What Kate Nash’s grassroots music protest reveals about touring and streaming

Kate Nash performing in Amsterdam in 2012. Wiki Commons, CC BY-SA

In November 2025, singer Kate Nash stood outside the London offices of Spotify and Live Nation with placards, arguing that the music economy no longer works for many working musicians.

The protest drew attention to the financial strain of touring at scale. In February 2026, she elaborated on these concerns in testimony before a UK parliamentary select committee, stating that she lost £26,000 on the European leg of her tour...