In his annual ‘Programme For Government’ address yesterday, Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney told the Scottish Parliament that his government will “support Scotland’s culture sector and creative industries”, promising that a review of funding body Creative Scotland “will be undertaken to ensure the appropriate approach is in place to meet the needs of the sector”.
More immediately, he also confirmed that “the resources required to enable Creative Scotland to continue the work of the Open Fund are now available”.
The announcement follows a recent open letter from the Scottish music community in response to the closure of Creative Scotland’s Open Fund for Individuals due to uncertainty regarding government funding, and the delayed reopening of other music funds. Those developments, the letter said, had “ignited the worst crisis that Scotland’s music and wider arts sector has ever faced”.
Speaking yesterday, Creative Scotland’s CEO Iain Munro said, “We welcome today’s confirmation of £6.6 million, originally committed to Creative Scotland by the Scottish Government at the start of the year”, adding that the funding body is experiencing “unprecedented levels of demand of the Open Fund for Individuals”.
Robert Kilpatrick, CEO of the Scottish Music Industry Association said, “We welcome today’s announcement from the First Minister, and we would like to acknowledge the efforts of [culture minister] Angus Robertson in ensuring that these vital funds remain available to support artists and creatives across Scotland”.
Confirming the news, Robertson said “Scotland’s culture is world-renowned and it remains integral to our nation and our economy”, adding, “I’m pleased to confirm release of £1.8 million to Creative Scotland for youth music, and another £6.6 million, which includes £3 million towards its Open Fund and £1 million for Screen Scotland”.
The investment that the Scottish government provides via Creative Scotland helps develop new work and enables a large number of artists and creative professionals to deliver meaningful economic impacts for the Scottish music industry and wider economy.
Research from the SMIA shows that, in 2018, the Scottish music industry generated an estimated £195 million for Scotland’s economy and contributed £406 million through music tourism. While that research focused on 2018 as a marker of the scope of the industry before COVID disruption, more recent research from UK Music showed that music tourism contributed £581 million to Scotland in 2022, with 1.5 million tourists attending live music events, or which 110,000 were from abroad.
The SMIA research - which was conducted by Dr Robert Allan as part of his PhD research project, ‘Mapping And Measuring Scotland’s Music Industries’ - also shows that there were 10,373 full-time equivalent jobs in the Scottish music industry in 2018, with the vast majority - around 9157 - carried out by freelancers who are reliant on government-led cultural investment programmes such as Creative Scotland’s Open Fund for Individuals to sustain their careers.
Speaking to CMU when the now-reversed closure of that fund was announced, Olaf Furniss, a director of Wide Days, Scotland’s music industry convention, said, “Our sector gave rise to the term ‘gig economy’ and looks set to remain the only one where the vast majority of professionals are excluded from job security, holiday pay and sick pay, in spite of making a huge contribution to the economy and to people’s wellbeing”.
He added, “Music intersects with many areas of society and it is time to take a look at how other countries ensure their sector thrives, as well as bringing agencies such as [Scotland’s economic development organisation] Scottish Enterprise and [national tourism organisation] VisitScotland into the conversation”.
The Scottish Music Industry Association warned of an “impending cultural catastrophe” after Creative Scotland announced on 22 Aug that it had “taken the difficult decision to close the Open Fund for Individuals to new applications” after the government was “unable to confirm release of £6.6 million” that was “previously committed at the start of the financial year”, and which was critical to its budget.
At the time, Creative Scotland’s Ian Munro said that “the level of uncertainty” around the availability of government funding was “creating critical problems” for the organisation’s ability to support creative practitioners in Scotland. The Open Fund for Individuals supports “the wide range of activity initiated by artists, writers, producers and other creative practitioners in Scotland”.
While yesterday’s announcement heads off, for now, what could easily have turned into a wholesale collapse of the Scottish music industry, there is still caution amongst the wider Scottish music community.
SMIA’s Kilpatrick says, “there is still no clarity with regard to the planned £25 million increase in cultural funding for 2025, which we called to be secured by the start of the new financial year. We need a firm assurance that sustained increased cultural investment will be available in the months and years to come. The events of the past fortnight are a stark reminder of the fragile environment in which our sector operates”.