Live DMA Survey Report: Live Music Venues data 2017 (publication January 2020)

15 January 2020 - Press release

Live DMA is a European umbrella association for live music venues across Europe. An extensive report about the activities and business models of almost 2,600 live music venues, mostly smaller and non-profit, from 14 different European regions was released. For the first time, insights on venues in Finland, Sweden and the UK are included.

Live music venues across Europe programme at least 950,000 live music performances per year, which attract 70 million visitors. Over 87,000 workers are involved in the mostly non-profit music venues, which generate a total income of over 1.8 billion euro.

Next to impressive numbers about artist performances, audiences, work and finance, the study also shows a high amount of social and educational functions especially in public venues, support for emerging artists, and a high share of volunteers engagement in private non-profit venues, all contributing to the high social, artistic and economical value of the European live music scenes.

A set of recommendations to improve the conditions of the live music scenes in Europe can be found at the end of the report. (Download full report here)

SUMMARY

The key findings of the Live DMA report are not only the impressive total amount of 400,000 live music events, 950,000 artist performances, 70 million audience visits, 87,000 workers and 1.8 billion euro of income and expenditure in the music venues.
 
Only 37% of the music venues and clubs are involved in presenting only live music. Public venues, especially, often have social and educational functions as well. Many venues have tools and support for emerging artists, and a lot of the larger venues have multi-disciplinary functions such as cinema, theatre and photography.  Also, 38% of the live music venues organise festivals.
 
52% of the Live DMA music venues are non-profit organisations, with more than 90% of venues in Belgium, Denmark, France, Netherlands and Switzerland being non-profit, while the majority in Germany, Spain and UK are commercial.
 
The median audience capacity of the live music venues and clubs is 375, with 87% of all music venues smaller than 1000 capacity, often with multiple smaller concert halls.
 
In average, a music venue or club organises 157 music events per year and programmes 367 artist performances during these events. Looking at the audience 83% of all visits were with an admission fee, and 17% of all visits were free entrances.
 
The music venues are mostly run by pro­fessional paid staffs, but the amount of tasks done by volunteers is essential in most regions, specifically for private non-profit venues and mostly for small venues. In total, well over 27,500 paid professionals (11,000 FTE), and over 56,000 volunteers (5,000 FTE), work at the venues. Also, interns and trainees add an important contribution.
 
The Survey includes a new question about the ba­lance of female (40%) and male (60%)  workers in music venues and clubs. Only in Sweden, the share of female workers (55%) is higher than the share of male workers (45%).
 
The average expenditure of music venues across Europe is 32% spent on direct programme costs, 34% on personnel costs, and 13% on housing costs.  The expenditure is very much alike for all types of venues, despite their audience capacity, region and legal status. On the other hand, the income of the venues is very different, depending mostly on their legal status and audience capacity. Commercial venues and most larger venues are almost completely depending on audience spendings on tickets, food and beverages, while non-profit venues mostly also have a share of subsidy as income. The new report describes the different business models in more detail.