The DCMS Touring Report Is Here - And It Shows Why GIGNITE Matters
Updated: Aug 28
The DCMS touring report, The economic benefits of touring and impact of EU exit, puts hard evidence behind what artists, managers and crews have been dealing with for years: touring across Europe got harder, slower and more expensive after EU exit.
That will not surprise anyone who actually works in live music.
It does matter, though, because the report turns lived frustration into documented economic evidence. The barriers affecting cross-border touring are not minor admin irritations. They are growth barriers, revenue barriers and career barriers.
They are also hitting the people with the least room for error.
The report says overall EU touring by UK-based music artists in 2024 remained 21% below 2019 levels. It also finds that, between 2022 and 2024, the UK is estimated to have lost £208.0 million in GVA and 2,490 full-time equivalent jobs across the touring sectors covered by the study, while reduced touring by UK musicians after EU exit is estimated to have resulted in approximately £1.04 billion in GVA and 17,010 FTE jobs lost across the included EU host countries.
This is not just a touring story.
It is a live music infrastructure story.
What the DCMS touring report says about touring after EU exit
The clearest takeaway from the DCMS touring report is that friction stacks.
It is not one obstacle. It is the pile-up.
Visas. Work permits. ATA carnets. Customs declarations. Cabotage restrictions. VAT and withholding tax. Social security admin. Cashflow pressure. Longer lead times. Less flexibility. More chances for a good opportunity to collapse under the weight of process.
For major acts with bigger teams and stronger margins, some of that pain can be absorbed.
For independent, emerging and mid-scale artists, it can be the difference between growing and stalling.
That matters because touring is still one of the clearest ways an artist builds a real career. Live shows grow audiences, strengthen fan loyalty, create income, drive merchandise sales, attract promoters and bookers, and open doors to future festivals, press and partnerships. Touring creates momentum that streaming alone rarely delivers.
EMMA’s 2025 research reinforces that point: 51.9% of music managers said touring and ticket sales were a “very” or “significant” overall source of client revenue, compared with 17% for streaming.
So when touring becomes harder, artist development slows down.
That is exactly what the report shows.
Why the DCMS touring report matters beyond the show itself
The DCMS touring report is not just about cancelled plans or extra paperwork. It is about what happens when an entire part of the music economy becomes harder to access.
When artists cannot tour efficiently, the effects spread outwards. Venues lose dates.
Promoters lose opportunities. Crews lose work. Hospitality, accommodation and travel lose income. Cultural exchange narrows. International audience growth becomes harder to sustain. The wider music economy gets weaker because the routes that help talent move and develop are under pressure.
That wider impact matters. Touring helps artists break into new markets, grow audiences, strengthen revenues and build long-term careers. UK music exports revenue reached £4.8 billion in 2024, showing how the momentum created by performing artists feeds directly into the wider export strength of the sector.
This is why the conversation cannot stop at red tape.
The real issue is whether artists and their teams have the infrastructure to organise live work properly in a more complex environment.
For years, too much of the industry has relied on disconnected spreadsheets, overloaded inboxes, fragmented supplier contacts, scattered documents and local knowledge that is hard to access unless you already know the right people. That is not a serious operational system. It is patchwork.
Patchwork is expensive.
How GIGNITE responds to the problems raised in the DCMS touring report
This is exactly why GIGNITE exists.
GIGNITE was not built from the outside looking in. It was built by live event and touring professionals who could see early on that Brexit was going to make an already fragmented system even harder to navigate.
The warning signs were obvious: more admin, more risk, more compliance, more cost, less flexibility and more ways for smaller artists to miss out.
GIGNITE was built as a platform to reduce that friction.
Not as an artist management service.
As practical live music infrastructure.
The point is simple: if touring now demands better co-ordination, better visibility and faster decision-making, artists and their teams need better tools than scattered manual workflows.
GIGNITE helps address the exact pressures the DCMS touring report brings into focus:
Fragmented planning - one connected platform for managing dates, venues, suppliers, budgets, promotion and touring operations
Route inefficiency and missed opportunities - access to thousands of venues in one system, making discovery and planning far more practical
Cross-border complexity - better visibility across the moving parts around documents, suppliers, schedules and operational planning
Overreliance on inboxes and spreadsheets - connected workflows that help artists and teams stay organised and in control
Pressure on smaller artists with tighter margins - free for artists and independent managers, so better infrastructure is not limited to acts with bigger budgets
Siloed industry relationships - stronger connectivity between artists, venues, promoters, managers, agents and suppliers
That is the bigger point.
The report shows the cost of friction. GIGNITE was built to remove as much of that friction as possible.
Better touring infrastructure matters now
No platform can remove every policy barrier on its own. Clearer mobility rules, simpler customs processes and more predictable touring arrangements would still make a meaningful difference across the UK and Europe. The policy case matters.
Artists and teams also need something practical right now.
They need a better way to organise gigs and tours, reduce avoidable mistakes, keep critical information visible, and manage the moving parts of live work without drowning in admin.
This is where GIGNITE fits.
It gives artists and their teams a connected workspace to plan, organise and manage live activity with more clarity and more control. And because it is free for artists, the people who need better touring infrastructure most are not locked out of it.
If you are an artist or part of an artist team, getting started is simple. Sign up with your email, complete a short registration form so GIGNITE can sync your artist information, and your dashboard is ready to use. From there, you can start building your profile, shaping tour plans, exploring venues and suppliers, and managing the practical side of gigs and tours in a much more connected way.
Touring should be about building momentum, growing audiences and creating unforgettable live experiences.
It should not depend on how well you can survive fragmented admin.
The DCMS touring report makes the economic case clearly.
Now the live music industry needs better systems to match it.
GIGNITE™️ - Built by music industry pros, touring specialists and talented engineers.
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