Impact case study database
Live Music Censuses and Mapping The Live Music Ecology: Fostering Live Music Provision
1. Summary of the impact
Behr’s research combines qualitative and quantitative work on live music ecologies – the intersection of musical and non-musical actors in a location – with analyses of their national and international policy contexts, supporting and informing industry practice and policymaking to protect the provision of live music. The UK Live Music Census (UKLMC) – a world first as a national exercise – developed and deployed an open source methodology for evaluating the concerns of venues, musicians and audiences. Its findings impacted policymaking, contributing to legislative changes in devolved administrations and at Westminster, notably the introduction of the Agent of Change Principle and reviews of venue business rates. The ‘toolkit’ developed by the project has informed research nationally and internationally, with questions and methodological approaches taken up in Melbourne, Birmingham and Liverpool.
2. Underpinning research
Behr’s research covers the music industries, cultural policy and, particularly, their interrelationship as it concerns the provision of live music. Central to this has been the UK Live Music Census – an AHRC funded project (September 2016-September 2018) – that, itself, builds on a longstanding programme of live music sector research (PUB5, PUB6). The census investigators are also Directors of the Live Music Exchange (a Knowledge Exchange body run between Newcastle, Glasgow and Turku Universities – Behr is the Newcastle Director). In this capacity, they deployed relationships with key industry organisations (UK Music, Musicians’ Union, Music Venue Trust) to develop a methodology for producing a dataset that speaks to key sectoral concerns (PUB1, PUB3) – notably the pressure on music venues as the result of city development, alongside associated financial burdens, and their knock on effects for musicians (PUB1, PUB3). Having previously conceptualised local music on an ‘ecological’ model that accounts for non-musical stakeholders, such as policymakers, and brought this to bear on examinations of the cultural value of live music in industrial, social and policy terms, the team (Behr, Brennan, Cloonan) trialled the ‘census’ approach in Edinburgh (PUB6) before conducting a national exercise – the first occasion on which this had been done across multiple cities.
The UK Live Music Census had multiple strands (PUB1, PUB3):
i) A snapshot census of live music activity across a 24-hour period in three key case-study cities (Glasgow, Newcastle and Oxford) carried out by the core research team with student and local volunteers.
ii) Online surveys (nationwide as well as in the case-study cities) of musicians, venues, promoters and audience members.
iii) Ancillary censuses carried out by teams associated with project partner UK Music’s Music Academic Partnership programme, in Leeds, Brighton and Southampton, and by others (Liverpool) data from which fed into the final census report.
This latter strand of the primary research was also integral to another part of the project – namely developing an open source methodology so that other cities, towns or institutions could conduct censuses of their own, resulting in a freely available live music census ‘toolkit’ (PUB1, PUB3).
Census findings were incorporated into a report – also freely available - launched in 2018 at the Musicians’ Union and widely disseminated across policy and industry spheres (PUB3). Combining qualitative accounts of live music’s cultural value with quantitative work outlining the economic value of live music to the case study cities (direct spend, GVA and FTE jobs supported) (PUB1, PUB3) has advanced direct understandings of the scope of live music activity, the challenges facing it, and – through methodological innovations – the means by which policymakers and music practitioners of all stripes can account for the relationship between the broader values derived from live music.
This research programme is not limited to the centrepiece of the Live Music Census, but accompanied by sustained engagement and related analyses of live music as an ‘ecology’ (a concept now in widespread use). This cognate research flows from the same theoretical underpinning as the census. In 2018 Behr was academic lead on qualitative work funded by the National Productivity Investment Fund (via Northern Bridge) on the value of music tourism to the Scottish creative economy (PUB2), again covering the relationships of venues, musicians, local councils and national policy. Starting in 2020, the ecological model, and census methodology, are also central to an examination of the live music sector in Birmingham, and an assessment of the challenges it faces, and potential responses, arising from Brexit (PUB4) and, latterly, Covid-19. Throughout this research, funded by the AHRC Policy and Evidence Centre and with Behr on the team, the nuance of cultural value and specificity of the census methodology cohere to provide findings directly applicable by venues, music organisations, and policymakers alike to the task of fostering live music provision, and have fed into digital mapping of Birmingham’s music ecology – placing venues alongside other contextual and geographical data points – with, again, the methodology available as open source for broader adoption.
3. References to the research
Publications
PUB1 Behr, A., Webster, E., Brennan, M., Cloonan, M., Ansell, J. (2019) ‘Making Live Music Count: The UK Live Music Census’, Popular Music and Society, 43/5, pp.501-522. https://doi.org/10.1080/03007766.2019.1627658
PUB2 Behr, A. & Ord, M. (2019) Facilitating Music Tourism for Scotland’s Creative Economy, Newcastle University/Scottish Music Industry Association https://eprint.ncl.ac.uk/file_store/production/257047/061D1471-9C12-4A10-B75F-5E07B8546956.pdf
PUB3 Webster, E., Brennan, M., Behr A, Cloonan, M., Ansell, J. (2018) Valuing live music: The UK Live Music Census 2017 report. University of Edinburgh/Newcastle University/University of Turku http://uklivemusiccensus.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/UK-Live-Music-Census-2017-full-report.pdf
PUB4 Rozbicka, P., Hamilton, C., Behr, A., Correa-Vila P., Davies, LJ. (2019 ) Birmingham Live Music and Brexit, Aston University/Birmingham City University/Newcastle University http://livemusicexchange.org/wp-content/uploads/BLMP-report-2019-.pdf
PUB5 Behr A., Brennan M., Cloonan M., Frith S. and Webster E. (2016) ‘Live Concert Performance: An Ecological Approach’. Rock Music Studies, 3/1, 5-23 https://doi.org/10.1080/19401159.2015.1125633
PUB6 Behr A. (2017), ‘Where the snowman meets the sunshine: The tensions between research, engagement and impact in cultural policy’, Participations: Journal of Audience and Reception Studies, 14(1), 352-375 https://eprint.ncl.ac.uk/file_store/production/238194/BA1B2011-046F-4FB8-A017-C95360439591.pdf
Associated Grants
1) BH153288 ‘The Great British Live Music Census’, AHRC - AH/N008936/1 [UK Live Music Census] – Behr Co-I, Principal Investigator Matt Brennan
2) AHRC Northern Bridge/NPIF ‘Facilitating Music Tourism for the Creative Economy’ – Behr Principal Investigator
3) AHRC Policy and Evidence Centre ‘The UK Live Music Industry in a post-2019 era: A Globalised Local Perspective’ – Behr Co-I, Principal Investigator Patrycja Rozbicka
4. Details of the impact
a) Shifting the national and international conversation about local music and music venues: Extensive coverage of the census activities and findings in mainstream and industry facing media have highlighted the stressors on music venues and musicians pushing them closer to the centre of public – and both public and private sector – considerations of how to address them. The census is used as an authoritative source in media discussions across a range of live music industry and policy issues, such as ticketing, planning and business rates (IMP-REF1a, IMP-REF1b). This includes mainstream press (IMP-REF1a), trade press (IMP-REF1b) and industry reports (IMP-REF2). In particular the research process itself, and then the findings, were used extensively to highlight the closure rate of venues, and key representative bodies (UK Music, Music Venue Trust, Musicians’ Union) have attested to its success (IMP-REF3, IMP-REF4) in helping them drive forward a national policy conversation on the subject. Latterly, from the release of the report to the present, media reports about music venues used census data as a standard indicator of the situation. The research fed into the launch of the DCMS Committee’s live music inquiry in 2018. As Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat spokesman for the digital economy, and previously for Creative Industries) noted of the report, “it will really underpin and validate the case that so many of us are making inside and outside Parliament about the importance of live music and the closures and potential threats to grassroots music venues…[and be] hugely helpful in setting the scene for the Select Committee” (IMP-REF5). The census, and Behr’s wider research, has also been used by the live music sector internationally to make the case for protecting venues, such as by Live DMA, a European network of live music associations representing over 3,000 live music venues, featuring in their reports (IMP-REF-2a) and recommendations for local authorities (IMP-REF-2b).
b) Effecting policy change to protect music venues: The ‘Agent of Change’ principle is a legal mechanism whereby the person, business or organisation who produces change in an area by building new developments, or changing the use of existing buildings, becomes responsible for managing that change. Specifically, regarding music, it would make developers responsible for sound-proofing and mitigation – not pre-existing venues in the area.
Amongst the key recommendations of the census report (PUB1 p.515; PUB3 p.61) were that the UK government and devolved administrations look to implement the Agent of Change. The 2018 DCMS Committee at Westminster inquiry into ‘Live Music’ was partly driven by this programme of research. Several written submissions to the inquiry by leading music organisations cited census data in making their case, including submissions made by: UK Music, Music Venue Trust, Musicians’ Union, Incorporated Society of Musicians, Fan Fair Alliance, Ticket Swap (IMP-REF7, p.52-54, with links therein to individual submissions). The submission produced by Behr on behalf of the Live Music Exchange census research team was extensively cited, alongside the research itself, in the final 2019 DCMS Committee report (IMP-REF7, pp.6, 8, 24, 25, 26, 30) which picked up on several recommendations made in the census report including that “robust and consistent implementation of the [agent of change] principle nationwide is crucial for it to be of meaningful benefit to live music venues” (IMP-REF7, p.27). Agent of Change principle now sits within regulatory guidance across the UK following cross party agreement leading to its incorporation into the National Planning Policy Framework for England (Para. 182) in July 2019, Welsh Planning Policy (section 4.3 committing Wales to the Agent of Change) and being accepted as part of Scotland’s planning policy, in the Planning Act passed in December 2019. This requires local planning authorities to “take particular account of whether the development includes sufficient measures to mitigate, minimise or manage the effect of noise between the development and any existing cultural venues or facilities (including in particular, but not limited to, live music venues)” (IMP-REF10a, Planning Act, Section 14, Amendment 182), following statements given and arguments made at bill stage based on evidence from the census (IMP-REF10b, Stage 1 Report, Planning Bill, Para.231, IMP-REF10c, Local Government and Communities Committee, Columns 57-8; IMP-REFS 3 and 4; PUB1, PUB3).
The DCMS Committee report (IMP-REF7, p.24) also cited census data in its consideration of business rates on venues, echoing the recommendation that “The Government should immediately review the impact of recent business rates changes on the live music sector and introduce new, or extend existing, relief schemes (IMP-REF7 p.24, PUB3, p.59). Census data was further provided on request to UK Music as part of its own activities in pressing for change on this matter, and cited as part of dialogue between (then) UK Music CEO, Labour’s Shadow Culture Minister and (then) Chancellor ( Music Week, 26 February 2019, IMP-REF1b, IMP-REF3). As a consequence of this research and engagement activity, the Queen’s Speech of December 2019 included the stipulation that “[t]he overhaul of business rates will see the retail discount increased from one-third to 50 per cent, extending that discount to cinemas and music venues for the first time” (Prime Minister’s Office, Queen’s Speech Briefing Notes, p.111. IMP-REF6). Additionally, at Westminster, the DCMS Committee (IMP-REF7, PUB3, p.9), echoed the census report’s language, and cited its data on broader provisions for ‘Music Cities’.
c) Developing the methodology for live music sector research: Central to this programme of work was the development of a methodology that involved the co-operation of key stakeholding organisations (industry ‘buy-in’) which could be adopted by other organisations and localities. Census methods have already been used in cities beyond those in the original census project. The methodology was adopted in a related (but distinct) live music census of Liverpool and BOP Consulting’s report for Liverpool City Council on ‘Developing a Live Music Strategy’, acknowledged the research’s contribution and data (IMP-REF8a, BOP, p.2, p.51). Likewise, the ‘census toolkit’ produced by the project informed the 2017 Live Music Census in Melbourne which acknowledges this contribution (IMP-REF9, p.3, p.26). The census also formed the basis for an investigation of live music in Birmingham, with Behr as Co-I, supported by the AHRC’s Policy and Evidence Centre (Grant 3). The digital mapping techniques deployed in the Birmingham research have also since been adopted (alongside the concepts from the original census) in Liverpool. The census research and resulting reports were significant contributors to the decision to form the Liverpool City Region Music Board in 2018 (IMP-REF8). The strategy of that board, founded under the auspices of the Mayor’s office, has been significant shaped by the methodology deployed in the UK Live Music Census (PUB3, IMP-REF8) and developed on the Birmingham project (PUB4, IMP-REF8).
In terms of their findings, and the methodological strategy that led to them, the census work and related research using the live music ecology model and census methodology have been widely confirmed by policymakers and industry organisations across the spectrum of activity, from Lord Clement-Jones (IMP-REF5) to UK Music, City of Edinburgh Council (PUB6), individual venue operators (IMP-REF7) and their representative bodies **(**IMP-REFS 3,4,7) as making a significant contribution to changing both the tenor of the national conversation about live music provision, and the legislative framework that pertains to it.
5. Sources to corroborate the impact
IMP-REF1) Press coverage of the UK Live Music Census (selected examples, mainstream and trade press)a) The Guardian, 18 February 2018: ‘UK's first live music census finds small venues struggling’,(Includes commentary from the Music Venue Trust and Lord Clement-Jones) https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/feb/16/uks-first-live-music-census-finds-small-venues-strugglingb) Music Week, 26 February 2019, “Senior MPs back UK Music on Business Rates”, https://www.musicweek.com/live/read/senior-mps-back-uk-music-on-business-rates/075444
IMP-REF2) Live DMA report and recommendationsa) Expert working group White Paper, Music Is Not Noise (2019) Nantes: Live DMA https://www.live-dma.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/WHITE-PAPER_MUSIC-IS-NOT-NOISE_20190625.pdf
b) Recommendations for local authorities (2019) Nantes: Live DMA https://www.live-dma.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/RECOMMENDATIONS-FOR-LOCAL-AUTHORITIES_WG-MUSIC-IS-NOT-NOISE.pdf
IMP-REF3) UK Music. Letter outlining the significance of Behr’s work and provision of data for driving policy. Director of Education and Skills, UK Music
IMP-REF4) Music Venue Trust. Letter outlining significance of the research in influencing legislators. Strategic Director, Music Venue Trust.
IMP-REF5) Lord Clement-Jones speech at launch of the UKLMC (published on his personal website). https://www.lordclementjones.org/2018/02/18/lord-c-j-helps-launch-the-2017/
IMP-REF6) Queen’s Speech and Background Briefing, 2019, London: Prime Minister’s Office. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/839370/Queen_s_Speech_Lobby_Pack_2019_.pdf
IMP-REF7) Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee (2019). Live Music: Ninth Report of Session 2017–19. London: House of Commons. https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmcumeds/733/733.pdf
IMP-REF8) Liverpool City Region Music Board and strategy.a) BOP Consulting (2018) Developing a Liverpool City Music Strategy. Liverpool: Culture Liverpool/Liverpool City Council. [data credits to UKLMC] http://bop.co.uk/assets/others/Developing-Liverpool-Music-strategy-February-2018-1.pdfb) Liverpool City Region Music Board. Letter from board member, attesting to significance of the research for the formation and strategy of the board.
IMP-REF9) Newton, D. and Coyle-Haywood, R. (2018), Melbourne Live Music Census 2017 Report. Melbourne: Music Victoria/City of Melbourne. [methodological credit to UKLMC] https://www.musicvictoria.com.au/assets/2018/MLMC-2017-Report-compressed.pdf
IMP-REF10) Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 – Inclusion of Agent of Change into planning policy and influence of UKLMC research leading up to it. a) Planning (Scotland) Act 2019; b) Stage 1 Report on Planning Bill (2018); c) Local Government and Communities Committee transcript (February 2018).
Additional contextual information
Grant funding
Grant number | Value of grant |
---|---|
AH/N008936/1 | £16,475 |
Unknown | £11,179 |
Unknown | £45,638 |
COV19/201050 | £9,367 |