For many music fans, 2025 will be remembered as the year Oasis came back. Their long-awaited reunion tour dominated the summer, reigniting bucket hats, Britpop nostalgia and generating over £300 million in ticket sales alone.
Yet beneath the headlines and arena sell-outs, a much less exciting story is happening in the UK’s live music scene. Just 11 of the 34 venues that hosted Oasis during their first tour in 1994 are still active today – a stark illustration of how uneven success is now spread across the industry.
While big artists fill arenas and arenas with ease, smaller venues and emerging acts are being squeezed by a combination of rising costs, changing consumer behavior and government policy. Industry figures warn that the pipeline for discovering and developing new talent is at risk of collapsing.
Julia Rowan, head of policy and public affairs at PRS for Music, says the UK’s position as a world music powerhouse can no longer be taken for granted. He argues that while live music earnings are growing overall, profits are increasingly concentrated at the lower end of the market, leaving smaller areas exposed.
Live streaming has played an important role in reshaping the industry. Platforms like Spotify have made it easier than ever to release music, but they have also concentrated income among a small number of global stars. For many musicians, touring has become the main means of making a living, reversing the traditional model where live performances promote recorded music.
That change has helped fuel the rise of the “supertour”. Taylor Swift’s Eras tour, for example, has grossed more than $2 billion worldwide, while legacy acts like Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen continue to draw huge crowds. In the UK alone, live music generated £6.7 billion last year and attracted 23.5 million music visitors.
However, the success of mega-tours has unintended consequences. High ticket prices – often over £100 or more – take away from fan income, leaving little money for smaller gigs. Mark David, chief executive of the Music Venue Trust, says there is a natural limit to how much people can spend on music each year.
“If you’re paying £150 or £200 for a stadium ticket, that definitely eats up the budget and you have to see new or emerging artists,” he said.
At the same time, low-income areas are facing significant increases in operating costs. Energy bills, rent, labor costs and travel costs have all gone up. Increases in employers’ National Insurance contributions and the minimum wage have added to the pressure. Even bigger venues have felt the impact: James Ainscough, chief executive of the Royal Albert Hall, says the NI increase alone has added £375,000 a year to the venue’s costs.
In small areas, the situation is more serious. The Music Venue Trust estimates that the average profit margin for all venues is just 0.5 per cent. More than a third of workers are no longer paid at all, and many rely on second jobs to keep places open.
Davyd describes these places as the industry’s “research and development labs” — important places where artists learn their craft and audiences discover new music. Without them, he warns, Britain risks losing its ability to nurture the world’s future stars. That concern is already reflected in the data: no British artist appeared in the top 10 albums or albums in 2024 for the first time in more than 20 years, according to IFPI statistics.
There are signs of joint action. A voluntary ticket tax was introduced, allowing stadiums and arenas to add a small donation to tickets to support grassroots venues. The Royal Albert Hall was the first major venue to accept the money, while the O2 Arena agreed to share profits if new artists performed there.
The government has voiced support for the tax and moved to resale ticket prices, but critics say recent tax and business changes are undermining those efforts. As Ainscough puts it, the sector is facing a “perfect storm” of challenges.
Industry leaders insist that creativity in Britain is always in abundance. What is missing, they say, is the financial and policy environment that allows that creativity to flourish beyond the big divisions. Without intervention, they warn, the next Oasis may not get a chance to be heard.
