For a lot of music followers, 2025 can be remembered because the 12 months Oasis returned. Their long-awaited reunion tour dominated the summer season, reviving bucket hats, Britpop nostalgia and producing greater than £300 million in ticket gross sales alone.
But beneath the headlines and stadium sell-outs, a far much less celebratory story is unfolding throughout the UK’s dwell music ecosystem. Simply 11 of the 34 grassroots venues that hosted Oasis throughout their first tour in 1994 are nonetheless working right this moment — a stark illustration of how erratically success is now distributed throughout the sector.
Whereas the largest artists fill arenas and stadiums with ease, small venues and rising acts are being squeezed by a mixture of rising prices, altering shopper behaviour and authorities coverage. Business figures warn that the pipeline for locating and creating new expertise is liable to collapse.
Julia Rowan, head of coverage and public affairs at PRS for Music, says the UK’s place as a worldwide music powerhouse can not be taken with no consideration. She argues that whereas dwell music revenues are rising total, the advantages are more and more concentrated on the prime finish of the market, leaving smaller venues uncovered.
Streaming has performed a central position in reshaping the business. Platforms akin to Spotify have made it simpler than ever to launch music, however they’ve additionally concentrated revenues amongst a small variety of international stars. For a lot of artists, touring has turn into the first approach to make a residing, reversing the standard mannequin the place dwell reveals promoted recorded music.
That shift has helped gas the rise of the “supertour”. Taylor Swift’s Eras tour, for instance, grossed greater than $2 billion globally, whereas legacy acts akin to Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen proceed to attract enormous crowds. Within the UK alone, dwell music generated £6.7 billion in spending final 12 months and attracted 23.5 million music vacationers.
Nevertheless, the success of mega-tours is having unintended penalties. Excessive ticket costs — usually exceeding £100 or extra — are absorbing followers’ disposable earnings, leaving much less cash for smaller gigs. Mark Davyd, chief government of the Music Venue Belief, says there’s a pure restrict to how a lot audiences can spend on music in a 12 months.
“When you’re paying £150 or £200 for a stadium ticket, that inevitably eats into the price range it’s a must to see new or rising artists,” he says.
On the identical time, grassroots venues are battling a pointy rise in working prices. Vitality payments, rents, staffing prices and journey bills have all elevated. Labour’s rise in employers’ Nationwide Insurance coverage contributions and the upper minimal wage have added additional stress. Even massive venues have felt the affect: James Ainscough, chief government of the Royal Albert Corridor, says the NI enhance alone has added £375,000 a 12 months to the venue’s prices.
For smaller venues, the state of affairs is extra precarious. The Music Venue Belief estimates that common revenue margins throughout grassroots venues are simply 0.5 per cent. Greater than a 3rd of operators are not paying themselves in any respect, with many counting on second jobs to maintain venues open.
Davyd describes these venues because the business’s “analysis and improvement labs” — important areas the place artists study their craft and audiences uncover new music. With out them, he warns, Britain dangers shedding its capacity to nurture future international stars. That concern is already mirrored within the knowledge: no British artist appeared within the international prime 10 singles or albums in 2024 for the primary time in additional than 20 years, in response to IFPI figures.
There are indicators of collective motion. A voluntary ticket levy has been launched, permitting arenas and stadiums so as to add a small contribution to tickets to help grassroots venues. The Royal Albert Corridor was the primary main venue to undertake the levy, whereas the O2 Enviornment has agreed to share revenues when new artists carry out there.
The federal government has voiced help for the levy and moved to cap ticket resale costs, however critics argue that current tax and business-rates adjustments are undermining these efforts. As Ainscough places it, the sector is dealing with a “excellent storm” of challenges.
Business leaders stress that creativity in Britain stays plentiful. What’s lacking, they argue, is a monetary and coverage setting that permits that creativity to flourish past the largest phases. With out intervention, they warn, the subsequent Oasis might by no means get the prospect to be heard.
