Written evidence submitted by the Featured Artists Coalition and Music Managers Forum
FAC/MMF submission - DCMS Inquiry: The Future of UK Music Festivals
The Music Managers Forum and Featured Artists Coalition are pleased to submit evidence to the DCMS committee inquiry into the future of UK music festivals.
About us:
The Music Managers Forum is a community of more than 1000 music managers based in the UK who collectively manage global businesses on behalf of thousands of artists and songwriters, from new and alternative talent to some of the world’s biggest music stars. Our members represent artists including Biffy Clyro, AJ Tracey, Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran, Nile Rodgers, Robbie Williams, PJ Harvey, Peggy Seeger, Izzy Bizu, Paul McCartney, Arctic Monkeys, Bill Ryder-Jones and Blue Lab Beats.
The Featured Artists Coalition is the UK trade body representing the rights and interests of music artists. The FAC was founded in 2009 by a group of artists including Billy Bragg and Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason. Today the FAC continues to serve a diverse membership of creators at all career stages, driven by a board of directors and an army of ambassadors both entirely made up of artists including Imogen Heap, Ed O’Brien (Radiohead), Sandie Shaw, Jack Savoretti, Aluna, Skin (Skunk Anansie), Ghostpoet, Johnny Marr, David Rowntree (Blur), Paloma Faith and Katie Melua.
Introduction:
The UK’s music industry is a national and global success story. UK Music’s latest Music By Numbers (MBN)1 report demonstrates that in 2019 the UK music industry grew by 11% on 2018, contributing £5.8 billion in GVA to the UK economy. It also shows that the UK industry was responsible for almost £3 billion of exports in 2019. This was heavily driven by the impact of the live music, the same report also highlighted that 2019 saw a 6% increase in festival attendance on the previous year. LIVE, the group representing the live events industry in the UK reported that in 2019 live music events contributed £4.5 billion to the UK economy along with 210’000 full time equivalent roles, in its Cliff Edge Report (CER)2.
Artists sit at the very core of this business with MBN reporting that music creators, including artists, contribute almost half of the economic value, a far greater proportion than any other sector (live music, publishing, recorded music, music representatives and music retail). For this reason, it is vital that a fund is put in place to support workforce and individuals. The FAC, the MMF and other Council of Music Makers members (Musicians’ Union, Ivors Academy and Music Producers’ Guild) have repeatedly called for this support.
Furthermore, beyond the economic impact, the UK’s industry provides an incredible boost to the UK’s soft power and global influence. The Soft Power 303 places the UK at number two of the most powerful nations, driven by the impact that the UK’s music industry has. At a point where the UK aims to establish its reputation and influence as an independent nation, this power will be critical, and the UK’s music industry, artists, festivals, venues and Iive events will be key in asserting the UK’s position.
1 https://www.ukmusic.org/research/music-by-numbers-2020 2https://concertpromotersassociation.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/REPORT_UK-Live-Music- at-a-Cliff-Edge.pdf 3 https://softpower30.com/ The combination of the UK’s artists and its festival season has become an iconic calling card for the country, whether that’s The Who at the Isle of Wight Festival, Florence and the Machine at British Summer Time, Calvin Harris at Creamfields or Stormzy and Adele at Glastonbury, the contribution to our cultural identity is immeasurable. Indeed the impact of this year’s #LetTheMusicPlay campaign was evidence of this reputation, as icons from around the globe including The Rolling Stones, Cher and Dua Lipa showed an outpouring of support for the UK’s industry and its unchallenged musical standing. However, this standing is not a given and the industry needs support to maintain its position.
The impact of COVID-19:
COVID-19 has had a catastrophic impact on almost all sectors of the UK economy, however few have been decimated in the same way as live music. It was the first sector to be impacted and is likely to be the very last to exit and return to normal. Despite the success story of the UK’s music industry, artists and festivals up to 2019, 2020’s figures will provide a stark contrast with festivals having seen a 90.2% drop in revenue in 2020.4
MBN and CER predict that, as a result of the pandemic, revenues from overall live activity for 2020 will decline by between 81%-85%. They forecast that the impact of COVID-19 on music creators’ income in 2020 will be an average 65% fall, with MBN suggesting the loss will rise to 80% for those more reliant on live activity. For some artists who rely very heavily on live income this will be even higher than 80%.
The MMF and FAC’s initial COVID-19 survey5 in April and May showed that the pandemic had affected 93% of respondents’ live and touring, 2700 shows were cancelled and almost £70m was lost in income across just 188 respondents.
A Musicians’ Union survey6 showed that 70% of musicians are undertaking less than a quarter of their usual work with more than half of those surveyed being required to take other work outside of music and 71% considering leaving the industry.
The role of festivals in artists careers:
Festivals play a critical role at all stages of artists’ careers. In a recent select committee hearing into the economics of music streaming, artists Ed O’Brien (Radiohead), Nadine Shah and Guy Garvey (Elbow) all highlighted the importance of festivals in growing their careers, developing their fanbases, providing crucial live experience and supporting them financially. The discussion specifically referenced the impact of Brexit in 2021 and the risks which any barrier to touring in Europe will have beyond 2021. Ed O’Brien directly commented that without festivals there would be no Radiohead.
Many artists and their teams will schedule a whole year of activity around the festival season. This may see artists plan album release dates or large commercial announcements to coincide with high profile festival performances. For many artists and their teams, it is often this period of time in which they will expect to make the large majority of their income for a full 12 month period.
Not only do festivals support artists and musicians through the fees they provide but they also generate royalties beyond the performance fee and drive physical sales of music and merchandise. They provide a platform where talent is discovered and where artists can
4https://concertpromotersassociation.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/REPORT_UK-Live-Music- at-a-Cliff-Edge.pdf 5 https://themmf.net/site/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/MMF-info-deck-may-2020-results.pdf 6https://completemusicupdate.com/article/a-third-of-music-makers-now-considering-quitting-the- music-industry-as-a-result-of-covid-says-mu/ drastically increase their public profile often opening up a huge potential of broader commercial opportunities.
It is important to note that festivals and live activity in general provide much of the fuel to support the wider music ecosystem. It is often this activity that provides both the financial and the inspirational capability for artists to go on to record the music which provides the value to the UK’s recorded sector.
Wider festival impact:
The impact of barriers for inbound talent from overseas post 2020, cannot be underestimated. UK festivals rely on their global reputation to draw fans nationally and internationally, and a continued ability to attract the very best talent from across the world will be vital to maintaining the UK’s reputation. A vibrant UK festival circuit which attracts the world’s best talent provides direct economic value alongside the wider local impact, with a suggested £17 being spent in the local economy for every £10 spent on a music event ticket.7 Reports suggest that Glastonbury festival alone contributes over £100 million to the surrounding local economy per year.8
Whilst artists play a central role to the live industry and receive much of their income from this sector, this provides only a part of the picture. A festival performance will engage managers, agents, promoters, engineers, production services and wider suppliers such as catering services.
UK Music has begun to set out it’s live music strategy, recognising the importance of the sector to the whole of the music industry’s ecosystem. This has been laid out in the UK submission to this inquiry. Festivals play an integral role in the live sector, forming an important part of the wider commercial music ecosystem, this is indicative of the interconnected nature of the UK’s music industry.
Next steps:
As mentioned above, the UK’s music industry came together to support the #LetTheMusicPlay campaign in July. The campaign set out a number of asks9 many of which remain critical to supporting the industry, including festivals, back to full capacity post pandemic. Government must support a return to live with:
- Targeted financial support for those not able to work - a ring fenced fund for freelance workforce as in Scotland and Wales. - A reopening (“not before”) date. - A Government backed events insurance scheme. - VAT rate reduction on tickets extended beyond 31 March 2021. - Rollover paid 2020 license fees for festivals to 2021. - Business rate relief for venues extended for 2021/22 and 2022/23 financial years and removal of festival sites on agricultural land from the business rates system.
7http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/digital-culture- media-and-sport-committee/live-music/oral/91709.pdf 8https://theconversation.com/glastonburys-festival-economics-signals-hope-for-entrepreneurial-spirit- 60747 9 https://www.ukmusic.org/policy/let-the-music-play/ Whilst the measures that have already been put in place by Government have been welcome they do not go far enough. With 72% of the music industry’s workforce being self employed10, the self-employed income support scheme (SEISS) was welcome news, however as pointed out by this DCMS Select Committee11 only a third of the workforce in music has received this help. Too many artists have been ineligible either because they are single director limited companies, their income was above the eligible threshold, they had portfolio incomes or they were not registered in time.
The Culture Recovery Fund was also welcome, providing a lifeline for a number of festivals, venues and other organisations, however the eligibility criteria meant that individuals were largely unable to apply.
The industry needs some certainty in order to plan for a strong exit from the pandemic and to provide the greatest chance of a robust bounce back, which is why an insurance policy is critical. This will be needed as early as the first half of January 2021 if there is hope of saving the UK’s full festival season.
When live activity starts to return to normal however, it is vital that the workforce which sits at the centre of UK festivals’ success are in a position to bounce back with it. Most of our members have not received CRF funding, business rates relief, access to furlough or local authority grants, which is why a credible package of support for artists and their teams must be central to any plans to reinvigorate the UK’s envied festivals.
10 https://www.ukmusic.org/assets/general/Music_By_Numbers_2019.pdf 11 https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/e0c11fd2-c610-4dfc-be42-24709bb089a6