Reflections on an imperfect normal: A Letter to the Future Music Industries

As industry bodies such as UK Music, Association of Independent Music (AIM), and the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) have clearly stated, the COVID-19 pandemic measures will have a potentially catastrophic impact on the live music and (in particular) the festival economies in the UK. Already facing significant issues relating to the UK’s departure from the EU and the closure of live music venues due to urban regeneration, the live music industry in the UK (worth £1 billion in 2019-UK Music 2019 1) now faces the costs of cancelled events, the financial burden of refunds and venue closures. Furthermore, the vast majority of music festivals are unprotected by insurance and (for some) ineligible for government support schemes (AIF 2020) 2. Beyond the festival stage, a whole swathe of music professionals have found their livelihoods decimated overnight, and the cultural and monetary value of their industry questioned by those in power. Many self-employed musicians, sound and lighting engineers, roadies and merchandisers, promoters and agents have found themselves slipping between the cracks of government provision, and music writers have been cut from media teams struggling to survive. The extent of the damage to a comparatively informal and fragile infrastructure-fuelled by the work of passionate and often precariously employed creatives-cannot be accurately plotted. However, we can be sure that the next two years represent a time of reckoning for the live music and festival economies, and signal the development of a very different industry landscape.