UK Live Boom - Can We Keep It Up?

As the festival season in the UK draws to a close, it comes as no surprise that live events continue to outpace physical or digital sales of recorded music. The Gen takes a look at both sides of the coin and asks-Is the live boom sustainable?

The gap essentially opened up in 2009, with live music in the UK generating about £1.54bn in revenues compared with recorded music’s £1.3bn, an increase of 9.4% year-on-year, as captured in the PRS report ‘Adding up the Music industry for 2009’.

Live music seems to continue to offer the kind of experiential value to music fans that can’t be recreated, downloaded and casually shared. The popularity of huge sold-out events such as Glastonbury and Leeds / Reading alongside successful mid level boutique events such as Latitude (pictured) and Bestival has resulted in a booming sector and a key source of income for artists at all levels.

However, the ‘adding up’ report also reveals that the gap between venues and acts at a grass roots level and established artists whose agents can command large fees is widening. The Publican has reported that 49 pubs each week in Britain are closing down, perhaps indicating a severe threat to breeding grounds for new talent. The report states: “Stepping back from PRS for Music analysis, there are questions on the sustainability of the live music industry’s growth trajectory to date”.

There are concerns that revenues could begin to slow down on a global level, with concerts and tours by high profile artists such as Rhianna and The Eagles frequently cancelled or curtailed in the US, presumably due to poor tickets sales as no other explanation has been offered.

Earlier this year, Pollstar published statistics showing that gross revenue for the top 100 tours in North America in the first six months of 2010 was down almost $200 million from last year.

Generate debate: What were your highlights of the summer festival season? Is the live boom sustainable? Will the UK follow the emerging trend in the US and what are the key factors in avoiding this? How important are ticket prices and how much of this is related to the economic downturn? Can our live industry go from strength to strength?