Prices and revenues continue to skyrocket in the live music scene, but grassroots venues are repeatedly suffering from poor attendances, so are audiences truly supporting live music or not?
If the success of live music is to be judged by sales, then a case can certainly be made that it is thriving as much as it ever has.
Global live music industry revenue amounted to over $34 billion in 2024 and is on track to reach a staggering $52 billion by 2030, affirming the idea that the industry is more successful than it has ever been.
It’s not hard to see why revenues are in such an incline though, especially given the ludicrous ticket prices and resellers that also appear to be on the rise.
In 2011, the average concert ticket price globally stood at around $78. That number has almost doubled to $135 in the year 2024. As issues such as cost of living in various countries worsens, prices increasing at this rate are sure to put many off attending live music.
The issue of pricing, and its effect on the audience, has been raised by many an artist, with the likes of Olivia Dean, Dua Lipa and Coldplay taking action to ensure their own fans aren’t extorted by Ticketmaster’s heavily controversial dynamic pricing, or ticket resellers.
In order to further explore if attending live music was falling out of favour, and the reasons why, I went to Newcastle University Campus to pose these very questions.
As you can see, from the perspective of students, live music is an opportunity for enjoyment, community and to truly experience the artists you love. Whilst the adoration of live music is still there, the key factor that prevents more frequent attendance is clearly the ever-growing prices.
Prices are an issue that continues to be raised in music discourse. Live music at its core should be accessible, and it appears that it is an increasingly wealthy hobby, blocking many from seeing the art they love.
This is true nationwide, as a 2025 survey revealed that 64% of respondents stated that higher ticket prices were an overarching reason for them attending less live music events. Closely following this reply was similar issues of financial constraints, unfair ticketing and overall event costs. It is clear that financially, live music is becoming more and more inaccessible
To delve deeper into some of the other reasons that the live music scene, especially at grassroots level may be struggling, I spoke to local venue The Cluny’s Production Manager Ross Lewis.
To add to the cost of living, Ross touted ‘the knock-on effect from Covid’ and the increased use of ‘social media’ as major reasons as to why people may not be as used to attending live gigs as they used to be.
This is understandable, as growing availability of music through the likes of streaming services and social media may render attendance at live music less essential, whilst it is often said that the COVID generation have yet to fully take to communal activities as much as pre-lockdown.
As well as these reasons, Ross continued to affirm the idea that attendances at grassroots level are in fact suffering, and the statistics often tell us this as well.
Difficulties garnering big audiences has led to the closure of many venues, with ‘the Music Venues Alliance (MVA)’ seeing ‘a net decline of 125 trading GMVs (Grassroots Music Venues), with 148 lost and only 34 newly recognised.’ in 2023.
Venues are only going to continue to struggle if the accessibility and prices of live music continue to go up, as only the arenas and stadiums filled by the worldwide names are equipped to handle this increase.
The numbers aren’t all doom and gloom though, as it could be said there is somewhat of an upturn in popularity occurring within the last couple of years. For example, in a 2025 survey, ‘Grassroots music venues were the most frequently attended music venues in the United Kingdom’, with 11% of people stating they attended these venues weekly.
Whilst grassroots venues can hope this pattern increases, the rest of live music always appears to have growing popularity, even with frequent complaints over pricing. Attendances in 2022, shortly after COVID, for ‘festivals and concerts’ reached a ‘record high 37 million’ in the UK.
Ross from The Cluny was equally as optimistic, stating that he thinks there will be an increase in engagement from the younger generation, as they are a ‘generation that are really waking up to the social isolation that comes if you live life through a phone’
With the ever-increasing costs of attending live music, we can only hope that there are opportunities for less wealthy people to experience the arts.
Live music itself appears to be on the up though, and attendances likewise. As long as that leads to supporting grassroots venues, then the pits will forever continue to mosh.
