VENUES such as King Tut's Wah Wah Hut, the Usher Hall in Edinburgh and festivals including T in the Park and Celtic Connections have built on the country's reputation for hosting a thriving music scene.
And now figures have revealed that tourists attracted to Scotland for live music events are providing a massive boost to the economy.
A total of £105 million was spent by 'music tourists' in Scotland, contributing to the £2.2 billion a year generated across the whole of the UK, a new report has revealed.
More than 1.4 million attended music events in Scotland in 2012, with more than 500,000 travelling further than their "usual stomping ground" to attend as either domestic or overseas tourists.
Domestic music tourists - those who travel three times their average commuting distance to attend a music event - made up 95% of those who travelled to music events, while the remaining 5% were those who visited from overseas.
According to the report, which was compiled by UK Music and VisitBritain, the average live music audience was made up of 41% music tourists.
Festivals in Scotland drew in 60% of the total music spending by music tourists in Scotland, with around £62m spent at events such as T in the Park and Rockness.
And the remaining 40%, sitting at £42m, was spent at concerts across the country.
Sandie Dawe, VisitBritain chief executive, said: "This report confirms that the UK's music scene has significant international appeal and that music tourists spend lots of money and travel across the whole of Britain.
"This will act as a catalyst for us all to ramp up our activity and forge better relationships with festival organisers, promoters, venues and producers to raise awareness of our amazing music scene across the world."
One of Scotland's biggest attractions, T in the Park, celebrated its 20th anniversary this summer with headliners including Mumford and Sons, Rihanna and Kraftwerk.
More than 2.5 million tickets have been sold since the festival began, growing from 17,000 tickets sold in its first year up to 85,000 at the Balado site.
Overseas tourist were likely to spend an average of £910 attending events such as this, with the cost of travel and accommodation included in this figure. The average spend for domestic tourists at festivals sat at £396.
Overseas tourists were likely to spend £602 to attend a live concert, and a domestic tourist would typically spend £87.
Outside of London, Glasgow was featured as one of the cities where music tourism was having a "pronounced" effect.
The opening of the new 13,000-seater SSE Hydro arena this year is set to boost the local economy by a further £131m, playing host to world-famous names such as Rod Stewart, Bruno Mars and Fleetwood Mac.
An EventScotland spokesman said: "Scotland is the perfect stage for music events, and our annual portfolio highlights the strength and depth that we offer.
"From small festivals like Tiree, to the big players such as T in the Park and Rockness, there is something for everyone in Scotland and we can back it up with some of the most spectacular settings in the world.
"We also have a thriving gig scene across the country, with Glasgow in particular hosting an average of 130 music events every week.
"Glasgow is a Unesco City of Music, and is home to some of Britain's best loved venues, and with the opening of the new SSE Hydro the city's capacity to welcome major touring artists has been increased.
"Music is a crucial part of Scotland's wider cultural tourism offering, and as we prepare to welcome the world in 2014, it will play a significant part of what will be a truly unforgettable year."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article