The Music Venue Trust has once again highlighted the “disaster” approaching grassroots venues in the UK, if large venues do not invest. Mark Davyd, the CEO of the Music Venue Trust spoke about the issues at Manchester’s ‘Beyond The Music’ conference last Friday (October 13th).
Davyd was speaking amongst a panel of representatives from Manchester’s AO Arena, Co-Op Live, MIF/Factory International and Rachael Flaszczak, the managing director of The Snug, a Manchester venue that was saved by the Music Venue Trust’s new ownership scheme. Amongst the panel, Davyd said: “It’s completely unacceptable that our music industry is letting music collapse underneath it while it’s making the maximum amount of money it’s ever made in the history of music. That is ridiculous. It’s totally unacceptable to me. It’s unacceptable to our communities.”
Speaking to Gary Rosen, a representative from Co-Op Live, a soon to be opened music venue in Manchester that will be the largest in the country, Davyd spoke about the massive differences it would make to grassroots venues if large-scale arenas contributed a small percentage of tickets sales to grassroots venues, as he said: “If [Co-op Live] were to give the £2.70 service fees [they now have] on some of the 23,000 tickets they’re likely to sell, it could raise £62,700 on just one night. If you’re planning to do 120 shows a year, that raises £7.4million. Just two shows could buy [venues like] The Snug out of your facility fee alone.”
Rachael Flaszczak, managing director for The Snug, then spoke of the massive help given from the Music Venue Trust because of the #OwnOurVenues initiative, which aims to secure long-term futures of small venues by creating secure ownership. Flaszczak said: “The Snug was in danger of closing down forever. We went to Music Venues Trust and we were accepted. MVT now own the building which means that we’re safe forever. We’ve got a nice long cultural lease. It will be business as usual, we’ll carry on what we’re doing, booking new bands and giving that platform for grassroots music to thrive.”
Music Venue Properties announce first venue purchase with shares bought by the live music community! @SnugAtherton has become the first acquisition under #OwnOurVenues scheme!
Official Launch Event held today at The Snug to Celebrate new ownership +unveil a commemorative plaque! pic.twitter.com/HmDamLlrRl
— Music Venue Trust (@musicvenuetrust) October 4, 2023
Gemma Vaughan from the AO Arena in Manchester mentioned how not enough has been done by large-scale arenas to ensure the financial safety of grassroots venues. She said: “I don’t think that large scale arenas have done enough to support grassroots venues. I think that we have probably sat quite arrogantly on the periphery and looked at our talent pipeline and the fact that we have international touring productions wheeling and wheeling out.” She then later said: “We have to support grassroots venues and musicians to help to feed our talent pipeline. We need to make sure that that kind of music economy continues to kind of recycle itself. We are planning to do a lot. Have we done enough so far? Definitely not.”
Things seem to be pointing in the right direction for change towards helping grassroots venues as AO Arena are looking to replicate the new system Ticketmaster have introduced, in which customers can opt in to donate to grassroots venues. Vaughan said: “One thing that we’re currently discussing is the additional opt-in to donate £1.50 when transacting, and we’ll look to match that. We definitely are committed to the opt-in for the audience member. We are just going through a bit of a process at the moment in how we make that work in the UK business.”
