The UK government has clarified, a little, the timeline for the live music industry to put in place a voluntary ticket levy scheme to support grassroots venues and shows, having previously said it wants the levy to “come into effect as soon as possible for concerts in 2025”.
In a new letter to Parliament’s culture select committee, culture minister Chris Bryant writes, “we want to see tangible progress across the music industry by the first quarter of 2025”. To help make that happen, the government is convening a meeting of live music industry representatives next week, before the Christmas break.
Culture committee Chair Caroline Dinenage MP has welcomed that timeline, saying it should “help focus the minds of the big players in the music industry on the urgency of taking action to support our grassroots music sector”, and adding that “the ball is now very firmly in their court and we will continue to keep a very close eye on progress”.
The select committee published a report in May calling on the industry to set up a levy system with a small charge applied to tickets for arena and stadium level shows to generate funds to support venues, promoters and artists operating at the grassroots. That levy proposal followed an earlier inquiry in which MPs were told that, while the upper end of live music has fully bounced back since the pandemic, the grassroots end of the sector is in crisis.
The government formally responded to the select committee report last month, with a statement that endorsed the planned levy system, saying that the industry should get something up and running “as soon as possible for concerts in 2025”, adding that if that didn't happen ministers would use their “convening powers” to kickstart the process. The select committee then asked for a little more clarity as to what “as soon as possible” meant.
Most venues and promoters at the upper end of the sector support the idea of a levy in principle, but a number of people have said that it should be something artists playing arenas and stadiums opt into. Various organisations representing artists and grassroots venues say it must apply to all stadium and arena shows as a blanket levy with no opt-in or opt-out.
If the industry does come to agreement on how a live music levy on tickets would work, it will also need to work out how to distribute money generated through the levy to artists, promoters, venues and other participants in the grassroots live ecosystem.
Cross-sector trade group LIVE has already set up a charitable trust in anticipation of a levy being put in place that would receive the funds generated. However a system for making the money available to venues, promoters and artists will also need to be agreed, which may prove trickier than getting the levy across the line.
Ensuring that government pressure is felt by the sector, Bryant’s letter adds, “We have set out clear expectations on the timetable for progress, and we reserve the right to return to this matter if no satisfactory progress is made”. The select committee has also revealed that it will hold another hearing on the matter in the middle of 2025 “should no significant progress on a voluntary levy be made”.