Double-digit growth for Italian live sector

Audiences for live music in Italy continue to grow, both in terms of spectators (up 12 per cent from 2014 to 2015) and revenue (up 17.7 per cent), for a total revenue of €260.5 million in 2015, reveals data released by industry association Assomusica.

Over 6.9 million people attended 3,965 events last year, with pop music the most valuable genre at €227.8 million (an increase of 28.6 per cent) and jazz representing a “very lively niche” at €2.5 million (up 10.4 per cent).

The live music sector as a whole – from big companies to to roughly 11,000 SMEs – employs around 400,000 people.

Assomusica president Vincenzo Spera has expressed his dissatisfaction that classical music receives the most state funding and that “the live music performance sector is not even mentioned among the areas of focus – only theatre prose, dance, showmen and circus activities”

Despite the positive figures, Assomusica has called for more support from the Italian government.

While culture minister Dario Franceschini pledged his support for the arts sector in October (and only earlier this week announced that his department would bring David Gilmour back to Pompeii), Assomusica president Vincenzo Spera has expressed his dissatisfaction that classical music receives the most state funding and that “the live music performance sector is not even mentioned among the areas of focus – only theatre prose, dance, showmen and circus activities”.

“We are a segment that innovates, is increasingly international and gives employment opportunities to young people,” he says. “For years we have been waiting for a reform [in the law]; the current legislation is old and does not take into account the changes in the last 40 years.”