Who are Music Venue Trust (MVT)?
“Music Venue Trust is a UK registered charity which acts to protect, secure and improve Grassroots Music Venues.”
musicvenuetrust.com (2024)
How can music make your city better?
I attended a book tour event at The Underground for Shain Shapiro’s book “This Must Be The Place”. It was mainly a panel of local music scene professionals answering questions from the audience about how to improve Bradford’s music scene. Attending were many professionals including Mark Dayvd the founder of Music Venue Trust. Here I was able to network with event organisers and tour managers such as Jim Mitcham, Gail Simpkins, and Sinead Campbell among others. It allowed me to get a better idea of the gaps in our local music industry and how we can improve during Bradford 2025, this knowledge will allow me to seek opportunities and involve myself as an industry professional when I progress from studying to working.
Grassroots venues, why do they matter?
According to the Music Venue Trust Annual Report for 2023, “16% (125 music venues) closed over the last 12 months” (an average of two per week). It also showed that out of the remaining open venues, “38% will be making a profit no larger than 0.5% despite a rise in ticket demand”. (Whittrick & Davyd, 2023)
In February, BBC posted an article about grassroots venues including a short interview with music fan, Matt Pugh. He likened these venues to churches and said, “[They are] a place of discovery, a place of reminiscing, somewhere to meet old and new friends”.
Another contributor to the article was Hannah Ryan. She stated the closure of venues is “fully detrimental to the livelihood of so many that work in the industry.” and further went on to say, “Grassroots venues in particular were a massive part of my growing up, discovering bands that were authentically themselves… if they didn’t get the chance to experiment in grassroot venues and they wouldn’t have built the fanbase they [have].” (Robinson, 2024)
Clearly, grassroots venues are important to people’s discovery of new artists but also they hold an important place in an artist’s journey.
Mark Dayvd of MVT took to X (formerly Twitter) to explain the importance of grassroots venues in the early stages of headliner careers with an edited Glastonbury poster.
Why are grassroots venues closing?
In the 2023 MVT annual report they mention rent prices for grassroots music venues have increased by an average of 37.5%, while energy costs continue to soar. So the cost-of-living crisis is affecting venues too. The manager of Hull’s Adelphi club told Big Issue, his energy bills had quadrupled in the last year. “We’re having to pay £800 electric instead of £200 electric every month.” However on the other end of the scale, industry Giants such as Live Nation have been profiting at an all-time high with a whopping “£6.4 billion” generated in the last quarter. “Massive tours from Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Madonna and Elton John made it a record-breaking year for profits in the live music industry.” (Kelly, 2024)
What is a ticket levy, and how will it help small venues?
Back in April, the culture minister Julia Lopez expressed sympathy as SNP MP Pete Wishart (formerly band member of Runrig) told the house of commons, “There’s now a growing consensus within the live music sector that a £1 levy should be put on large music venues and those who are making massive profits at live events.” Lopez agreed that a similar approach has worked in Premier League Football. (Wheeler, 2024).
MVT have come forward with a campaign to introduce a ‘voluntary’ £1 ticket levy to be paid on the “gross value of tickets sold at arenas and stadiums.” This could come from fans paying an additional £1 on their tickets or redistributed from the arenas themselves. In France, there is a “3.5% levy on concert tickets… which brings in €200 million for small venues.” Davyd pointed out that MVT was not requesting such a large scale but explained that the small fund the levy provided would allow venues to, “take risks with their programming and really give artists the first step on the ladder they need”. (Paine, 2024)
A £1 levy on arena and stadium tickets would give us a sustainable ecosystem
Mark Davyd, 2024
John Drury, the chair of the National Arenas Association, said, “the impact [of the levy] would be something like 20% of our profit”. He also explained that the “’Enter Shikari model’ would be the NAA members’ favoured approach to relieving pressure on grassroots venues.” Other suggestions have included a decrease in VAT. (Bakare, 2024)
Gary Roden (former executive director of Co-Op Live arena in Manchester) suggested some grassroots venues were “poorly run” despite the arena having to postpone their opening due to a multitude of problems. Davyd has criticised Roden, saying “the average age of artists booked to play Co-Op Live is 52: “The average length of time it takes for a British artist to be booked to headline the Co-Op Live Arena from the date of the release of their first album is 30 years. No British artist that started their career in the last decade is booked to headline the arena.”” Since saying this, Roden has resigned over the controversy (Rigotti, 2024). Davyd is meeting with the venue to rediscuss the levy after hearing of Billie Eilish’s included £1 donation to an “American environmental non-profit charity” in her ticket prices (Duran, 2024). She is due to perform 4 dates at Co-Op Live in 2025 (Eilish, 2024).
https://www.instagram.com/p/C6WKhxGrzQb/
Bibliography:
Bakare, L. (2024) Concert arenas urged to add £1 ticket levy to help small UK venues, The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/mar/26/concert-arenas-urged-to-add-1-ticket-levy-to-help-small-uk-venues (Accessed: 10 May 2024).
Davyd, M. (2024) Yesterday I was read a quote from a senior figure in the live music industry which ran as follows: ‘we don’t see any problems in the pipeline for developing the next Ed Sheeran’s ETC due to grassroots music venues closing, the headliners are still coming’i call bullshit. https://t.co/vGe4RlBUIx, Twitter. Available at: https://twitter.com/markdavyd/status/1768966642757673287?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1768966642757673287%7Ctwgr%5E90325252c0880ac59397a2839a1692d7c7876a78%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nme.com%2Fnews%2Fmusic%2Fthis-is-what-the-glastonbury-2024-line-up-would-look-like-without-grassroots-music-venues-3602233 (Accessed: 10 May 2024).
Duran, A. (2024) Billie Eilish announces ‘hit me hard and soft’ world tour dates in UK, North America, Europe and Australia, NME. Available at: https://www.nme.com/news/music/billie-eilish-announces-hit-me-hard-and-soft-world-tour-dates-in-uk-north-america-europe-and-australia-3751792 (Accessed: 10 May 2024).
Eilish, B. (2024) Billie Eilish on Instagram: ‘Hit me hard and soft: The tour. tickets on sale may 3rd 😋 pre-sale April 30th-May 1st! various pre-sales – details emailed ( @americanexpress card members will also have early access to a limited supply of tickets when using your Amex Card to buy tickets. ) C U then ;)’, Instagram. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/C6WKhxGrzQb/ (Accessed: 10 May 2024).
Kelly, L. (2024) At least two grassroots music venues closing each week, Big Issue. Available at: https://www.bigissue.com/culture/music/grassroots-music-venues-closing-mvt/ (Accessed: 10 May 2024).
McKinney, B. (2024) Music Venue Trust – Our Mission, Music Venue Trust. Available at: https://www.musicvenuetrust.com/team/ (Accessed: 09 March 2024).
Music Venue Trust (2024) 🔥 @entershikari have done what many people said no band of their size would do – support grassroots music venues by offering up a £1 levy on every ticket sold. their UK tour celebrating #1 album a kiss for the whole world kicks off soon – grab tickets at https://t.co/ztxivlyakr pic.twitter.com/vi4u8umcmb, Twitter. Available at: https://twitter.com/musicvenuetrust/status/1754945257970573489 (Accessed: 10 May 2024).
Paine, A. (2024) MPs investigate grassroots venue crisis: Could a £1 levy on Arena and stadium tickets be the answer?, Music Week. Available at: https://www.musicweek.com/live/read/mps-investigate-grassroots-venue-crisis-could-a-1-levy-on-arena-and-stadium-tickets-be-the-answer/089517 (Accessed: 10 May 2024).
Pilley, M. (2024) This is what the Glastonbury 2024 line-up would look like without grassroots music venues, NME. Available at: https://www.nme.com/news/music/this-is-what-the-glastonbury-2024-line-up-would-look-like-without-grassroots-music-venues-3602233 (Accessed: 10 May 2024).
Rigotti, A. (2024) Manchester’s co-op live agree to meet music venue trust to discuss £1 Ticket Levy, NME. Available at: https://www.nme.com/news/music/manchesters-co-op-live-agree-to-meet-music-venue-trust-to-discuss-1-ticket-levy-3752284 (Accessed: 10 May 2024).
Robinson, H. (2024) Grassroots music venues an ‘important part of British culture’, BBC News. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-68167420 (Accessed: 09 May 2024).
Wheeler, R. (2024) Government ‘very sympathetic’ to idea of ticket levy to help small music venues, Evening Standard. Available at: https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/government-snp-uk-parliament-richard-wheeler-europe-b1152342.html (Accessed: 10 May 2024).
Whittrick, B. and Davyd, M. (2023) Music Venue Trust Launch annual report, Music Venue Trust. Available at: https://www.musicvenuetrust.com/2023/01/music-venue-trust-launch-annual-report/ (Accessed: 10 May 2024).