Live Music Important Info:
Over the past few weeks I’ve been discussing how coronavirus has challenged the music industry, especially the live music sector and how artists and musicians are adapting to these circumstances. Upon doing research for my next article in this series, I came across a UK report on the ‘statista’ website (linked below) and I thought it would be interesting to analyse their data and give my thoughts. I will be referring to ‘statista’ graphs that are available on their website and I will link the specific ones I referenced to below.
You’re welcome to comment your thoughts and opinions below!
Upon the news of a possibly effective coronavirus vaccine, the live music industry saw a spike in ticket sales, as music lovers began considering possible events to attend after the good news. From this we can clearly see that the live music industry isn’t going to be entirely destroyed from the pandemic and companies can begin operating once again, safely of course! As shown in a report by ‘statista,’ called ‘Live music attendance in the United Kingdom (UK) 2011-2018,’[1] it states that 30 million people attended live music events in 2018. In my opinion, I believe that this number will double in 2021/2022 because people have been deprived of this opportunity to experience live music. Obviously, that amount of people attending live events wouldn’t be a safe capacity for the first of the returning events, however, I think it will become more difficult to buy tickets because everyone is eager to experience live music again. Furthermore, due to such an influx of people wanting to attend I think that it is possible there will be an integration between digital livestream of concerts and live performances in order to accommodate this influx of music listeners.
As of 2018, the live music industry is worth £1.1 billion [4] including both festivals and concerts furthermore, as shown by ‘statista,’ in their report called ‘Gross value added of the music industry in the United Kingdom in 2018,’[2] it is the second leading profit maker with music creators taking the lead at £2.5 billion. Even though the data is from two years ago, we can clearly see how important the live music industry is in terms of the industry's contribution to the economy which is why coronavirus has caused so much anxiety and uncertainty for many individuals.
In addition, data released by ‘statista’ in November 2020 shows the ‘Total number of musicians in the United Kingdom from 2011 to 2020.’ [3] Moreover, the graph illustrates that as of 2020 they’re 52,000 employed and self-employed musicians which remains the same as in 2019. So, there hasn't been a decrease in the number of musicians in the UK because of coronavirus however, it still has left people without work which could inevitably lead to redundancy… however, this data shows it’s not too late to turn this situation around!
I hope this has been informative and has given you some things to discuss and think about. You can found all the information I referred to down below:
1. ‘size of the live music audience in the United Kingdom (UK) from 2011 to 2018 (in million attendees).’ https://www.statista.com/statistics/278038/attendance-at-festivals-and-concerts-in-the-uk/
2. ‘Gross Value added of the music industry in the United Kingdom, in 2018, by thematic grouping.’ https://www.statista.com/statistics/285692/music-industry-gross-value-added-gva-in-the-united-kingdom-by-grouping/
3. ‘Total number of musicians in the United Kingdom (UK) from 2011 to 2020.’https://www.statista.com/statistics/319278/number-of-musicians-in-the-uk/
4 ‘Live music industry in the United Kingdom- Facts and Statistics.’ https://www.statista.com/topics/6065/live-music-industry-in-the-uk/#dossierSummary__chapter5