Ticket sales have helped to drive the £1.5bn ($1.96bn/€1.76bn) a year revenue for live music venues around Europe, according to data from European umbrella organisation Live DMA.
The newly published report from the non-governmental network focuses on the activities and business models of its 2,597 festivals, music venues and clubs as part of 19 members in 15 countries.
Over a 12-month period in 2017, more than €620m was earned from ticket sales, with the total income of all venues reaching upwards of €1.8bn.
For small venues, on average 52% of their income comes from audience spending (23% ticket sales and 29% catering sales), while medium venues earn an average of 58% of their income from audience spending (27% ticket sales + 31% catering sales).
Meanwhile, for large venues, on average 62% of their income comes from audience spending (37% ticket sales and 25% catering sales)
The study said: “When we compare the direct programme costs to the income of ticket sales we can see that, on average, the ticket sales cover all the income for the artists (105%), but for many smaller venues the ticket sales do not cover the programme costs. On average, large venue ticket sales cover 116% of the direct programme costs. For medium venues this is 102%, but for small venues only 82% of the programme costs is covered by ticket sales.”
More than 90% of venues in Belgium, Denmark, France, Netherlands and Switzerland are not-for-profit, while the majority in Germany, Spain and UK are commercial.
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