MARCH | COVER FEATURE
4.
sophisticated propitiatory software
that allows us to proactively block
malicious bots.
» 4. Sarah Toomey, head of UK,
Own The Room
I’d say the main problem boils
down to economics. It is what can
be sold, which as we know is also
not necessarily a reflection of talent.
The days of cheap production of
CDs is long gone, when it would
cost 10p to produce and £10 to
sell. Profit margins were huge and
there was a lot more money to
be made, including on more Indy
bands which meant taking less
financial risks for the producers.
Downloading is a huge problem.
Bands generally only make a little
money through advertisers using
their music as a platform. Also,
bands can only really make money
by gigging. This is time consuming,
anti-social and stressful both in
financial terms and psychologically.
In the end, it was the uncertainty
that did it for Olly. Beneath the
Ed Sheerans and Ellie Goulding
there are thousands of talented
youngsters whose dreams are
thwarted by the unpredictable
nature of the business. Olly’s band
were a relatively wealthy group
who could afford to take a financial
risk for a year or so. Very tough
indeed for those less fortunate, let
alone if you need to live in London.
EDUCATION, EDUCATION,
EDUCATION…
The English Baccalaureate (Ebacc)
on music education: culture should
be an essential part of every child’s
education both in and out of school.
The government believes all
students should have access to an
excellent, well-rounded education,
and the arts are central to this.
A strong cultural education will
support all young people entering
the workforce, especially the
Creative Industries, which were
responsible for 2 million jobs in 2017.
The current National Plan for
Music Education runs until 2020.
The Ebacc is designed so that there
is still room in the curriculum for
other subjects.
In addition to formal education,
we have announced almost
£500m of funding in 2016-20 for a
diverse portfolio of music and arts
education programmes that are
designed to improve access to the
arts for all children, regardless of
their background, and to develop
talent across the country. This
includes £300m for music education
hubs, almost £120m for the Music
and Dance Scheme, which allows
exceptionally talented children to
attend specialist music and dance
institutions.
FUNDING THE ARTS
Improving music education has also
been touted as a source for improving
the supply of artists to UK festivals
and events
» 5. Margot James MP, Minister
for Digital and the Creative
Industries
Addressing the impact of the
» 6. Darren Henley, chief executive
of Arts Council England
There are many examples that
we do invest in but one I went to
quite recently was in Sunderland.
Pop Recs in Sunderland, which
5.
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has a fantastic group of young
people—younger than me—in
their 20s who are running that
and we are investing in the work
they are doing in outreach in
terms of bringing free space to
very young performers. One of the
things I would observe is that, as
with many parts of the world that
we deal with as the Arts Council,
working with good leadership on
a local basis is very strong. One of
the things I would like to see as
part of a package that we could put
together in terms of investment
is about helping them become
more sustainable businesses and
having all processes in place. It is
interesting that the business model
that meant that these organisations
were sustainable in the past is
not there. We know that there is a
lessening of guitar-based rock in
terms of sales, we are seeing that
very strongly. I am of an age where
I bought (What’s the Story) Morning
Glory the bestselling album of 1990s,
that is my generation but that
guitar based rock is not there. It is
interesting, I was in Holmfirth at
the weekend at the Picturedrome
seeing Showaddywaddy. It was
a 400- seater and it was sellout.
That is privately owned, it gets no
funding from anybody and it is a
sustainable business. These things
can work but we need to work out
what are the models that we can
take that mean they are more likely
to work in more places.
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