VIEWPOINT
T
here is a lot of talk within the music industry about value. Whether it’s contrasting the collapse of live activity with the seemingly unstoppable surge in recorded/streaming
sales (two sides of the Covid-19 crisis), or Tom Gray’s #BrokenRecord campaign, the music industry as a whole is well overdue a discussion about where the money comes from, what we use it for and where it goes? In the Grassroots Music Venue (GMV) sector, the Music Venue Trust has been working on this issue for some years as part of a project that cuts across every aspect of our work and industry. It broadly sits under one key question: What happens to a Grassroots Pound?
When someone hands over £1 towards a ticket, where does it go? The Grassroots Pound is a good construct for considering whether the money we receive is going to where we, as venue operators and as an industry, want and need it to go. GMVs have a specific purpose – they are the research and development department of the UK’s £5.8 billion a year music industry, investing over £160 million every year into the incubation of new British talent, including both frontline performing artists and the supporting cast of production, technical and logistics crews. There are 12,051 people with direct jobs in this sector, which delivers 231,379 performances every year, with a total gross turnover of £371 million – including £129 million in ticket sales. To achieve their purpose, GMVs need to support the ecosystem through investment in new talent, creative careers, and local economy jobs. A GMV that can make these robust investments is an incredibly effective model of research and development, acting on behalf of the whole music industry. You do not need me to highlight what artists have been telling you for ages: every act has a tale about the first gig that inspired them, the first stage they stood on, the first sold-out audience they played to. A question I have been asked more than any other in my 35 years at the coalface of the GMV sector is, “Why don’t artists, performers and songwriters get paid more?”
Music Venue Trust CEO Mark Davyd’s monthly deep dive into live music’s biggest issues...
SPREADING POUNDS NOT HUMMUS
government should do – and does do, for every other industry. That’s 16.6p gone from the Grassroots Pound before we start. Similarly, Business Rates is an outdated and counter-intuitive local taxation mechanism, disproportionately penalising GMVs because they don’t fit into any category of usage the government understands. That’s another 6p gone. We’ve barely let the customer in the room and we only have 77.4p left. That hummus is looking quite costly. This is not solely down to government, who are easy targets for calls for change. We need to tackle our own big challenges and make sure that every pound we raise is making a meaningful contribution. And within the grassroots sector, the biggest challenge comes in the form of ownership.
“Every penny that goes to a private commercial landlord is money that cannot be
invested into performers and songwriters” MARK DAVYD MUSIC VENUE TRUST
There is a constant tussle between artists, agents, managers, promoters and venues on this question, with everyone fixated on the small details: the £3.99 pot of organic hummus on an artist’s rider that no one eats, or the £50 national advert that no-one sees. The Grassroots Pound is a project which can
actually tell us the big answers. By analysing data from over 900 such venues, we can understand exactly where each pound spent at the door is going, and we can articulate with clarity what is left to invest in artists. Understanding this is the key to changing it, so let’s start with the easy wins that government should immediately act on. VAT applied to a research and development department via ticket sales is a ludicrous tax mechanism. It is literally the opposite of what
Around 93% of GMVs are tenants, meaning they are paying out commercial rents to a landlord that has no interest in the investment chain vital to our industry. The music industry is unique within the creative industries in its approach to ownership of the cultural infrastructure it requires. We permit commercial landlords to profit from the spaces where we work. Theatres, opera houses, arts centres and museums, in stark contrast, are overwhelmingly owned for the public benefit by a variety of differing models, none of which remove value from their supply chains. Every penny that goes to a private commercial landlord is money that cannot be invested into performers and songwriters. In the 93% of venues that are tenants, this represents 14p out of every Grassroots Pound. These three issues alone represent 36.6p of every Grassroots Pound. Our customer, who thought their money was helping us to support talent, hasn’t heard a note yet and over a third of their money has already left our industry. Across the GMV sector it represents £136 million every year we could be investing in new talent that we have instead allowed to leave the sector.
As we emerge from this pandemic, we need to consider why artists and crews were so unprotected and unprepared to weather this storm? In our sector, the answer must include tackling fundamental issues of taxation and ownership that restrict our ability to invest. We need to address these big three issues head on and ensure that every pound we raise is having the maximum impact where it is needed: supporting the next wave of British talent.
And after we’ve done that, we can discuss whether or not artists really need that tub of uneaten hummus to make the show work.
musicweek.com
Music Week | 43
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