UK music is a £7.6bn industry - live music £2.5bn of it - that runs on guesswork. Bands don't know what's normal, venues don't know what's fair, and the data that does exist sits in PDFs nobody reads. This yearbook is an attempt to fix that - every stat that matters, every source named, every figure free to cite.

• +13%UK music industry GVA, 2022-2023 (corrected - see below)
• -16%Grassroots venues, 2022-2024
• +26%Cultural Services CPI since 2019

Rise in UK Cultural Services CPI since 2019. Live-event prices up 16% since 2022 alone.

How big is UK live music? Six core financial, employment and export figures from the most recent UK Music annual reports.

The section's six statistics - industry GVA, live GVA, exports, jobs and music tourism, each with its source and year - are on our UK live music statistics page.

Collapse and record recovery - UK music industry GVA, 2019-2023

The pandemic cut output by 46% in 2020. By 2023 the industry had not only recovered but reached a record £7.6bn - above the 2019 baseline.

How many venues, where they are, and how the estate is changing. The Music Venue Trust network lost 125 grassroots venues in 2023 - roughly one every three days - and a further 25 in 2024.

The section's eight statistics - grassroots venues, closures, capacity, festivals, arenas and licensed pubs, each with its source and year - are on our UK live music statistics page.

The ongoing decline - UK grassroots venue count 2022-2024

Active grassroots venues in the Music Venue Trust network: 125 lost in 2023 (roughly one every three days), 25 in 2024.

The musicians, songwriters and workforce behind UK live music. Real earnings, member numbers, mental-health figures, plus festival lineup gender data from BBC research.

The section's eight statistics - PRS and MU members, earnings, self-employment, MU rates, mental health and festival headliners, each with its source and year - are on our UK live music statistics page.

Two big patterns sit behind these numbers: musician earnings are stagnant or falling in real terms (50% report income down YoY), and the workforce is overwhelmingly self-employed (~85%) - meaning income volatility, no statutory sick pay, and a heavy reliance on private insurance via the MU.

Live fee benchmarks from the GigXchange Index - median UK gig rates across the most common booking categories, refreshed monthly. The Index is the only public, free, UK-wide rate dataset of its kind.

The section's eight statistics - pub, wedding and corporate medians, the London premium, agent commission and MU minimums, each with its source and year - are on our UK live music statistics page.

Who goes to UK gigs, how many, and what they spend. The price of going to live events is rising faster than headline inflation - up 26% since 2019.

The section's six statistics - attendances, audience share, ticket prices and music tourism, each with its source and year - are on our UK live music statistics page.

The price of going out is up 26% since 2019

ONS Cultural Services CPI (2015 = 100). This index covers admission to live music, theatre, cinema, sport and museums - ONS has confirmed live music as the dominant driver. Prices have decoupled from headline CPI, jumping 16% since 2022 alone.

The collective-rights organisations and regulatory bodies that underpin UK live music - PRS, PPL, the CMA, plus the global streaming context for UK artists.

The section's seven statistics - PRS and PPL royalties, live licensing, insurance, secondary ticketing and Spotify payouts, each with its source and year - are on our UK live music statistics page.

How the UK live music industry is changing year-on-year. Festival cancellations doubled in 2024 and Brexit continues to bite for touring artists.

The section's eight statistics - GVA, venue decline, function demand, streaming share, the ticket levy, ticket prices, festival losses and Brexit, each with its source and year - are on our UK live music statistics page.

Every figure traces back to a named primary source - UK Music, MVT, MU, PRS, PPL, ONS, BBC, AIF, ISM, Spotify, BPI or the GigXchange Index. We don't average, smooth, project, or model - we publish what the body actually published, with the year it was published in.

Single-source primary data only

Every stat is sourced from one named industry body's published figure. Where a figure is reported as a range (e.g. "830-850 venues"), we keep the range. Where a figure is reported with caveats, we keep the caveats.

What's published, not what's modelled

If a body publishes 2023 data and not 2024, we publish the 2023 figure. We don't extrapolate. The most recent published year is always shown alongside each stat.

Where time-series data exists

Only three datasets in this report have enough annual data points for a chart: UK Music GVA (5 points), MVT venue count (3 points), and ONS Cultural Services CPI (7 points). We resisted the temptation to chart anything with fewer than 3 data points.

The fees-and-pricing exception

Section 4 (Fees) draws from the GigXchange Index - our own continuously-updated rate dataset built from confirmed bookings, public rate cards, MU rates, and verified user submissions. The Index follows its own methodology, published in full at gigxchange.app/rates.

How this yearbook stays current

This is Edition 01 (2026). Each subsequent edition will refresh stats against the latest published reports from each named body. Some sources (UK Music, MVT) publish annually; ONS CPI updates monthly; AIF and BBC headline studies are episodic. See the sources below for source-by-source refresh cadence.

Named sources

Every figure in this yearbook traces back to one of the 14 named bodies below.

Three ways to put it to work

• Cite any figure in articles, decks or research with attribution to the GigXchange UK Live Music Yearbook 2026.
• Embed any chart in your own report, presentation, or dataset - same CC BY 4.0 attribution, no permission required.
• Use the figures in your own analysis: every statistic, with its source and year, is on our UK live music statistics page, and our published open datasets are at gigxchange.app/data.