NOVEMBER | OPINION
Before Covid , the entire music
industry was talking sustainability
– and if you weren ’ t , then it was somewhat frowned upon . We had to ‘ save the planet ’ and that was key to the future and success of live entertainment .
Within the venues we already have wormeries , bee hives on roofs , sustainable waste systems , goals to become carbon neutral ( some even positive ) and of course keep cups . If you print something out at the Royal Albert Hall it ’ s not a good look .
We were on the cusp of a huge sustainable movement within the music industry which was exciting and filled us with optimism – there ’ s no greater way to get a message across than through the power of music . Then came along the pandemic , which hit us like a sledgehammer . We went from a huge thriving industry with global influence , to what seems like a forgotten sector on its knees .
Therefore sustainability has taken on a new meaning – we now fight to sustain our industry and sustain our venues . It ’ s now about ‘ save the music ’, ‘ save our staff ’ and ‘ save our future ’.
We are just over six months into this and I know we ’ ve all learnt a lot and it ’ s made us think about the future in a different way . For venues , until March we relied nearly entirely on live performance to achieve the necessary revenues to run and maintain our buildings – some grade I listed . Our financial models are based on the income that we derive from these performances ; venue rentals , ticket sales , food , drink and so on . Sponsors help to bolster some venues financially , but they are not the solution by any means . Without audiences we are doomed . The Royal Albert Hall has forgone £ 18 million of income and counting . We ’ ve used £ 12m of reserves . We ’ re in a serious situation and other venues are the same .
Some of us are fortunate enough to be able to accommodate some live , pay-for-view , streams and have picked up the odd bit of
Brave New World
Lucy Noble , artistic and commercial director at the Royal Albert Hall and chair of the National Arenas Association , says sustainability has taken on a new meaning post-Covid-19 and the live music industry is fighting for survival .
other activity during our closure . The Hall was very proud to host the Proms and it gave us real hope to see musicians performing on our stage again . We won ’ t make a huge amount of money and again these events are not the solution to this ongoing problem , but it ’ s encouraging to have some life back in our buildings and to employ some staff during a time when there is no work .
We will get through this – but if it ever happened again – what would we do differently ? How will we adapt our models so they can continue if we have to fight for our survival again ? Should we think more about online content or is that market becoming , if not already , saturated ? A new Live Group will be formed to represent the music industry with association Chairs sitting on the board - which is positive – next time we will have a voice sooner and it will be bigger .
What we really want and need though is to get back to live and to have audiences back in our venues and it will come .
In the meantime , let ’ s hope that we don ’ t forget to save the planet after we ’ ve saved our industry .
Lucy Noble , artistic and commercial director at the Royal Albert Hall
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