For many music fans, 2025 will be remembered as the year Oasis returned. Their long-awaited reunion tour dominated the summer, reviving bucket hats, Britpop nostalgia and generating more than £300 million in ticket sales alone.
Yet beneath the headlines and stadium sell-outs, a far less celebratory story is unfolding across the UK’s live music ecosystem. Just 11 of the 34 grassroots venues that hosted Oasis during their first tour in 1994 are still operating today — a stark illustration of how unevenly success is now distributed across the sector.
While the biggest artists fill arenas and stadiums with ease, small venues and emerging acts are being squeezed by a combination of rising costs, changing consumer behaviour and government policy. Industry figures warn that the pipeline for discovering and developing new talent is at risk of collapse.
Julia Rowan, head of policy and public affairs at PRS for Music, says the UK’s position as a global music powerhouse can no longer be taken for granted. She argues that while live music revenues are growing overall, the benefits are increasingly concentrated at the top end of the market, leaving smaller venues exposed.
Streaming has played a central role in reshaping the industry. Platforms such as Spotify have made it easier than ever to release music, but they have also concentrated revenues among a small number of global stars. For many artists, touring has become the primary way to make a living, reversing the traditional model where live shows promoted recorded music.
That shift has helped fuel the rise of the “supertour”. Taylor Swift’s Eras tour, for example, grossed more than $2 billion globally, while legacy acts such as Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen continue to draw huge crowds. In the UK alone, live music generated £6.7 billion in spending last year and attracted 23.5 million music tourists.
However, the success of mega-tours is having unintended consequences. High ticket prices — often exceeding £100 or more — are absorbing fans’ disposable income, leaving less money for smaller gigs. Mark Davyd, chief executive of the Music Venue Trust, says there is a natural limit to how much audiences can spend on music in a year.
“If you’re paying £150 or £200 for a stadium ticket, that inevitably eats into the budget you have to see new or emerging artists,” he says.
At the same time, grassroots venues are battling a sharp rise in operating costs. Energy bills, rents, staffing costs and travel expenses have all increased. Labour’s rise in employers’ National Insurance contributions and the higher minimum wage have added further pressure. Even large 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.
For smaller venues, the situation is more precarious. The Music Venue Trust estimates that average profit margins across grassroots venues are just 0.5 per cent. More than a third of operators are no longer paying themselves at all, with many relying on second jobs to keep venues open.
Davyd describes these venues as the industry’s “research and development labs” — essential spaces where artists learn their craft and audiences discover new music. Without them, he warns, Britain risks losing its ability to nurture future global stars. That concern is already reflected in the data: no British artist appeared in the global top 10 singles or albums in 2024 for the first time in more than 20 years, according to IFPI figures.
There are signs of collective action. A voluntary ticket levy has been introduced, allowing arenas and stadiums to add a small contribution to tickets to support grassroots venues. The Royal Albert Hall was the first major venue to adopt the levy, while the O2 Arena has agreed to share revenues when new artists perform there.
The government has voiced support for the levy and moved to cap ticket resale prices, but critics argue that recent tax and business-rates changes are undermining those efforts. As Ainscough puts it, the sector is facing a “perfect storm” of challenges.
Industry leaders stress that creativity in Britain remains abundant. What is missing, they argue, is a financial and policy environment that allows that creativity to flourish beyond the biggest stages. Without intervention, they warn, the next Oasis may never get the chance to be heard.
