Live music in UK hits record economic impact of £6.1billion
A new report has shown the British live music industry contributed a record £6.1billion to the economy last year.
LIVE, the federation representing Britain’s live music industry, published their findings yesterday (September 4), demonstrating a steady increase since Covid hit in 2020. They reported that the £6.1billion figure is 17 per cent up on 2022, and 35 per cent up on 2019.
The federation calculated the figure from more than 55,000 gigs, concerts, festivals and events in 2023 through ticket sales and any spending at the event itself, or at business nearby around the date the event was held.
Concert revenues have primarly contributed to this growth thanks to the blockbuster tours of acts like Beyoncé and Coldplay, which apparently made up almost three quarters of the £6.1billion impact.
Additionally, London was responsible for nearly a third of the total live music revenue, with Manchester landing in second place with 7.4 per cent and Glasgow in third place (5.5 per cent).
Meanwhile, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Cardiff and Belfast were all named in the top 10 cities contributing to the live industry’s economic impact.
In a comment to The Guardian, CEO of LIVE Jon Collins said Taylor Swift’s Eras tour and the Oasis reunion tour “serves as a reminder of the economic benefits live events can deliver to local economies across the UK”.
He went on to cite figures from the National Arenas Association demonstrating how for 10,000 people who attend a live music show, £1m is spent on local business around the event, adding: “These local benefits spread widely to provide a significant boost to the UK economy.”
With the cost of living crisis impacting live venues and artists’ abilities to tour, a case was made for a £1 ticket levy last April following a Music Venue Trust report showing a “disaster” facing grassroots music venues. In a Parliament session, figures such as English Teacher‘s Lily Fontaine argued that “grassroots music venues bring joy and creativity to communities that need it and “without them, it would be grey”.
Fontaine also said that if the UK didn’t tackle the financial burden facing musicians now then “the knock-on effect of that could be incredibly severe”, adding: “If you can’t support artists who are signed to a major label and you can’t support artists at a lower level, then how is anyone without money or from a regional area where they don’t have access to venues going to have an opportunity to create music and tour it?
“That leads to a homogenous music industry which leads to less diverse music scenes. If there are less diverse music scenes, then music as one of our biggest exports, is then diminished.”
Meanwhile, Music Venue Trust CEO Mark Davyd pointed to the closure of Bath Moles as an example of why grassroots venues need funding: “The impact on those communities and the artists that live in those communities is very dramatic. The closure of a space like Bath Moles obviously has a huge impact on the pipeline, but it also has a huge impact on Bath as a music city.
“We need to recognise that across the country, we are seeing young people, communities of music fans, finding new music and live music further and further away from them.”
In response, the DCMS shared a report calling for “a levy-funded support fund and a targeted temporary VAT cut to help stem the tide of closures” and “a comprehensive fan-led review of live and electronic music” to “examine the long-term challenges to the wider live music ecosystem”. Fontaine said of the DCMS report: “It’s a relief that the enquiry has resulted in recognition at a governmental level that not only is the music industry ecosystem is in crisis, but that saving it and bettering it is important.”
“Struggling to make ends meet as an artist isn’t a new concept – but that doesn’t mean it’s right. I’m looking forward to seeing how, when implemented, the ticket levy will be delivered to the grassroots venues and scenes. There’s little to be proud of coming from this island sometimes, so it’s a relief we’re at least trying to save potentially our best and coolest cultural export.”
Meanwhile, the Oasis reunion tour has lead to refreshed calls for arena and stadium ticket levy to save grassroots music venues. After Ticketmaster crashed before before the sale commenced at 9am and battling giant queues, ticket buyers were left frustrated by Ticketmaster’s dyanmic pricing system, which saw some tickets originally priced at £135 skyrocketing to nearly £400.
The fiasco led to Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy calling for a review of “dynamic pricing” and secondary ticket sites, calling the price hikes “incredibly depressing”.
In other news, only 11 of the 34 grassroots music venues that Oasis played on their first tour are still open.
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Alex Rigotti
NME
