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The UK's Live Music Scene Is Worth £1.1 Billion To The Economy

The value of the live music scene in the UK has now reached a new high.

It's a good time to be a UK gig-goer right now, as an interesting new report from Music By Numbers has revealed that the value of our live scene has hit its highest-ever value.

While the industry as a whole is worth a whopping £5.2 billion to the economy in Britain, live music accounts for around a fifth of that; the sector made a GVA (gross value added) contribution of £1.1 billion in 2018.

In Music By Numbers' music tourism section, it's also noted that festivals have seen an impressive increase in numbers between 2017 and 2018, while the attendance at regular gigs is more steady.

"The biggest growth was festivals, where the total audience in 2018 soared by 23% to 4.9 million – up from 4 million in 2017," the report says. So if you went to the likes of Download, Reading & Leeds, Slam Dunk or Bloodstock for the first time, you probably helped contribute.

While the state of live music is seemingly pretty promising right now, there is much uncertainty around Brexit. And not only is the topic addressed in the report ("The Government must ensure Brexit does not damage our world-leading industry"), it has also been spoken about by many musicians in the rock and metal scene.

Betraying The Martyrs' Aaron Matts recently spoke to Kerrang! about the issue, pondering the effect that potentially leaving the European Union could have on the state of the music scene.

"The UK has long held its reputation for breeding incredible artists who never fail to inspire what the rest of the world is doing musically; offering their possible-at-any-time performances around mainland Europe and injecting their energy into the youth of Europeans, who in turn begin to create and to inspire others themselves," he said. "Of course, this works both ways: the music scene as we know it is one big melting pot of never-ending inspiration in artistic interchange and it’s nothing short of being beautiful.

"Will adding hard borders – making it increasingly difficult to access either side of the channel – throw a spanner into the works of this musical machine? Absolutely."

Skunk Anansie vocalist Skin also weighed in on the topic, stating that Brexit is "short-changing our youth".

“Brexit is going to be so awful for them, if it happens," she said. "Life’s going to be a lot more expensive; we’ve already seen that. Are we going to be able to travel like we used to? Are bands going to be able to tour? Are we going to have to get visas? All these questions are unanswered. The thing’s a fucking disaster.”