Liverpool City Region Music Economy: toward a £1 billion sector

The Liverpool City Region Music Economy Report (2026) identifies both the significant real scale and huge potential for growth in all parts of the music sector. The headline figures are significant: more than 7,200 full-time equivalent jobs, generating direct gross value added of £406 million and total economic impact, including multiplier effects, of £780 million annually. Iain Bennett of The Fifth Sector developed an innovative research methodology for the report, constructed through analysis of registered companies, industry platform data on freelance professionals and modelled estimates of the scale and value of the “portfolio” working. This revealed a distinctive “‘four-tier’ workforce structure that differs markedly from conventional industries, in which most of the workforce comprises freelance and self-employed musicians and sector specialists (32%) and “shared utility” workers whose employment is partially attributable to music (50%).