Culture Committee report on grassroots live music - statements

UK Music Interim Chief Executive Tom Kiehl said: 
“Grassroots music venues are a crucial part of the music industry’s ecosystem and have been faced with a series of unprecedented threats for a number of years. We welcome the House of Commons CMS Committee taking the opportunity to consider the challenges these venues and the artists that tour in them face. We hope that many of the Committee’s recommendations, which echo UK Music’s A Manifesto for Music and campaigns such as the FAC’s 100% Venues, lead to positive interventions from government, as well as building on previous steps it has taken to protect this fragile part of the music sector.”

Mark Davyd – CEO & Founder, Music Venue Trust said:
"Music Venue Trust warmly welcomes the Culture Media and Sport Select Committee's Report into the challenges facing Grassroots Music Venues. We want to thank the Committee MPs and the CMS team for their excellent work in understanding and considering these challenges, and the clear recommendations they have created to address them. 

These recommendations provide a clear pathway forward to a positive future for the UK's Grassroots Music Venues, a set of actions that are deliverable, affordable, and will genuinely have a positive impact on live music in communities right across the country. We look forward to working with the music industry and with the government to deliver on these recommendations as swiftly as possible.

We would like to thank all the thousands of music fans that have supported our work across the last ten years. It has taken much longer than any of us would have liked to get the positive change we all wanted to see, but we could not have achieved this fantastic outcome without your continued support for your local live music venue. "

Jon Collins  - CEO, LIVE said:
"LIVE welcomes this considered, knowledgeable and wide-ranging report. It's clear that the Committee has recognised the many challenges faced by venues, promoters, events and artists at the grassroots level, and the steps required to address them. 

LIVE set out to the Committee the actions we believe that the government needs to take to help unleash the economic potential of the sector, such as a reduction in the damaging and uncompetitive rate of VAT on tickets, as well as the actions that sit with us as an industry, notably the creation of a charitable arm, the LIVE Trust. 

We are pleased that the Committee's report addresses both of these matters positively and has entrusted our sector to implement the industry-led solution of a voluntary levy on arena and stadium tickets, gathering and distributing funding that will benefit the whole grassroots music ecosystem. We look forward to working with government on the review of VAT and regularly updating on our progress on the LIVE Trust."