Live music continues to outperform recorded
Live survives the credit crunch, revenues up 4 percent in 2009. PRS for Music enables Songkick and Songwriters to work together to build upon the success of live music
In an exclusive key note presentation to the Great Escape Conference in Brighton today, PRS for Music Chief Economist Will Page presents the facts behind the continued success of live music in 2009.
Last year PRS for Music reported that the revenues from live music overtook that of recorded in the UK for the first time in modern history back in 2008. What’s often been termed the ‘changing of the guard’ reflects a dramatic transition, with live revenues being less than half that of recorded as recently as 2004.
The numbers behind the 2009 success story illustrate inflation beating growth of four percent, with consumer spending on live music reaching £1.45bn, up from 1.39bn in 2008. Breaking the numbers down, primary tickets were up 3.4%, whereas Tixdaq data shows that the revenues from the secondary market rocketed 15%. With the BPI recently reporting a resilient trading year for recorded music, with retail spending flat at £1.35bn, the continued growth of live music is even more intriguing.
"The UK live music industry continues to exceed expectations, especially during an economic downturn. In a week when it was shown that recorded music revenues may be starting to turn a corner, it‟s important to "follow the money" and appreciate the consumers insatiable appetite for live music, with more bands and more tickets than ever before. It‟s fascinating to consider that events based industries such as live music have succeeded in growing their overall pie, whilst so much of the digital media debate is about cannibalisation."
Said Will Page, Chief Economist PRS for Music
PRS for Music have also announced plans to collaborate with songkick.com to capitalise on the growth in the live industry. Songkick enables fans to track their favourite bands to get personalised alerts when they go on tour. Since launching in 2008, Songkick has grown to help over one million fans discover and find tickets to great concerts every month. Fans can also document their gig experiences by uploading set lists through the site. It is hoped that this data can be used by PRS for Music to supplement current data collection methods with the view to enhancing the quality and depth of set lists thereby helping continue the drive for increased accuracy and completeness in royalty payments.
Will Page added:
"Songkick is one of the leading innovators in the live music space; connecting more fans with the music they love thus getting more people to more gigs. By collaborating with this technology company we can work together to identify ways to continue improving our service to our songwriters, composers and publishers. SongKick's breadth of data will help us improve how we match what is from the smallest unsigned band right through to those hitting the UK‟s stadiums."
In relation to 2010 the performance of the live sector could be impacted by the World Cup and fewer large stadium tours.
