Oasis move the dial on national economics

UK ticket sales for the Oasis reunion tour have reportedly boosted ‘non-essential spending’ by British consumers to the highest level this year in September, in further proof of live music’s value to the economy.

The Oasis Live ‘25 Tour was the biggest-ever concert launch in UK and Ireland, with more than 10 million fans from 158 countries attempting to buy tickets for the group’s first shows since 2009.

The unprecedented demand for Oasis tickets bolstered a 36% annual jump in spending on shows and concerts, which contributed to a 2.7% year-on-year increase in non-essential spending, according to consumer card data compiled by Barclays.

Dynamic ticketing on these shows meant that some fans were charged more than £350 for tickets with an initial face value of £150 – a move that subsequently prompted an investigation by the UK government.

In the last year, blockbuster tours and festivals have significantly impacted the economy, both through consumer spending and inflation.

In the UK, it was recently revealed that the live music sector contributed a record £6.1 billion (€7.2bn) to the economy for the first time last year.

It was recently revealed that the UK live music sector contributed a record £6.1 billion (€7.2bn) to the economy

The growth in the sector last year was driven largely by concert revenues, which jumped by 19% year-on-year and accounted for nearly three quarters (73.5%) of the total, boosted by major tours by acts such as Beyoncé and Coldplay.

Concert tickets have also been shown to influence inflation. Earlier this year, The Bank of England faced a dilemma about whether to cut interest rates after official figures showed inflation proving stickier than initially expected. Some economists attributed the issue to consumer spending around Taylor Swift’s blockbuster The Eras Tour as it moved through the UK.

“While difficult to fully untangle, it’s certainly very possible that some Taylor Swift effects were at play here and could very well reverse out next month,” said Sanjay Raja, chief UK economist at Deutsche Bank.

This was also the case last year as confirmed by a 2023 report from the ONS which stated that prices for recreational and cultural goods and services had increased 6.8% in the year to May 2023, up from 6.4% in April and the highest rate since August 1991.

The report came weeks after Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour was blamed for Sweden’s inflation rise after kicking off at Stockholm’s Friends Arena last month. The tour reportedly prompting a surge in restaurant and hotel pricing in the area as tens of thousands of fans arrived in the city.

“It’s certainly very possible that some Taylor Swift effects were at play here and could very well reverse out next month”

Michael Grahn, chief economist at Danske Bank, told CNN that the additional demand from Beyoncé’s fans was behind two-thirds of the price rises seen in the hospitality sector in May. As a result, Sweden reported higher-than-expected inflation of 9.7% during the month.

As a result of the economic impact of live music, A-list tours have become increasingly hot commodities for governments, with some bidding to secure exclusive concerts.

Earlier this year, it was reported that Singapore struck an exclusivity deal with Taylor Swift and her promoters to make the island nation her only Eras tour stop in Southeast Asia.

The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) authorised a grant for Swift to perform at the 55,000-cap Singapore National Stadium next month, allegedly on the condition she would not play any other countries in the region.

This ignited fierce competition among other Southeast Asian nations, with the Philippines pledging to build a “Taylor Swift-ready” stadium by 2028.

Unsurprisingly, Singapore’s investment in Taylor Swift paid off with the government later crediting live music with helping to rejuvenate tourism in Singapore.

A-list tours have become increasingly hot commodities in cities’ efforts to boost tourism

By August, the country had welcomed around 6.3 million international visitors in 2023, putting it on track towards meeting its goal of 12-14m.

In another high-profile case, it emerged that the Western Australian government paid A$8 million to subsidise two Coldplay concerts.

The band played two nights at Perth’s Optus Stadium – their first gigs in Western Australia since 2009 – in November 2023 as part of their Music of the Spheres World Tour, in what was hailed as a “major tourism coup” for the country’s fourth most populous city.

Presented by the WA government, through Tourism WA, and Live Nation, the Australian-exclusive gigs were promoted alongside hotel packages designed to encourage visitors to stay longer in Perth and explore the region further, creating additional economic benefits.

A Guardian report revealed that $8m (€5m) was paid to Live Nation in relation to the performances, which Tourism WA said injected “tens of millions of visitor spend” into the state’s economy.

It follows a similar disclosure around Coldplay’s four nights at the 50,000-cap Estádio Cidade de Coimbra in Portugal in May last year.

The concerts attracted controversy when it was revealed promoter Everything is New would receive €440,000 from the municipality and was exempted from “municipal fees and prices” for the shows. The authority also spent €28,000 on restoring the stadium’s pitch.

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