FEATURE:
When Soft Voices Die
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A Bleak and Unsustainable Reality for Many U.K. Music Makers Because of Brexit
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ANY bad news…
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involving the music industry and artists struggling to make a living seems more heartbreaking and infuriating than any other (type of story). Recently, a survey was shared that was designed to show how Brexit had affected U.K. music creators. I am not sure what, if any, benefits Brexit has had for the U.K. When it comes to the art world and music, there seems to be only disadvantage, fewer opportunities than before, plus more restrictions and fewer rights for European artists trying to play in the U.K. Music Week report what the first-ever UK Musicians’ Census found. An industry that we need desperately and have to fund as much as we can to ensure it remains strong and long-lasting, the figures and realities coming out are grim and incredibly bleak:
“Last week a survey revealed the impact of Brexit on UK music creators.
Now there’s a further series of insights in the first ever UK Musicians’ Census. The results are based on detailed information provided by nearly 6,000 UK musicians, making it the largest ever survey of its kind.
The report by Help Musicians and the Musicians’ Union covers the demographic make-up of UK musicians, the barriers to career progression and economic challenges. Read on for more details…
Earnings
The first Musicians’ Census found that 70% of professional musicians in the UK hold a degree or higher (50% have a music degree specifically), and 65% have been earning musicians for over 10 years.
Despite this, the Census found that UK musicians’ average annual income from music work is £20,700 – with 43% earning less than £14,000 a year from music, meaning many are left supplementing their income in other industries. The average income for those making 100% of their income from music is around £30,000, which compares to the average median income in the UK of £33,280 (ONS), and the average salary for a working-age person with a degree in the UK of £38,500.
Nearly a quarter (23%) of musicians stated they do not earn enough to support themselves or their families and for nearly half (44%), a lack of sustainable income is a barrier to their music career. Some 17% of musicians also reported being in debt, rising to 30% amongst those with a mental health condition and 28% for Black/Black British musicians.
Portfolio careers
As a result of the income distribution described above, many musicians now have a portfolio career, which has a significant impact on their ability to further develop their long-term musical careers and access to opportunity.
Over half (53%) sustain their career by sourcing other forms of income outside of music – two thirds (62%) of these generate additional funds from alternative employment, but other sources of financial support include support from family and friends (14%), and Universal Credit or other benefits (12%). Three quarters (75%) of those who have other income in addition to music report only seeking this work for financial reasons.
Naomi Pohl, Musicians’ Union general secretary, said: “The first Musicians’ Census highlights the challenges musicians face carving out and sustaining a career as a musician in 2023. As the UK’s trade union for musicians, this Census will help us be more effective at representing our members and tackling the nuanced challenges different communities of musicians face.
“Whether that is working with the industry to improve diversity, negotiating better pay and conditions, or lobbying governments to secure the support our members need and deserve, the Musicians' Census gives us the vital data to take on these challenges on behalf of our members”.
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There is a lot to get your head round…but the long and short of it is that musicians, whether very experienced or newer, are not in a strong financial situation. The most alarming passage of that article was: “43% earning less than £14,000 a year from music, meaning many are left supplementing their income in other industries”. What Sarah Woods, chief executive of Help Musicians, said about musicians needing their constant and continued support. Maybe more experienced musicians or those without dependants are in a better position than some, yet the entire outlook and all those statistics show that a sustainable career in music is beyond most people’s reach. It is devastating to think that many will drop out of music or they have to take extra jobs to support themselves. It comes back to that caution parents have had for decades when their children say they want to pursue music as a career. That they cannot earn enough money and it is just a dream. That shouldn’t be the message any parent tells their child, and yet reports and surveys highlighting the low earnings of many musicians, sadly, gives them that ammunition. U.K. music makers are so important. There has been a lot of angry online react to these findings. That is understandable! There are already so many obstacles facing artists at the moment. Many are either unable to get enough gigs to support themselves, or they have to play longer sets and travel further in order to break even. Merchandise and music sales do help, though low streaming rates – often there is more emphasis on selling your music digitally rather than physically – mean that they often have to rely on narrow channels of revenue.
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The whole picture right now is quite frightening. With the cost of living being a big issue, how are U.K. musicians meant to earn enough money to ensure their career is viable and sustainable? I am not sure whether our current government realises the realities of a musician’s lives and why music makers in this country need more financial support. I think the way that music demand is more geared to streaming then physical sales is hurting a lot of artists. That pittance they earn from streams of their songs is feeble. That means they have to tour more, yet the cost of touring can mean they are starting at a loss or break-even when they finish. I want to go back to an article from The Guardian that highlighted how many artists are touring merely for exposure and not profit in this post-Brexit landscape:
“Then came the pandemic, which stopped gigs and heightened the demand for artists to self-promote. Once restrictions lifted, musicians resumed touring rabidly. “You rush back out and everyone’s rushing out,” says Santigold. “So I had a tour that had me making no profit – and possibly a loss – and the only incentive was to stay in the public eye. And that’s the biggest fear for any musician: if you are not constantly in people’s faces you will not last.”
For years it has been apparent that stresses in the live music industry needed to be addressed. The constant gripes about ticket prices suggested the finances were not working for anyone: from fans feeling they were being taken advantage of, especially with the introduction of dynamic pricing, to artists seeing ticket spend lining the pockets of touts and resellers. During the pandemic, some promoters I spoke to hoped that the pause in live performance might lead to a conversation about lowering artists’ fees. No one is winning.
The situation now is even grimmer, given the lifting of restrictions and the current economic crisis. British acts are facing the costs of Brexit on European touring, while Britain, always the short straw of the international touring circuit, with its low fees and mediocre artist support, is less appealing than ever for visiting acts. Audiences are feeling the pinch and the cost of touring utilities and infrastructure has risen.
“The supply is much more limited because so many people went out of business during the pandemic,” says Sumit Bothra, managing director of ATC Management, Europe, which has PJ Harvey and Katie Melua among its roster. “On top of that, a lot of venues closed, and a lot of promoters went out of business, so there’s increased demand there. A 20-date tour might now have to be a 10-date tour. And you need talented crew to put a show together, and a lot of crew left the business during the pandemic.” (It’s impossible to overstate how deep the effects of the pandemic run: earlier this year, the head of one arena show production business told me there was a real problem with finding the correct-sized bolts to construct a stage.)
The bottleneck of artists returning to the road has also made it challenging to route tours sensibly, one key way to keep a tour viable. It’s not just about the geography making sense – driving from London to Glasgow via Manchester rather than Southampton – but ensuring that days off are minimal since the crew still have to be paid and the artists still need per diems. With venues booked up, that is much harder now, says Mike Malak, an agent with Wasserman Music, who books Billie Eilish, Kelis and Pusha T, among others. “If you’re trying to put together a tour in Europe, if you don’t plan a year in advance, you can’t get the beautiful routing you want. A lot of artists are now accepting they might have to go a couple of days off or go longer distances between shows, which might mean two drivers – another cost.”
Artists’ fees, meanwhile, have remained the same, or worse. Catherine Anne Davies, who tours and records as the Anchoress, says she has had offers that were half the pre-pandemic level, despite acclaim for her 2021 album The Art of Losing. “When I toured my first album, every show made a loss,” she says, “but you’re building something and you think, next year we might do better. We’re not even starting from zero now, though. We’re starting from minus 20.” Maybe she could make it up by working her merch table harder, she says, but then she exposes herself to an increased risk of catching Covid – which would mean cancelling more shows, with no insurance to make up the shortfall”.
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The inequalities and limitations of streaming is another big reason why artists are not making enough. If there is this emphasis to get people streaming music and this is a more accessible route, which means the artist is not earning a great deal, is that something that needs urgent assessment and tackling?! Maybe not entirely relevant to the survey about U.K. musicians, I wanted to bring in a feature from the Washington Post from this year. Songwriter Erika Nuri Taylor, in spite of her success, says that a streaming age makes a music career even more unsustainable and risky:
“Nuri Taylor became a professional writer as an 18-year-old in 1992. When “you wanted to buy music, you had to go to the record store,” she said.
Then came Napster, the file-sharing app that disrupted the music industry. ITunes soon followed. It wasn’t perfect, but users still needed to purchase songs, which translated into somewhat traditional royalties. Soon, though, streaming dominated the market, with Spotify leading the pack. And royalties plummeted.
For each dollar of revenue earned on Spotify, 58.5 cents go to the owner of a song’s sound recording (usually a record label), Spotify keeps 29.38 cents, 6.12 cents go to whoever owns publishing rights (usually the songwriter) and 6 cents goes to whoever owns the mechanical rights (usually the songwriter), according to 2016 research by Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, a professional services firm.
IN THIS PHOTO: Nuri Taylor says, "I got my real estate license, because I thought I’m not going to be able to sustain being a creative person, a songwriter, for the next 10 to 15 years if nothing changes in the music industry/PHOTO CREDIT: Sean Scheidt for The Washington Post
For various complicated reasons — including Spotify’s cut, and the large number of streams it takes to get to that dollar — this scheme leads to less money for musicians, experts say. (A Spotify spokesperson said the figures in the 2016 study are roughly correct but did not respond when asked for further comment.)
Things worsened for all creatives, but they grew particularly dire for songwriters, who have long missed out on some potential sources of revenue available to performers, such as touring and merchandise. Then there’s the lag time between doing the work and getting paid for it. “If I write a song, it may take a year for that song to come out on an artist’s album,” Nuri Taylor said. Even then, the royalty payment isn’t instantaneous.
“We’re getting … the mechanical or streaming royalties, which is like nothing,” Nuri Taylor said. “At least before, we were getting paid when people bought an album or a vinyl record or a CD or they downloaded a song. But now that revenue has been cut drastically.”
“Five years ago, I started looking at my income,” she added. “I saw my royalty revenue pretty much cut in half.”
So, three years ago, “I got my real estate license, because I thought I’m not going to be able to sustain being a creative person, a songwriter, for the next 10 to 15 years if nothing changes in the music industry.” The job allows her the flexibility to write songs, which she does, but at this point, “I’m pretty much a full-time real estate agent”.
So many musicians are also producers and have many hats. They promote themselves and almost take on a whole team’s responsibility. Many artists play multiple instruments, which can mean more expense for them. These extra skills are not being rewarded with opportunity and financial security. The pandemic made things a lot worse than they were before. I think this has been a problem evident in the industry for years. Articles from 2018 highlighting how many musician don’t make money. There are guides as to how musicians can make money. For many, most of these avenues have been explored. You can only make so much from sales and touring. Throw in the costs involved with recording music and maybe a lack of opportunities in Europe. Exposure beyond the U.K. is crucial for longevity, and yet few artists can do this because of the travel costs and having to balance work-life. I think a lot of music media revolves around success stories and artists who are in the spotlight and riding high. There are comparatively few articles written and artists interviewed who are struggling and do not have the same fanbase and income as bigger acts. There does need to be this moment of realisation from the U.K. Government that music as a career is less sustainable and realistic than in years past. Maybe I am subjective. I think that an industry that brings so much joy and is so enriching should see rewards for those who make it what it is. Maybe that is over-simplifying things. It is clear that Brexit has been impactful. A census with a very important and noble aim, the first-ever UK Musicians’ Census has been very useful. Whether there are easy solution or it still take years before there is greater stability for U.K. musicians I am not sure. What it highlights, as we say every time we see reports of musicians struggling financially, is that…
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MORE needs to be done by our Government.