UK music is the organisation that represents the interests of UK music industry individuals as a collective whole. They conduct a survey every year asking for feedback from UK musicians, songwriters, composers, engineers, producers and managers. From this survey they then produce an annual report assessing the health of the music sector in the UK and how it’s contributing to the UK economy.The purpose of this report is to:
Map the music economy
Analyse trends within the industry
Document the day to day conditions for those in all areas of the music industry.
Music is the most lucrative aspect of the creative economy, which is why these reports are so important.
The Measuring Music Report gives solid statistics that are needed to create the best policies for the futures of everyone within the music industry. Ways in which this happens is:
Helps to fight against threats to grassroots music, i.e. closure of some of the best established small venues.
To fight to protect the value of your copyrights and IP.
To help lobby the Treasury for tax incentives to help creators (such as those the film and game industries benefit from).
But most of all it helps companies to recognise and acknowledge the value of peoples work.
In 2015 the export growth across the sector was large, with a £4.1 billion overall contribution to the UK’s economy. This is actually far larger than the 30% industry standard. Making the UK music economy one of the most lucrative.
The industry has continued to be very strong as it has been consistently growing year after year even when faced with difficult situations like the recession. Over the last 4 years GVA contribution has been up 17% and exports and employment both up by 11%. This growth shows that the music industry is constantly expanding.
The report showed that to make sure the sector to continues to grow, policies must be slightly changed to keep the industry’s export power, especially as we begin to move into a post-Brexit marketplace.
Over the past four years there has been a massive shift from ownership to streaming. This has meant a big change in how the industry works.
Paid subscription streaming services like Apple Music, Spotify, etc are now providing a significant boost to the digital music economy. But this has meant some declines in other areas of the music market. However, subscription streaming is one of the major reasons why there is such a huge success in the industry surviving. The value of paid services grew from £168 million in 2014 to £251 million in 2015. The streaming market continues to grow and get even stronger within the music economy. To gain the full potential of streaming, it must run fairly and always value the music that creates business for the service itself.
Major points flagged by the Measuring Music survey:
• In 2015 there was a £4.1 billion contribution to the UK economy by the music industry in GVA (Gross Value Added).
• There were 119,020 full time jobs provided within the music industry in 2015 with the majority of people working in composing, creating, recording and shaping the future of music. These musicians, composers, songwriters, performers and lyricists contributed £2 billion to the economy.
• Music exports contributed £2.2 billion in 2015. This is over half of the industry’s total GVA.
• Export growth in live music was 35% in 2015. Helped along by an increase in music tourism during the year. Over 767,000 music tourists attended live music concerts and festivals in 2015 making £1.1 billion towards the UK economy. Due to a decline in grassroots music venues, the live market showed a slight dip in it’s 2015 GVA contribution. This makes it one of the largest contributing factors within the live music sector of the music industry.
• Sales exports of recorded music were up 8.9%, this was boosted majorly by the global success of UK artists like Adele, Coldplay, Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith. One in six of all albums sold across the globe were by British artists, whilst five of the top ten selling albums were by UK acts in 2015
Culture Secretary, Karen Bradley MP said: Culture Secretary, Karen Bradley MP said: The Government is working closely with industry bodies, such as UK Music, to make it easier for these artists to do business and is investing in music education to nurture the next wave of successful British artists, who we want to see perform across the whole world.
There will be a few big and many small changes over the coming years. The biggest change will be the effect of Brexit. The impact of Brexit on the UK music industry still remains unclear. There are a lot of negative thoughts on the topic however there have been a few benefits pointed out that Brexit may bring the industry. I feel as though nobody is quite certain on what the outcome of Brexit will be but through research we can gain a knowledge of possibilities of changes we are to expect.
Trade
Unfortunately for the UK music economy, if Britain doesn’t keep it’s accommodation within the European Economic Area and continue to freely trade with the EU, the impact on the music economy will be massive. This is because the UK has one of the biggest music markets in the world. Whilst within the EU the UK had stopped paying for import taxes when trading within EU companies. By leaving the EU we may end up having to pay for goods coming into the UK, meaning wholesale prices rising and labels raising prices along with it.
Copyright
Brexit will also mean a loss of some major benefits within the copyright area. The UK were going to be part of the Digital Single Market strategy. This was aimed at giving EU musicians digital opportunities and cracking down on safe harbour permissions that had allowed Youtube to get away with certain forms of copyright infringement for so long. Brexit means we will no longer benefit from this. A much less punitive copyright measure will take the place of this initiative, meaning another loss for the UK music industry.
Funding
The UK would lose around £1 billion worth of funding for the creative industries. The benefits of funding can be seen in venues such as such as the Village Underground in East London and LivEurope, an initiative which pays to slot emerging talent on bigger bills, and ensuring that concert venues support emerging artists.
Touring
There is a possibility that British artists may need separate working visas for each country they visit in the EU. This causes a lot of extra hassle and expspenses when touring, especially for smaller artists who are just starting to get their name out there and touring could be a cost already.
Documents called Carnets may also be reintroduced. These are documents on which every single piece of equipment must be detailed. This allows customs authorities to keep track of products coming across the border. This would mean that a touring band would have to list guitars, drum kits, amps, laptops etc. Every item would have to be declared and all domestic goods checked for payment of VAT in order to clear British ports for exit and entry. A lot of extra hassle that we would not have if not for Brexit.
The Pound
A consequence we immediately saw through Brexit was the decline in the value of the pound. But this may actually be a good thing for the UK music industry (apart from higher travel costs abroad).
Record labels, publishers and artists that incur costs of creating music in the UK will now be paid more in valuable currencies due to the weak currency. This is because a weak currency can boost economic growth as it makes exports cheap abroad.
As I mentioned earlier, music tourism in the UK is huge and is only getting bigger now due to the decrease of the value of the pound. Many more tourists will be visiting the UK as it is much cheaper to do so. 38% of the live music industry in the UK was made up of music tourism. This is only set to rise.
In conclusion, the Measuring Music Report is a very useful survey to gain knowledge of the key areas and changes within the UK music industry and economy. This knowledge will hopefully lead to a more successful outcome when faced with challenges such as Brexit. I believe that knowledge is power and hopefully musicians over time will find ways to work through the implications we may face as a whole economy. There may be a slight decline in some areas of the UK music economy but I do believe that overall the industry will continue to grow over the next 5 years.