Right Here, Right Now Generation Alpha Talk Music • 2026 • BPI

PROMOTING BRITISH MUSIC right here, right now generation alpha talk music

Right Here, Right Now Gen Alpha Talk Music 2026 introduction contents lemontankopl foreword from Sarah Boorman page how gen alpha consume music page 7 how gen alpha find new music page 16 what music means to gen alpha page 26 tensions & tomorrow continuing the conversation

Right Here, Right Now Gen Alpha Talk Music 2026 bpl g

PROMOTING

BRITISH MUSIC introduction

BPI represents the UK's recorded music industry, and works to promote and protect British music at home and overseas.

bpl lemontank

Welcome to this new report from BPI's Insight & Innovation department. Using the Indeemo platform to facilitate a series of filmed tasks and questions, BPI captured a snapshot of how more than sixty 7-14 year olds really feel about music. This qual-at-scale research set out to ask Gen Alpha exactly what this under-researched and often misunderstood cohort think and feel about music, from how they listen, where they discover it and their favourite artists, to the role it plays in their lives and what it means to them. This research allows us to see inside and truly understand the real music worlds of our youngest consumers and burgeoning fans, in their own homes, and in their own words.

We intend this report - created with the help and input of lemontank - to kick-start important conversations for the music industry about access to music, ethics, safety and connection with artists. Hopefully it can initiate some much-needed discussion about how to better engage with and serve this important generation of music consumers. We hope you find it useful.

lemontank lemontank is an insights and ideas agency, helping brands and record labels understand and reach young audiences authentically.

lemontank's diverse global pool of 18-25 year old creatives act as a writers' room, devising world-class music marketing strategies and content ideas for the likes of Universal, Warner, Sony and BMG.

• Leon Neville
• Director of Insight & Innovation
• Indeemo.

Indeemo is a mobile ethnography and qualitative research platform that captures real human behaviour in the moments that matter.

Used by researchers, insight teams, and brands worldwide, Indeemo combines diary study tools and Al-powered analysis to help organisations understand not just what people do, but why.

Right Here, Right Now Gen Alpha Talk Music 2026 foreword bpl lemontank

Six years ago, as we went into lockdown, something hit me like a train. Being at home meant I could suddenly see my children's day-to-day lived experience up close, and what I saw was alarming: music was not speaking to young audiences in the way it had spoken to us as children. YouTubers, gamers and movie soundtracks had stolen so much of the conversation.

For those of us who grew up with music in the water supply of daily life, that shift is profound. Music was on our high streets, in magazines, on TV, on bedroom walls, in playground swaps and Saturday afternoon discos. It was public, shared, visible and available. Then in 2010, just as the first of Gen Alpha were being born, came the digital switch. As adults, it felt incredible to carry our entire music libraries in our pockets. What we collectively failed to see was how many children were being left outside the door without their own device, subscription, algorithm, permissions, clean edits, or adults able to help them navigate access.

That realisation has never left me. Without connection between young people and music, culture and society lose something vital. Over the past five years I've become increasingly focused on one question: how do we make music discovery easier, more exciting, more inspiring and of course safe for this generation? They deserve a rich and varied musical diet, just like the one we had to create our cultural identities.

The answer cannot simply be to recreate the past. Gen Alpha are not merely digital natives. They are increasingly Al native, curious, creative, commanding and already unpicking marketing practices while building their own.

What this research makes clear is that music still matters deeply to Gen Alpha, but the pathways into fandom, discovery and participation have fundamentally changed.

That is why this research from the BPI is so welcome and necessary. It recognises that this audience are not simply the fans of tomorrow. They are forming fierce, meaningful and potentially lifelong relationships with music right now, but too often we are reaching them through chance rather than design.

Our job is not just to understand our youngest customers, but to recognise the privilege and responsibility of shaping how a new generation falls in love with music in all of its forms. I'll see you at the front.

• Sarah Boorman
• General Manager, Youth Strategies
• Universal Music Group UK

Right Here, Right Now Gen Alpha Talk Music ⚫ 2026 tamantunkbpl acknowledgements & methodology

BPI's Insight & Innovation team worked with research platform Indeemo to field our own bespoke research into the music connections for UK-based 7 to 14 year olds.

The study took the form of qualitative in-home video interviews and tasks. Fieldwork took place in January and February 2026, with respondents taking part in up to eight tasks which were filmed, monitored and uploaded with permission of the parents/carers of the research participants.

In total over 750 videos were captured by more than 60 respondents, exploring the touchpoints that young people have with recorded music. The conversation spanned areas including discovery and engagement, examining the importance of music and the context it has in their lives. Analysis of all footage and on-screen capture tasks was undertaken by BPI's Insight & Innovation team, aided by Indeemo's integrated Al analysis tools and materials. Export of this analysis, along with video footage, was shared to lemontank and Blackstar who helped create this report and summary outputs along with the BPI team.

• bpl
• Leon Neville
• Director, Insight & Innovation
• Rob Crutchley Insight & Analysis
• Amalie Briden
• Senior Innovation Manager lemontank
• Founder & Director:

Jacob Rickard Project Producer: Lola Kaeppelin Creative Producer:

• Max van Es
• Insights: Emily D'Souza
• Designers:
• Theo Brockbank & Amba Suma
• Illustrations: EJ Chong indeemo
• Fieldwork Capture

& Data Management: Will Plummer, Aonghus Ó Drisceoil & lan Twohig

• BLACKSTAR
• Audiovisual Materials
• COVVER Report Hosting:

Alex Recio & Tom Land

All third-party trademarks, logos, and images used in this report are the property of their respective owners and are used here strictly for editorial, commentary, or research purposes. Screenshots from social media platforms are included under fair dealing provisions for the purposes of analysis and review. This document is intended solely for informational use. No endorsement by any individual, brand, or platform mentioned is implied. The views expressed in this report are those of the panel, and not of any of the organisations behind commissioning the study or developing the report.