Skiddle has announced a new partnership with the Music Venue Trust which will see the ticketing company add a 50p levy to ticket sales to support grassroots music venues.
All funds raised through the levy will be matched by Skiddle, doubling the amount of financial support. It also plans to offer further assistance to small venues through a number of other schemes, which will include offering a share of booking fees and free marketing support.
Founded in 2001, Skiddle has sold over seventeen million tickets to date, so by our estimates this partnership could be worth anywhere from £300,000 to more than £500,000 a year to MVT and the venues it represents.
“The situation for grassroots music venues is critical”, says Duncan King, Head Of New Business at Skiddle. “As an independent business within the music industry, we understand the pressures that our grassroots venues are under better than most”.
“Our partnership with the MVT”, he goes on, “will provide essential funds to keep culture thriving in the UK. This partnership serves as a call to action for the entire music industry. It’s time to stand up and act. We hope to be the catalyst for change across the whole industry”.
Music Venue Trust CEO Mark Davyd adds: “This is an incredibly important step from Skiddle which will be warmly welcomed by the whole grassroots music sector. It demonstrates that positive change is possible. We hope many other companies will be inspired to follow this groundbreaking initiative”.
The Skiddle partnership follows the announcement last week that the UK Parliament’s Culture, Media And Sport Select Committee plans to review the financial issues faced by grassroots music venues. Speaking at MVT’s annual Venues Day conference in London, committee Chair Caroline Dinenage MP said that there will soon be a call for evidence as part of the review, ahead of a full hearing.
“One of the pillars during my campaign to become the Chair of the select committee was to say that we need to do a full review of grassroots music venues in the UK, the challenges that they are facing, but also what the opportunities are and what more we can do to support them”, the MP stated. “And that's what our committee has agreed to do”.
“We will be announcing a call for evidence quite soon and then, probably just after Christmas, we'll start taking live evidence from people as well”, she went on. “We will then work to produce a full report and to put forward recommendations. It will be recommendations not just to the government, but also to the industry and recommendations for local authorities”.
The findings are expected to be published in 2024.
