- Total consumer spend reached £7.6
bn which is a 12.9% year-on-year increase
- One gig every 136 seconds shaving a second off the previous
year's figure
- 234,456 estimated total permanent and casual staff in live
music in 2025
LIVE, the voice of the UK's live music industry, has today
published its 2025 annual report which shows the sector
has enjoyed another record year with one gig taking place every
136 seconds across the UK.
Total consumer spend reached a record £7.6bn, which equates to a
year-on-year increase of 12.9%, which in turn is a 68.9% increase
in total market spend since before Covid in 2019. As in previous
years this growth is driven by major artists, such as Oasis, Dua
Lipa, Coldplay and Billie Eilish, playing arena and stadia shows
all across the UK.
A caveat to the success story of 2025 is that while many large
music venues flourished, conditions at the grassroots were more
challenging. With less capacity to absorb rising costs and
limited ability to increase prices, many found it much harder to
remain profitable.
The backing of LIVE Trust's campaign
to protect and support grassroots venues, artists, festivals and
promoters is encouraging. LIVE Trust draws funding from major
tours by the likes of Harry Styles and Olivia Dean, and it
recently announced that it has now distributed £1.5m to
grassroots programmes which has already helped hundreds of
artists, venues, and festivals.
Live music has continued to be a hugely important provider of
jobs in the UK, however its ability to create employment
opportunities is under pressure from a heavy burden of costs. The
total number of jobs in the sector for 2025 came in at 234,456,
contracting by 0.1% the first year-on-year drop since live music
was reignited after the pandemic. This is in sharp contrast to
the double-digit growth in the value of the live music sector.
Increases to the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage
have steadily pushed up pay in recent years, and 2025's rise was
particularly significant. The impact was worsened by an increase
from April to employers' National Insurance Contributions.
Overall, the report paints a largely positive picture, though,
beyond the headlines, significant challenges remain.
Acknowledging these issues and the need to address them, LIVE has
played a pivotal role throughout the last twelve months in
working with government and the wider music industry to advocate
for policies that will improve trading conditions and develop
sustainable funding solutions. With a new Prime Minister
settling into Number 10, LIVE hopes Andy Burnham's unique
perspective as the first Prime Minister to have previously served
as Culture Secretary will accelerate action on the issues that
matter most to the sector. From business rates reform and
stronger action against ticket touts to greater devolution and
measures that unlock growth, there is a real opportunity to
strengthen one of Britain's greatest cultural and economic
success stories.
Jon Collins, CEO of
LIVE said, 2025 was another strong
year for live music as we once again demonstrated our unique
ability to reach all parts of the UK. For LIVE, 2025 saw us
further entrench our position as a trusted partner of government,
working on a host of issues from ticket touts, counter terrorism
and A1 forms to business rates, visas and major events. These
figures underline why Government included us in their Industrial
Strategy, Creative Industries Sector Plan and the now published
Music Plan and forthcoming Major Events Strategy. 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
protect and nurture the ecosystem.
Steve Lamacq, Chair of LIVE said, It is a
really exciting time for live music. More and more people have
enjoyed going to gigs over the past year. There are more
shows, more choice and incredibly one live gig every 136 seconds.
It's testimony to the fact that live music is at turns a joyous,
often moving experience and that the desire to attend gigs
remains as strong as ever among both Brits and international
visitors, providing experiences and memories that will stay with
us for years to come. Whether that's a mega star in a stadium or
an up-and-coming band or artist playing their heart out in your
local grassroots venue, live music is the most exciting,
immediate and sometimes life-changing part of the music industry.
With the increasing success of LIVE Trust, we hope to make sure
that those crucial small venues can survive and flourish so that
they can continue to nurture the acts that'll be filling venues
and headlining festivals in years to come."
A link to the Annual Report can be found here.
