Created as a campaigning organisation to secure support during Covid, lobbying for change remains central to LIVE’s work. Our policy priorities come from the work of our LIVE Board and sub-groups:
LIVE Festivals: an opportunity for all across the UK festival industry to engage in dialogue with Government.
LIVE Green: working to deliver LIVE’s net-zero pledge through information sharing, practical steps and operational changes.
LIVE Touring: a truly expert group tackling the current challenges of touring across the EU and beyond.
LIVE Venues: bringing together venue operators from grassroots, through mid-cap and concert halls and on to arenas with a common focus on delivering world class, safe and sustainable experiences.
LIVE Workforce: using a people focus and the breadth of LIVE’s network to address equality, diversity & inclusion challenges.
In addition to these standing groups LIVE will put together expert groups to support our work in other areas e.g. the planned protect duty legislation stemming from the Manchester Arena Inquiry.
Examples of previous campaigns include:
LIVE Green – Beyond Zero
LIVE has launched a sweeping industry campaign to deliver climate action, setting out the sector’s commitment to reach net zero emissions by the year 2030.
The campaign, fronted by LIVE Green – LIVE’s sustainability arm – builds on significant efforts across the sector to boost sustainability, ranging from the end of single use plastic at festivals to sector wide efforts to reduce the environmental impact of touring. The group will identify and signpost how live music businesses can accelerate their transition to a low carbon future, setting out a roadmap for action in line with the Paris Agreement on climate change.
All 14 association members of LIVE have ratified the Beyond Zero Declaration, a voluntary sector-specific commitment to deliver measurable and targeted action on climate change, with the ultimate aim of reaching net zero emissions by 2030. You can view the declaration here.
The initiative will also provide research, expertise and cross-industry innovation in order to support the sector’s transition to a regenerative future. Members of LIVE Green’s working group include Julie’s Bicycle, AGreenerFestival, Hope Solutions, Vision: 2025, The Tour Production Group and a collective of like-minded professionals from the live music sector.
John Langford, AEG Europe COO and Chair of LIVE Green, said:
“We are now at a tipping point for our climate: this is not a rehearsal.
“We want to tap into the power of music to help deliver a step-change in the environmental impact of our sector – from carbon emissions through to plastic waste – helping us demonstrate that moving faster towards decarbonisation is a route to a competitive advantage.”
Tom Schroeder, Wasserman Music Agency, said:
“There can be no shying away from the environmental impact of our global business, and although there has been significant progress across the live music sector, now is the time to accelerate our efforts.
“By bringing together the active specialists and initiatives under one banner, LIVE Green is pioneering a means to fast-track decarbonisation across the sector through education, awareness and tangible action. We look forward to building on the sector’s progress so far, to make our low carbon future a reality. “
Previous research has shown that live concerts and performances generate 400,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions every year, with accommodation, merchandise, and promotions all contributing further.
There have already been considerable efforts across the sector to address these issues, including action across plastic waste, emissions and procurement. LIVE Green will facilitate further action and engagement through the provision of practical resources, on-going knowledge sharing, education and training alongside measurement tools to allow the business to study its progression towards a climate positive position.
LIVE Green also aims to ensure meaningful climate investments are made to achieve the sector’s collective targets in the short, medium and long term, establishing an industry-wide approach on permanent emissions drawdown by 2030.
International Women’s Day
International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.
LIVE joined in with the celebrations by amplifying its member Associations’ activity, highlighting women’s achievements across the industry with the hashtag #LIVEtogether, as well as through the official hashtags for International Women’s Day 2021 #ChooseToChallenge and #IWD2021.
Incredible women working across the live music industry have been profiled by LIVE’s member Associations which can be viewed here, or you can jump to each Associations page below:
ABO | AFO | AIF | AIP | BACH | CPA | FAC | MMF | MVT | NAA | PSA | TEAA | STAR
#KeepVATat5
2020 was one of the most difficult years ever for the live music industry, with a reduction of more than 80% in revenue across the industry. As one of the first industries to close and likely the last to reopen, the Cultural Recovery Fund was a lifeline for some businesses in our industry.
Alongside the CRF was a promised reduction in the rate of VAT on tickets sales down to 5%. This reduction would have kept over £300 million in our industry as we start to see a road out of this pandemic.
Reports appeared in the press that just at the moment we could be about to start selling tickets again, the Government is planning to raise VAT. Reversing this policy before we have been able to sell tickets in any meaningful volume would take millions from our industry when we need it the most.
We need your help to make sure the Government hears how vital this reduction in VAT is for the industry in the run up to the Budget at the beginning of March.
We are asking for you to do three very simple things:
1. Email your MP
We need to show MPs just how much support there is for this policy and recruit them as advocates for the industry.
Download this template letter and personalise it (or write your own) and email it to your MP. The template letter also includes instructions about how to find your local MP and submit your letter.
2. Spread the Message
Encourage your friends, colleagues, networks, mailing lists and audiences to do the same. If we are to be heard, it’s critical that everyone helps to spread the word.
3. Post your support #KeepVATat5
We need you to show the amount of support for this policy across the live music industry on social media.
- Post a graphic for the campaign – which you can download here
- Use the #KeepVATat5
- Use the key messages in your posts to show how much money the industry will lose if they reverse this policy
Key campaign messages:
- To support our industry during this crisis the Government reduced the rate of VAT on ticket sales to 5% but now want to increase this back to 20%.
- This increase in VAT will impact the entire ecosystem – the crews, the artists, venues and all employees – just when we need help to survive and recover the most.
- Increasing VAT by 300% at a time when the live music industry needs crucial support would be catastrophic for our recovery.
Right now financial support is vital to the survival of our iconic industry and helping through these two simple steps will keep pressure on the Government.
#LetTheMusicPlay
#LetTheMusicPlay was a cross-industry campaign calling for the UK Government to support our world class music scene. The first campaign on 1 July 2020 saw the UK’s live music industry, alongside all members of UK Music and broader recording and publishing sectors, unite: the UK’s music industry came together like never before.
Some incredible facts from the day include:
- The letter to Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden, was signed by over 5,000 artists, production crew, and venue owners and ran to 57 pages of A4.
- Coverage in every UK paper, every broadcast outlet, and in 83 countries worldwide.
- #LetTheMusicPlay achieved hundreds of millions of social media hits, trending at #1 globally on Twitter for 3 hours, and trending at #1 in the UK all day.
- An image of the hashtag was projected on venues across the UK – big and small – including the Royal Albert Hall, O2, Roundhouse, and London Palladium
The success of this campaign led to the announcement of the £1.57 billion fund that was announced by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport a week later. This announcement was brought forward and the fund was substantially increased to include live music following the campaign.
Subsequent #LetTheMusicPlay campaigns have focussed on the crew, touring personnel and production specialists that power every live show, and the hashtag is now synonymous with supporting live music and events across the country.
Updates on forthcoming campaigns will be posted here. Or for downloadable #LetTheMusicPlay social media icons and assets, please go here.
#LetTheMusicMove
Launched on June 23rd 2021, #LetTheMusicMove was an artist-led music industry campaign instigated by the Featured Artists Coalition and the Music Managers Forum pushing for a reduction in the costs and red tape faced by UK musicians and UK music businesses when full-scale live touring of Europe resumed.
More than 1,000 artists are backed campaign, including Little Mix, Orbital, Olly Murs, Sampha, Sleaford Mods, Alison Moyet, Nubian Twist, Bicep, AlunaGeorge, Niall Horan, Wolf Alice, Annie Lennox, Biffy Clyro, IDLES, Poppy Ajudha, Radiohead, Anna Calvi, Skunk Anansie, Laura Marling, Faithless, Everything Everything, Graeme Park, Bob Geldof, Katie Melua, Editors, Mark Knopfler, Two Door Cinema Club, Mr Scruff, Kelli-Leigh, Ward Thomas, New Order, Rick Astley, Ghostpoet, Midge Ure, Glasvegas, Anna Meredith, Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly, Nina Nesbitt, Keane, Erland Cooper, The Chemical Brothers, Matthew Herbert, Portishead, Blur’s David Rowntree, Gilles Peterson, Jack Garratt, Dave Okumu, Bill Ryder-Jones, Peggy Seeger, Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason and many, many others.
The campaign called on Government to deliver four immediate actions to help avoid an impending crisis:
- An urgent Transitional Support Package to cover new and additional costs for touring artists and crews in the EU
- Measures to overcome restrictive “cabotage” rules on UK vehicles touring Europe
- A viable long-term plan for UK artists and crew to continue working in all EU-27 countries, without costly permits and bureaucracy
- To ensure European artists have reciprocal freedoms and access to perform at UK venues and festivals
For further information, please see www.letthemusicmove.org
