New Study Provides Hard Data On The Live Music Industry’s Economic Impact On Canadians, Including a $10.92 Billion Annual Contribution To GDP and Creation of Over 100,000 Jobs
The Canadian Live Music Association (CLMA) released findings of its long-anticipated economic impact study on January 30th, inside Massey Hall’s Allied Music Centre. 'Here and Now: understanding the economic power and potential of Canada’s live music industry” commissioned by the CLMA, was led by Nordicity, a leading strategic, policy, and economic analysis firm.
“The incredible small, medium, and large venues, clubs, concert halls, festivals, arenas, and other live music spaces that connect artists with their fans form a vast, complex, indoor and outdoor ecosystem. This is the system that facilitates live music–and its massive supply chain across Canada, be it a national arena tour, or a one-off local show in a 120-cap independent venue…and everything in-between.” said Erin Benjamin, President & CEO of the CLMA.
“Understanding and harnessing this system creates a significant and scalable competitive advantage for Canadians and for all levels of government and is essential for our artists so that they can continue to share the music we love and need. And why wouldn’t we? This study is a benchmark, the numbers in it have been achieved largely in the absence of any dedicated fiscal policy frameworks aimed at incentivizing growth. $10.92B in combined impact from live music and tourism spending… without trying.”
The study found that the live music industry supports over 100,000 jobs – from artists, performers, and technicians to venue staff, promoters, and service workers – and attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists year over year. In 2023 alone, live music festivals and live shows at venues in Canada together brought in a total of 19.69 million visitors. In addition to the live music and artistic experience we all know and love (and many of us can’t live without), the economic benefits of live music spillover directly into other industries, helping the creation and sustainability of jobs in sectors like hospitality, transportation, and retail.
“The findings in Here and Now make it clear that protecting and growing Canada’s live music infrastructure directly results in more jobs, major economic impact for cities and towns, and more performance opportunities for Canadian artists. It means more fans choosing Canada when deciding where to spend their (billions of, as it turns out) music tourism dollars. It means sold out hotels, fully booked flights, bustling shops, and restaurants. It means togetherness and social cohesion. It means better mental health. It means thriving downtowns. It means attracting and retaining other industries and talent to our cities. It means more revenue for artists and musicians. It means more music and memories with family and friends that change our lives,” said Tarun Nayar, Co-Founder, 5X Festival; Co-Founder, Snakes x Ladders, artist, and board chair of the CLMA.
Combined impacts of live music company operations and tourism spending:
$10.92 billion contribution to GDP
$9.9 billion in visitor spending
101,604 jobs created
$3.73 billion in taxes
$5.84 billion in labour income
Live music operations:
$2 billion contribution to GDP
27,490 jobs created
$513.5 million in taxes
$1.17 billion in labour income
The Canadian Live Music Association was founded in 2014 to drive the narrative of the power of live music, and to collaborate with members and government to
stimulate increased sector capacity across the ecosystem.
With this new data in hand, we hope the hard evidence and robust research in this report will incentivize forward and innovative thinking about the industry’s place and potential for growth within Canada’s cultural and economic framework.
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