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Music Concerts and Festivals - UK - October 2014
Introduction
 
The live music industry bounced back in 2013 from a quiet year in 2012 which was the result of both competition from the Olympics and the lack of availability of major music venues due to some of them being used as Olympic venues.

While demand for high-profile artists remains strong, a continued squeeze on incomes, combined with rising ticket prices, has meant that the core market of mid-level and emerging artists has struggled a bit in the past few years, as consumers prioritise the concerts they go to, focusing on the big acts.

Promoters and venues still face a number of challenges: ticket abuse continues to be a major problem for the industry, while Mintel’s research for this report shows that two thirds of music concert visitors go to fewer than four performances a year, with a quarter going to just the one. However, there are also opportunities, mainly driven by growing digital device ownership, both to make consumers’ lives easier when it comes to buying tickets and finding their way around music venues or festival sites but also to operators in terms of receiving payments, issuing tickets and scanning tickets on the door.

Mintel last reported on this market in Music Concerts and Festivals – UK, August 2013. This report aims to provide an assessment of the current status of the industry, as well as insight into consumer behaviour and attitudes when it comes to concerts and festivals in the UK.

Definition
The concerts and festivals examined in this report include live musical performances at concert venues in the UK for which customers pay an entrance price. Festivals are defined as musical events held on consecutive days in which various musical artists perform a live set. It does not include the many festivals organised mainly by local councils that hold a variety of arts-based events usually over the course of a month, or concerts where admission is free. The report also excludes ballet, opera, musicals and plays, which will be covered in Mintel’s upcoming Performing Arts – UK, December 2014 report.

Mintel has used data on live music tariff collections from PRS for Music as the basis for its market size calculations.

Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen’s Printer for Scotland.

Abbreviations
AEG | Anschutz Entertainment Group
AIF | Association of Independent Festivals
AMG | Academy Music Group
APPG | All Party Parliamentary Group
BBC | British Broadcasting Corporation
BPI | British Phonographic Industry
CAPTCHA | Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart
CC | Crowd Connected
CEO | Chief Executive Officer
DJ | Disc Jockey
GMI | Global Market Insite
HMSO | Her Majesty’s Stationery Office
ID | Identification
LDC | Lloyds Development Capital
LNE | Live Nation Entertainment
LSO | London Symphony Orchestra
MOR | Middle of the Road
NAA | National Arenas Association
PC | Personal Computer
PRS | Performing Rights Society
TV | Television
UK | United Kingdom (of Great Britain and Northern Ireland)
US | United States (of America)

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