AIP written submission to the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee Inquiry on grassroots music venues

Introduction to AIP

AIP is a vital network for exchange of information for over 150 UK-wide, grassroots music promoters. It formed in 2016 but came together more actively during the COVID-19 lockdown, as many small music promoters needed to seek support and funds.

The main aim of the Association is to develop a collective voice for independent promoters in key political and industry issues. In 2023, a major restructure of the organisation took place, with the appointment of nine board members following the exit of the founding Chair. This opened up the opportunity to establish a more diverse and representative organisation.

AIP cultural practitioners are a mixture of regionally-based freelancers, as well as in-house employees. The freelancer promoters hire venues and deal with programming, curation, ticketing, marketing, production and finance. In house promoters tend to focus exclusively on bookings/curation, but on a grassroots level also manage marketing and general liaison. The difference between regional grassroots promoters and national promoters is that regionals tend to focus on providing a platform for artists in a particular region, utilising their local networks, data and expertise to deliver the best events. Nationals book a series of shows, sometimes the whole tour of an artist across multiple venues UK wide. They also, for the most part, own a series of venues, multiple festivals and have a stake in ticketing companies.

On average, the majority of our members promote at 50–500 capacity venues; a smaller number promote large-scale shows of 5000+ capacity (Now Wave, 432, Brudenell, Joy, Bird On The Wire, etc.), and some promote large-scale outdoor shows and Festivals (Joy, 432, Bird On The Wire etc.). The diversity and make up of promoters is significant. They are not just entirely focussed on emerging, but at times bring completely through a musical life-cycle.

Regional promoters are agile, dynamic and hardworking, working long, unsociable hours (70 +hrs a week), especially during high season (spring/early summer and early autumn to early winter). They are at the heart of the community, with a strong connection to their local audiences, having nurtured and developed them to follow their brand of promoting. They provide a vital platform for grassroots artists, and experience for staff to experiment and grow skills to enable creativity to flourish, sometimes going beyond the grassroots level. Many of the local music scenes up and down the UK would not be thriving if it had not been for regional promoters. Many of our members volunteer their time, provide a key voice to local authorities and professional music bodies’ initiatives local to their areas (Music City project/Music Venue Alliances etc.).

Promoters’ contribution to the live music industry

‘We bring the colour and the life to venues’ (Nathan Clark: Brudenell Social Club, Leeds)

AIP members program 55% of the events at grassroots venues (Mark Davyd, Music Venue Trust). They have a symbiotic relationship with venues. Without promoters, there would not be the number of grassroots venues, development of artists or roles in the industry that there are presently.

Freelance promoters shoulder the financial burden of an event: they pay for the artists’ guarantee fee, venue hire, sound engineers, staff to manage the event, marketing, catering and other affiliated cost (see appendix A). For half of the 100 average events, our members (2023/4 AIP survey) are generally left in a financially precarious position, being the only one in the room not to get paid and more often than not losing money at grassroots venues. In effect, promoters are the silent funders, although we recognise that if the audience attendance is low, the venue’s bar income is also affected.

We are one of the largest employers of freelancers in the grassroots live music industry. Although many of our members run their organisations with one or two staff members, they hire on average 10+ freelancers (AIP Survey 2023) and provide the vital first step/entry level experience, enabling thousands of young people to enter the industry (Melting Vinyl blog).

Economics of grassroots events

Promoters shoulder the costs of grassroots events (see appendix A). In the present economic climate, with rising costs, grassroots shows are unbalanced with many breaking even or losing money. Due to the increased ticket prices, only super fans are the main audience. The inquisitive casual trade has been diminished. This has led to many of our members not taking a chance on emerging acts. Due to the promoters’ high volume of ticket sales, many (one third + of our members) are VAT registered. VAT further diminishes the promoters’ ability to take risk. On an average grassroots show, at £10 ticket, around one-fifth of the costs are VAT, over  £800 direct gig related costs, leaving no wage/income, but a loss, for the promoter (see appendix A).

The main issues facing our community of promoters

●        Due to the high losses sustained, a third of our members need to have other jobs to sustain their promoting, and work incredibly long hours.

●        The cost of living impacts grassroots events sales.

●        Downturn of artists touring outside of the A list cities due to costs of touring.

●        Civic/ACE funded venues have high commercially unviable hire costs with extra add ons that are not applied on the regular rock and pop chain of venues (ticket levy/credit card commissions). Note: AIP also understand that local councils are on their knees at the moment so can’t afford the discounts/high business rates.

●        Lack of training/support as freelance, hardly any of our members access training outside of our organisation (AIP Survey 2023)

●        There are fewer younger promoters; they are unable to afford the risk due to the cost of living etc.

●        Diversity and misogyny, less than 10% of our members are non-white males. Misogyny is still a barrier to promoters, especially females; many factors are highlighted in the misogyny in the music industry report; some key takeaways are the lack of diversity training, the lack of accountability and properly regulated bodies amongst freelancers. (Misogyny in the music industry report)

●        Due in part to COVID-19 and Brexit, there is a breakdown of the staffing supply chain; there are fewer tour managers and touring engineers now touring at the grassroots level.

●        There is a general lack of understanding of promoters' key financial contribution to the development and enrichment of the grassroots music ecosystem.

PRS

The unfair practices of payment for non-PRS registered artists means that our members pay royalties that do not get paid to the artists they are promoting.

PRS have a distinct approach to not embracing technological development when everyone else in the industry, and generally in the wider world, have done, i.e., reporting app.

This would give more accurate and rapid reporting of shows, attendance and set lists, direct from actual live playing members or venues.

Reporting is not digitised, without a (public) register of who are members/clients, and whom they are legally allowed to collect for.

What should happen to the non-distributable funds is that technically they should be handed back to the point of collection, not kept for their own organisation. Otherwise, this could be classed as fraud, as they are complicit in the collection of funds they have no legal right/claim to, and certainly shouldn't be given to other members who have no right to receive them.

PRS is far removed from their origins of providing in part an income for composers and artists’ sheet music who, in the main, needed their services as they were not present at the event (PRS-History Wikipedia). In present times, more often than not, the artists booked to perform are playing the original music and are paid a fee for their performance separately to PRS. On a successful show if PRS charge was not administered, the original artists would still potentially gain more money on the profit, if not a fixed fee deal (See Appendix A), especially as it would be without the admin fee levied from PRS.

VAT

This is a burden for the industry. During lockdown, the VAT rate at 5% enabled promoters to, as a result, cover costs and earn a small, but vital, income on profitable events. VAT is almost the equivalent of over two-thirds of the artist's fee on a grassroots level (Appendix A). Lowering the VAT would support promoters in reaching the breakeven point (i.e. covering costs) and reducing the risk.

An AIP member, as an example, was able to employ two more staff as a result (Nathan Clark, Brudenell Social Club) of the lower VAT tariff.

VAT cannot be reclaimed at the lower grassroots levels as many engineers and venues are not  VAT registered. Our members are promoting fewer shows and taking less risk in emerging artists to stay under the VAT threshold and therefore reducing their capacity to develop new talent: ‘VAT threshold always threatens, we have to curtail any expansion as we could not afford VAT registration’. (AIP survey 2023)

Other countries on the continent are more competitive with VAT on tickets being at a lower level: France 5.5 %, Belgium: 6%, Germany 7%, Italy 10%, which could be having an impact on less non-national touring in the UK.

Politically, Brexit (for or against) was supposed to allow the UK to be more agile and competitive. But in one of our greatest soft power exports, we are at a major disadvantage to other nations (competitors). Touring artists have to pay a certificate of sponsorship to enter the country (costing between £120/£150, Filippo Baraglia Annibale EU based agency), which is sometimes close to half of the artist’s fee, and they face high affiliated costs such as backline (drums/amps)/vehicle hire and fuel costs.

Ace funding

There are few areas for funding for promoters to access, and the forms tend to be a lengthy administrative burden to already overworked promoters, using a language that is difficult to navigate.

ACE has made some moves to make the application more accessible, which AIP welcomes, but it is still 50+ pages long and requires in-depth reporting, which creates a real barrier to access. A very low percentage of our promoters access funding (AIP survey 2023).

Venue closures

Closures of venues affect the development of promoters/artists/future talent and other related jobs in the industry and a place for the community to come together. An example of this is Club 85 in Hitchin (Hertfordshire), a three hundred capacity venue, which is now being turned into flats. Two of our members: Juicebox Live and The Pad promoters have had regular nights booked at this venue. The last night of venue will be 30 December 2024, no new venue plans in Hitchin have been announced (MVT report 2023).

Closure of iconic venues like Bath Moles will get the headlines due to the impact it has had on being part of the development pipeline for world leading artists. However, the closure of any venues or space providing the opportunity for cultural and career development is a disaster.

In towns where there is only one venue serving that community, if it closes, it’s very rare for another to take its place (Music venue Trust report 2023). This means that whole communities will lose the ability to experience music and culture and be inspired.

Summary: What AIP welcomes

●        An annual continuous pipeline investment such as stadium and arena levy, i.e., a ‘Supporting Grassroots Music Fund’, that would benefit the grassroots and be administered in a way that is equitably distributed between those key to the ecosystem, i.e grassroots venues (renovation, upkeep, support), promoters (to take the risk on emerging talent and support the employment pipeline of new cultural practitioners), artists (to be able to tour/produce new material), etc. Essentially AIP believe, should the industry gather round, then we could ensure through our expertise, any levy/support should end up in the right hands.

●        A reduced VAT rate in order that there is more money to pay for grassroots events and to prevent our members reducing their capacity to promote in order to stay under the VAT threshold, which has a knock on effect of the development of new acts.

●        A review of the way PRS charges/collects and distributes royalties.

●        AIP urges the committee to take action to preserve and to allow for a future for our vital research and development and community empowering supply chain in the grassroots music industry.

Appendix A

A typical gig costs on a grassroots level in the UK 2024: