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limbo/ Research · October 2026

Human After All

The state of music making 2026. What verified data from a dozen countries says about the people who make music, what stops them, and what it means for the industry.

12 rings, one per country with data

Key findings

Six numbers, one story

80.5%

of people in Mexico who play, sing or compose do it for fun.

INEGI 2026 [25]

1 in 2

US adults who never learned an instrument wish they had.

YouGov 2022 [3]

1 in 10

people in Japan play an instrument, steady since 2011. Nowhere is music making booming or collapsing.

Statistics Bureau of Japan [29]

39%

of Americans who learned guitar still play it. 51% of those who quit regret it.

YouGov 2022 [3]

55%

of people in the UK who stopped playing did it between 12 and 18.

ABRSM 2025 [2]

88%

of the 253 million tracks on streaming services had 1,000 streams or fewer in 2025.

Luminate 2025 [15]

The full report

Read the data behind the six numbers

16 charts, 12 countries, every figure checked against its source. Free. Leave your work email and the report opens here, with a PDF to share.

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