Christopher BarrettFeatured Artists Coalition CEO David Martin (pictured) on why the industry has a limited window of opportunity to act on the Government-backed call for a blanket levy at the biggest live events to support grassroots venues, festivals, artists and promoters.
For the live music industry, the pressure is now officially on to deliver a blanket ticket levy at large-scale shows to help alleviate the challenges of touring at grassroots gigs.
For artists, those challenges are self-evident. Touring at small-capacity shows has always been tough. Audience building is a long-term process. The costs of rehearsing, performing and travelling are endless, and frequently outweigh any immediate financial returns.
Despite receiving a ‘guarantee’, artists are frequently the only member of a touring party not guaranteed to be paid – while levels of label tour support that once propped up loss-making tours have long disappeared.
Since the pandemic – when, before we forget, British artists faced the double whammy of losing all their live work and being cut adrift from Government support packages – these challenges have exacerbated dramatically.
“What happens when the elastic band snaps and artists can no longer afford to tour?”
Unlike many arena and stadium shows, where sales are buoyant and ticket prices have inflated dramatically and dynamically, spending at grassroots gigs has been constrained.
Rising prices means artists are staring down the barrel of a cost of touring crisis. Collectively, this has left the wider industry with an existential dilemma: What happens when the elastic band snaps and artists can no longer afford to tour?
In March 2024, I joined English Teacher’s Lily Fontaine and the MMF’s Kwame Kwaten to highlight this critical situation to MPs sitting on the Culture Media & Sport Committee. We made it clear that, as well as providing the product that is sold in the live sector (performances) and attracting audiences, artists are also its biggest employers.
When they cut back on shows, the knock-on impacts are massive – for session musicians, managers, venues, promoters, crew, ticket agents, and everyone else.
Two months after our evidence session, the Committee delivered a string of recommendations – notably that a grassroots music levy should be introduced by September 2024 and administered through a trust set up by the umbrella body LIVE. Importantly, this grassroots music fund should be made available to artists, managers, independent promoters and venues.
This would make it distinct from existing support, like the £5m Supporting Grassroots Music (SGM) Fund, which artists are not eligible to apply for.
The Committee also set a strict timetable. If the music business were unable to deliver these changes voluntarily, then the Government should step in and make them mandatory.
With September a fast-receding memory, this is the position we now find ourselves in.
The LIVE Trust exists as a concept to fairly, transparently and independently distribute the proceeds of a ticket levy. But we have no levy. On 14th November, the Government endorsed the Committee’s recommendations and reiterated the urgency for the industry to get our act together – albeit without setting out a timescale for further action.
Acknowledging this, Dame Caroline Dinenage MP, the chair of the Culture Committee has dialled up the pressure – stating she will convene a sector-wide hearing in six months’ time if no significant progress is made.
The FAC has warmly welcomed these words, and committed to double down our own efforts to achieve consensus at the boardroom of LIVE. Although the clock is now ticking, we as an industry now have a real window of opportunity to do the right thing – to agree a small blanket levy at the biggest live events, that can help reinvigorate all at the grassroots.
Even within the complex and arcane ecosystem of live music, this does not appear the most insurmountable task. But if we fail, there is potential for a chastening and embarrassing reckoning in May 2025, one we can’t say we weren’t warned about in advance.