Report from Live shows spending £2bn higher than before Covid-19 shutdowns, although grassroots venues are still closing at an increasing rate
UK consumer spending on live music events reached a record-breaking total of £6.68bn in 2024, up 9.5% on the previous year, fuelled in part by Taylor Swift’s blockbuster Eras tour.
The report from Live (Live music Industry Venues and Entertainment), the recently formed body advocating for the British music industry’s interests before government, signals a full-bodied return from the effects of Covid-19. The figures are 28.2% higher than in 2022, when live music more or less resumed after the pandemic, and more than £2bn more than in 2019, the last fully functioning year for live music prior to the shutdown.
But with grassroots venues across the UK still closing down at an increasing rate – one in four late-night venues, including clubs, have closed since 2020, with closures accelerating this year – and emerging artists struggling to make a living, the report noted that stadiums and arenas were the major beneficiaries of the increase, thanks to high-profile gigs by the likes of Swift, Dua Lipa and Charli xcx.
Live analysed 55,000 gigs, concerts, festivals and events, and found that mainstream pop gigs accounted for 32.1% of consumer spend across the top 2,000 concerts of the year, a year-on-year increase of 4.7 percentage points. It flagged that the grassroots crisis extends beyond venues and artists to include promoters and festivals.
