Live music is a confusing place these days. At the top, mega-stars like Bon Jovi and U2 are making insane ransoms. Take a few steps down, and well-known artists like Imogen Heap are having difficult paying for the tour bus. Then, the stories from developing artists are frequently discouraging, and recession-weary concertgoers are showing more selectivity.
So where's this all going? Well, a new report out of Britain shows that touring revenues are not only making up for recording declines, they are helping to grow the pot.
The data comes from PRS for Music, Office of National Statistics (ONS), and Imperial College, and it UK-specific. The print is a bit small (larger version here), but it shows a modest gain in combined revenue over the past ten years —despite a marked decline in recording revenue.
There's also some bad news buried into this. For starters, 2010 (estimated) shows a clear decline, and suggests a mini-bubble in 2008-9. But it also shows a chronic decline in consumer 'wallet share,' essentially the percentage of overall money spent by consumers. So, the average Brit had a 'bigger wallet' in 2010 than 1997, but put less of that overall money towards music. Here's the broader look.
Here, the top ribbon is the wallet share for music—as you can see, it has dipped significantly over the past ten years (full-sized chart here). “What makes wallet share a relevant topic to explore in early 2011 is the peculiar and persistent squeeze that consumers have been feeling on their wallet in recent times; and the reality that we are in for 'a long period of bumping along the bottom,'" explained report author Will Page, chief economist at PRS.
The complete report is here.
