LIVE, the voice of the UK’s live music industry, has published data showing the sector’s contribution to the UK economy last year exceeded £6 billion for the first time.
LIVE’s annual UK Live Music report shows live music continued to recover from the pandemic and tackled challenges including high inflation, the cost-of-living crisis, and post-Brexit touring issues to achieve a year-on-year uplift of 17% since 2022 and an increase of 35% on the pre-pandemic, 2019 figures. Live music also supported jobs for nearly 230,000 people last year – 20,000 more than the entire attendance of Glastonbury Festival and an increase of 9.4% since 2019.
The increased economic impact reinforces the industry’s position as a key economic driver for the UK with the data analysis from research agency CGA by NIQ covering more than 55,000 gigs, concerts, festivals and events. The growth in the sector last year was driven largely by concert revenues which jumped by 19% year-on-year and accounted for nearly three quarters (73.5%) of the total, boosted by the tours of major artists, such as Beyoncé and Coldplay.
The data shows how live music’s social, cultural and economic contribution is experienced right across the UK. In 2023, London accounted for nearly a third (30.6%) of total live music revenue while Manchester took the second highest at 7.4% and the South East taking 6%.
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