LIVE’s Annual Report Signals a Record Year for Live Music in the UK

LIVE, the voice of the UK’s live music industry, has published its 2024 annual report, which incorporates analysis from 55,000 gigs, concerts, festivals and events.

An overview:

• In 2024, one gig took place every 137 seconds across the UK.

• Total consumer spend reached a record £6.68bn, a year-on-year increase of 9.5%, which in turn is 28.2% more than in 2022 and over £2bn more than in 2019, the last full year before COVID.

• Mainstream pop music (Taylor Swift, Charli XCX, Dua Lipa et al) accounted for 32.1% of consumer spend from the top 2,000 concerts, a 4.7% jump year on year.

Festivals vs concerts:

• Concerts attracted 75.3% of live music spending in 2024 – nearly two percentage points more than in 2023.

• Concert turnover jumped by 12.2%.

• By way of contrast, festival spending in 2024 only rose by 1.9%, due partly to the slowing of growth in music festivals, with some events struggling to survive.

Location, location:

• London remained the capital of the UK’s live music scene, attracting 28.9% of all expenditure in 2024.

• It was, however, down slightly year-on-year, with Manchester making up some ground thanks in part to the opening of the Co-op Live.

• Glasgow was the UK’s third biggest city for live music, with Birmingham fourth.

• Rounding out the top five was Cardiff, which overtook Edinburgh as the fifth highest earning live music city in 2024.

Jobs:

• Live music employed more than 234,000 people in the UK in 2024, a 2.2% increase year on year.

• 78.8% of jobs in live music are casual or freelance.

Challenges remain:

• The report also highlights the challenges facing grassroots music venues, small festivals, independent promoters and up-and-coming artists.

• To assist, the LIVE Trust was established to manage a funding program founded on a £1 voluntary ticket contribution on arena and stadium shows with a capacity over 5,000.

• With trustees now appointed and commitments already secured from a number of high-profile artists performing stadia and arena shows throughout 2025 and 2026, the LIVE Trust is confident it can soon begin offering financial support where it’s needed.

What they said:

• Jon Collins, CEO of LIVE: “2024 was a standout year for LIVE as we took our seat at the top table of Government. While UK live music continued the post-lockdown trend of strong performance for the biggest names at the biggest venues, pressure built across our grassroots as venues closed, tours were canceled or cut back and festivals called time. And yet, as the figures in this report show, we can be a driver of that growth in all regions, towns and cities across the country. Live music is a joyous experience and venues and festivals of all shapes and sizes, operated by world-class teams and showcasing world-class established and emerging talent, will continue to delight audiences for decades to come as long as industry and Government protects and nurtures the ecosystem.”