"It's A Catastrophe!"

When data and evidence tells you the reality, listen.

Apparently there is a feeling among some music industry professionals that Music Venue Trust 'catastrophises' challenges facing Grassroots Music Venues. By this, those people mean that we exaggerate the challenges faced by them to get attention which they feel isn't required.

In January 2022, I detailed in parliament that there would likely be at least 100 closures of music venues unless concerted action was taken by all key stakeholders, which includes those music industry professionals. That concerted action did not take place and 125 venues closed.

In January 2023, I detailed in parliament that without a major intervention by government and industry, the number of shows that venues could afford to present and the number of tours artists could afford to undertake would collapse. That major intervention did not take place, and the number of shows and tours at grassroots level has collapsed by an astonishing 39.7%.

In January 2024, I detailed in parliament that we were headed towards a cliff edge for grassroots music venues unless the whole industry took its responsibility towards the cost of supporting new and emerging talent seriously. I said we were hurtling towards a situation where venues simply could not afford to continue because the money had simply run out. The industry took no action to address this problem and by October 43% of all the venues in the country were reporting a loss in the last 12 months.

No one has 'catastrophised' this. We have simply gathered the data and evidence and reported it. The inability of 'music industry professionals' to listen, act on it, and avert the exact outcomes they were warned about won't make these problems any smaller. Painting us as doom and gloom mongers won't make it go away. It won’t change what's actually happening to grassroots music venues across the country, or the artists, promoters, crew, technicians, staff and audiences who rely on them.

Right now, the Budget has created a massive financial hole in the economics of grassroots music venues which no one has any idea how to fill. The Business Rate measures alone cost £7 million across a sector which in the last 12 months reported a total gross profit of just £2.9 million. That’s a £4.1 million hole. I don’t need to exaggerate it, the money doesn’t exist. People who don’t understand the economics of live music suggest it can be raised by putting ticket prices ‘up a bit’. Without going in depth into how these finances work (or rather, in reality, don’t), the amount that would need to go into the price of a single ticket to raise an additional £7 million in profit for grassroots music venues would be, brace yourself, £7.40. Venues don’t get anything like the majority of the money they charge for tickets. Fact check; over 85% of the value of a ticket goes towards the artist, production and associated costs.

You could, potentially, avoid that price increase by creating an isolated levy on each ticket, i.e. a price increase that is paid separate to the ticket rather than included within it, but even that would probably need to increase tickets by 50p to £1 everywhere. I guess we could call it the Rachel Reeves Budget Levy so people understood what it was for, but keeping in mind that average ticket prices in these venues hover around £11 I’m not sure the general public will feel generously towards a 10% increase in the price they pay to see live music which is required solely to put £7 million in extra taxes into the Treasury.

Roughly 400 venues in the UK are already making a loss. Piling tens of thousands of pounds in extra tax and employment costs on to those venues must inevitably result in them closing because they simply don't have the money to continue. The outcomes from this budget we are looking at genuinely would be a catastrophe for live music, for new and emerging talent, for our towns and cities, and for live music fans. Over 350 potential closures, at the cost of 12,000 jobs, and a massive reduction in the number of live events taking place and the locations where they take place - more than 70,000 shows could be lost by these financial challenges.

Call that 'catastrophising' as much as makes you feel you don't need to do anything about it. It won't change the reality of what's happening to live music in our towns and cities.