Feargal Sharkey, chairman of the snappily titled Live Music Forum, has announced his group's intention to survey over 1300 music industry practitioners on the state of live music in the UK.
In what Sharkey reckons may be the biggest such survey ever undertaken in the global music industry, research firm MORI will conduct 45 minute interviews with 1300 people across the live sector, including venue owners, promoters, agents and musicians. The aim is to assess the issues affecting live music and the people that work in the industry, and to see if government or commercial players can do anything to ensure the live community continues to prosper at all levels.
Sharkey writes in Music Week: "This is an extremely important part of our work as it will help provide, not only the baseline data for other research we will be carrying out early next year, but also it will help provide us with an overview of the current makeup and shape of live music in England and Wales".
The Live Music Forum was set up with government support to promote live music in England and Wales, and to monitor the effect of recent licensing legislation on the live sector.
Anyone interested in being involved should contact the forum at [email protected].