Live music census tunes into health of European gigs

On October 11th, 2024, the first-ever European Live Music Census will be conducted in five major European cities: Vilnius, Heidelberg, Mannheim, Helsinki, and Lviv. The initiative aims to measure the state of the European live music scene and to inform future policies eventually.

The European live music scene is experiencing a vibrant resurgence post-pandemic, with numerous festivals and concerts scheduled in 2024 and beyond. In this context, the first-ever European live music census will be conducted by researchers from the Horizon Europe project OpenMusE on the 11th of October 2024. This Census will capture a snapshot of gigs and concerts in these cities by tracking various musical performances – from grassroots music to church choirs, from pub gigs to full-scale concerts. It also aims to measure live music’s value and discover what challenges artists and venues are facing to help the music scene flourish. Five major European cities, Heidelberg and Mannheim (Germany), Helsinki (Finland, in cooperation with LiveFIN), Vilnius (Lithuania), and Lviv (Ukraine), are participating.

The European Live Music census is coordinated by the OpenMusE project with researchers from the University of Turku, the SINUS-Institute in Germany, Music Export Ukraine and Music Export Fund in Lithuania.

The OpenMusE project runs from January 2023 to December 2025 and aims to enhance the European music industry by making it more competitive, fair, sustainable, and transparent. It involves stakeholders and researchers from 10 EU countries and Ukraine which will develop tools for measuring music's value and ensuring fair compensation.

Project leader James Rhys Edwards emphasizes that: "Whether viewed through an economic or a sociocultural lens, the live sector is crucial for all music ecosystem players. However, data gaps make its impact difficult to prove. This is the first time that researchers have attempted to map live music activity across major European cities on the same day. The results will inform policy-making across Europe for years to come."

The Live Music census will run 24 hours from noon on 11th October 2024. It will gather information about why people attend gigs, which venues are important, how much people spend, and how far they travel. Building on the UK Live Music Census of 2017, this initiative aims to continue supporting and developing a sustainable live music ecology.

Do you own or manage a live music venue in one of the five cities? Are you planning an event on the 11th of October? Get in touch, join our study and help support your local live music ecology!

 

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