminishing returns plague creators who find their content buried under algorithmically generated alternatives. Market confusion grows as listeners struggle to distinguish human art from synthetic productions.

The Creative Digital Divide

The crisis isn’t distributed evenly. The UNESCO report highlights a widening gap between developed and developing nations that threatens to reshape global cultural production.

“While 67 per cent of people in developed countries possess essential digital skills, the figure drops to just 28 per cent in developing countries.” — UNESCO Report

This digital divide, paired with the growing dominance of major streaming platforms and opaque algorithms that hinder content visibility, is contributing to widening disparities among creators. Artists in the Global South face a double disadvantage: less access to the tools needed to compete and less visibility when they do produce work.

UNESCO Director-General Khaled El-Enany declared that the current era represents a critical moment for the creative economy. The report outlines more than 8,100 policy measures already in place across participating nations and calls for urgent, coordinated action to protect creators’ rights and strengthen regulatory frameworks.

What Comes Next

The policy recommendations are ambitious. UNESCO urges governments to mobilize cultural policy as a strategic priority—both to safeguard the livelihoods of artists and to ensure that creativity continues to serve as a driver of social cohesion, economic opportunity, and cultural diversity in a rapidly changing world.

But the timeline is tight. With AI capabilities advancing rapidly and deployment accelerating, the window for effective intervention is narrowing. The report stresses that without renewed investment, fairer market conditions, and stronger international cooperation, creators risk being further marginalized as technologies evolve.

For artists like Sarah Chen, the abstract statistics translate to concrete uncertainty. Will the next album find its audience? Will the years of training and practice continue to hold value in a market flooded with instant AI generation? The answers will depend not just on technology, but on the policy choices made in the months ahead.

This article was reported by the ArtificialDaily editorial team. For more information, visit UN News.