TJ Chambers
(c) Watchmen / Warner Brothers / Screenrant
Following last weeks ‘Bad-News’ Re-Post (https://tjchambers.blog/2024/10/09/ticketing-the-bad-news-business-2023-repost/) perhaps it’s time for some positivity, Some tales of progress, uplifting achievement, or inspiration.
But first.
Two music ecosystems? Where’s the disconnect?
Sean Adams (Founder Drowned in Sound, artist manager and record label boss) in his 26th September newsletter ‘Boom-Clap: Live Music’s Riddle Unravelled’ (https://www.drownedinsound.org/boom-clap-live-musics-riddle-unravelled/) talked about the disparity between the record revenues, operating income, food & beverage spending, sponsorship and ticketing fees as routinely declared by Live Nation whilst ‘these numbers are in stark contrast to the ongoing struggles below the surface of the stadium and arena circuit.’
He quoted the statistic from the Music Venue Trust (MVT) that ‘an average of two live music spaces in the UK closed every week in 2023’.
He also highlighted that the NightTime Industries Association (NTIA) reported in the first quarter of 2024 ‘67 nightclubs have shut down, averaging approximately five club closures per week’.
And lastly, he quotes the information from the Association Independent Festivals (AIF) who reveal that ‘192 UK festivals have disappeared since 2019’.
He further states that ‘there’s a buried crisis in live music’ and that action is urgently needed from the industry, government, practitioners and fans to ensure the survival of the whole music ecosystem and not just for the benefit of tier #1 international touring spectacles.
So, who is answering this call-to-action.
Who is stepping up, and proactively changing the status quo, building new business models, challenging expectations, and circumventing the trickle-down mentality of the traditional live music sector.
Some notable, and perhaps unlikely candidates, include Cardiff Council, the Music Venue Trust and FFWD London.
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‘Reasons to be cheerful … 1, 2, 3’
[No links whatsoever to the David Byrne website (https://reasonstobecheerful.world/) or the Ian Dury & The Blockheads ‘Reasons To Be Cheerful, Part 3’ (Stiff Records, 1979)]
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#1: Cardiff Music City (https://cardiffmusiccity.wales/)
Not just another newcomer in the UK festival marketplace but the culmination of a multi-year campaign, initiated in 2017 to protect the local music venues and clubs located in/around Womanby Street.
The grassroots lobbying directly led to Cardiff Council recognising the value of this ‘cultural quarter’, who then engaged Sound Diplomacy (https://www.sounddiplomacy.com/) the global creative industries research and strategic development agency, whose Chairman and Founder is Shain Shapiro, to then produce the Cardiff Music Strategy (https://www.cardiffnewsroom.co.uk/releases/c25/21338.html) published in April 2019.
The report’s twelve recommendations to help protect and promote music at all levels in the Welsh capital included the formation of the Cardiff Music City festival (https://cardiffmusiccity.wales/).
Running from 27th September – 20th October and involving a range of venues from the Utilita Arena Cardiff, Llandaff Cathedral, Wales Millennium Centre, The Great Hall, Tramshed, Clwb Ifor Bach, CULT VR, Cornerstone, The Moon, Fuel, Porters and Depot, whilst also incorporating the new music festival Sŵn, and WMC’s international arts weekend Llais.
With aspirations to be something more than a (great) series of events, ‘it intends to act as a catalyst for industry change, to discover who is pushing at the boundaries of music innovation, performance and tech, to refocus attention on the mercurial power and potential of creativity, and take curious, hungry, open-minded audiences along for the ride.’
For further information about the fall and then rise of Cardiff’s music scene read Sophie Williams’ report ’In 2017, Cardiff’s music scene was collapsing. What’s the secret of its amazing revival?’ – https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/oct/01/cardiff-music-scene-revival-welsh.
And if you don’t already have a copy of Shain Shapiro’s book ‘This Must Be The Place: How Music Can Make Your City Better’ (Repeater Books) get yourself a copy: https://repeaterbooks.com/product/this-must-be-the-place/.
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#2: Music Venue Trust
Following on from the recent announcement by Coldplay to donate 10% of all profits from their 2025 UK stadium shows to the Music Venue Trust (MVT) to provide a lifeline for new talent and grassroots venues (https://www.musicvenuetrust.com/2024/09/coldplay/), the promoters (SJM Concerts, Metropolis Music and Live Nation), the band’s booking agent (WME), the venues (Wembley Stadium and Hull Craven Park) and the official ticket agents (Ticketmaster, See Tickets and AXS) have all announced their intention to similarly follow suit.
In other news Music Venue Properties (https://www.musicvenueproperties.com/) (MVP) the Charitable Community Benefit Society created by MVT in 2021 announced the third venue acquisition under its ‘Own Our Venues’ scheme.
Having previously acquired The Snug in Atherton (https://www.thesnugbar.co.uk/) and The Ferret in Preston (https://theferret.live/), it has now added The Bunkhouse (https://www.thebunkhouseswansea.com/), a 235-capacity live music venue, rehearsal space and photography studio in the heart of Swansea city centre.
And at the 10th annual MVT Venues Day (https://www.musicvenuetrust.com/2024/07/venues-day-2024/), which brought together it’s biggest delegate list, ever. And the largest number of grassroots music venues in one room, anywhere in the world, ever. Whilst acknowledging that the sector is still in crisis there was greater optimism about the positive changes underway, ever.
As noted by Denzil Thomas in his LinkedIn post (https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7249868380566884353/) the conference also brought together many commercial partners, sponsors and advertises, who are attracted to work with the grassroots venue sector, not just because it’s good for (their) business, but because the cause is just.
So honourable mentions to the various ticketing partners, clothing sponsors, soft drinks and spirits suppliers, event discovery apps, audio recording specialists and musical equipment suppliers. Thanks for your support of MVT in their drive to protect and then grow the grassroots venues sector and their platform for new and emerging talent.
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#3 FFWD London (https://ffwd.events/ldn25)
Chris Carey, the founder of FFWD (when he’s not being a noted music data scientist for various organisations) has long championed the development of the next generation of music executives with a progressive and inclusive programme of talks, sessions and conferences over a number of years, in London, Amsterdam and Sydney.
These events have always positively impacted attendees and speakers (’aimed at connecting the people driving positive change in the music industry’) and arguably also spurred other events to introduce a new strand of future-facing programming to their own conferences and panel programming.
Next February’s conference in London (4th-5th Feb 2025) will similarly connect, engage, and inspire the next generation of music leaders, and from the choice of ticketing partner – Different Breed (https://differentbreed.events/) – the essential difference of this music business event from others is immediately apparent.
Different Breed is all about accessible ticketing, that’s built around disabled customer needs. Either run as a standalone solution, catering to all attendees or alongside pre-existing ticketing partners to offer a best-in-class experience to disabled attendees.
FFWD London 2025 will offer a diverse range of thought-evoking panels and keynotes, helping to bring about some of the change in the music ecosystem needed as identified in the Drowned In Sound Op-Ed at the top of this post.
See you there.
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Until next time.
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TJ_Chambers 