Chapter 1 - The State of Live Music

Is Live Music Dying

In recent times, the state of live music as an important cultural and financial industry has come into question. The commoditisation and consumption of music is consumed on a personal level is in a similar phase of change, with the advancements in technology forcing the industry to take stock of its previously strong methods of practice. Is live music going through a similar phase of change and what factors will have the most effect?

Where have all the venues gone?

With the current trend for the destruction of classic performance venues, live music is in a state of upheaval. Spaces that have been long regarded as iconic on the musical map and important to the musical heritage of many cities are being manoeuvred towards closure in the current climate of economic recession and the redevelopment of city centres. London’s Astoria and Hammersmith Palais along with The Duchess of York in Leeds have both closed despite the amount of modern history that exudes from these and similar venues across the country. The Hammersmith Palais in particular had strong worldwide recognition with The Clash song ‘(White Man) in Hammersmith Palais’. These closures exemplify the treatment of how popular music venues are treated by local councils and governments. The value of city centre properties has been a major influence on the validity of city centre venues. Due to the fact that many of the locations which are ideal for music venues are also places which attract high property prices, with aspects such as transport hubs making for desirable locations and being particularly large buildings, venues in this prime locations are often worth more as apartments or shopping centres . The Duchess of York in Leeds is an example, with its owners selling the building to become a Hugo Boss Shoe Shop; despite the history the venue had for breaking internationally acclaimed bands such as Nirvana, Oasis and The Fall. The real-estate value of these properties also means that most potential buyers will be from large chains, and less interested in making small live music venues. These high property prices also prevent new venues from opening in what would be the most profitable locations.

The pressure on pubs is major factor into the state of live music. As the cost of running a pub grows alongside competition with supermarket chains who can easily undercut most pub prices, these are dire times for many independent pubs. As of early 2009, pub closures have risen to 39 a week, increasing dramatically from 2005 where 3 pubs might close a week . Similar trends are also happening to working men’s clubs, with 75% predicted to be closed in the next decade . As taxes continue to increase on alcohol sales and the brewers cost rise, the profit margins for landlords inevitably shrink. These types of venues are essential to local music communities as they provide a necessary stepping-stone allowing many bands their first opportunity to play in front of a live audience. They also provide the main source of income for many professional musicians, such as tribute acts and cover bands. As the number of pubs diminishes the potential revenue for musicians also shrinks, and given that the average income per annum for a musician is around £8,000, any loss of venues could have a huge impact on the well being of performers .

With the greatest number of pubs closing in rural settings (despite schemes launched by CAMRA and The Pub Is the Hub), this creates a vacuum of live music in many countryside areas . With the combination of city centres losing venues and rural settings losing pubs, where are live bands playing? The suburbs offer a small relief, where family based pubs can still bring in enough money to occasionally support live acts, but due to the nature of venues the variety of music these venues will showcase is limited.

What is bound to have an effect on the pubs which will provide space for live music is the increase of chain branded pubs, such as J.D. Wetherspoons, who seem to have a blanket policy on no live music, based on an unwillingness to procure a live music license and a belief that it isn’t what their clientele . Given that Wetherspoons have more than 700 pubs, with many replacing long established pubs; this would have a massive effect on the amount of potential venues for live acts. Some chain brands (such as Barracuda) may occasionally offer space to live acts, but this seems to be a rarity amongst the chain pubs. The most common form of live entertainment in these establishments seems to be the occasional DJ playing dance and pop standards to cater to the busy Friday and Saturday crowds.

The introduction of the smoking ban is also blamed for a decrease in pub trading, yet evidence for this is scant at best, with most reports of decreasing business being based on anecdotal evidence. The introduction of the smoking ban has certainly had some effect on pub trading, but with some pubs reporting increase in both drink and food sales. For the pubs that do face a tough time with the smoking ban, making space for live music could prove to be an achievable way to improve business. The pubs that are doing best in the face of constant change are the pubs that are willing to change themselves. Food, live music and entertainment seem make the difference between successful and ineffective pubs. This is most evident in a survey of the various pubs of Plymouth , where the bans least affected by legislation are the ones that are aware of the need to bring new ideas into their businesses. There is also evidence indicating that the use of live music can provide a significant financial boom to pubs. The level of profit can be quite remarkable compared to regular night without live music:

‘Reynolds, for his part, has no doubt about the financial contribution from live music. "We aim for a three-fold return," he says. "If we pay £250 for a band, we expect to take in £750."

A recent Internet campaign was launched to stop legislation coming into place that would force venues to install sound limiters in all music venues. With an e-petition gathering more 85,000 signatures, the government posted a response to the petition on their website:

‘We are pleased to tell you that there is no truth in claims that the Government is planning to introduce a requirement for entertainment venues to fit noise control devices.’

While this may have made the petition pointless, it does demonstrate the passion that large numbers of people have for live music.

Different legislations have begun to affect live music though. The licensing act of 2004 is often cited as having a huge detrimental effect of the live music scene, although according to a survey done on the issue:

‘The Licensing Act does not appear to have been a major factor in decisions relating to whether or not venues provided live music with very few of these venues cited the Act as a factor in these decisions.’

But also stated in the report is:

‘The findings show that there has been a five percentage point decrease in the provision of live music in secondary live music venues in England and Wales since the baseline survey was conducted in 2004 (from 47 per cent in 2004 to 42 per cent in 2007).’

But this is apparently due to reduction in venues such as cafes, restaurants and church halls as opposed the more traditional venue such as a pub or club. This evidence could be proof of people feeling differently about how they wish to enjoy live music, with a traditional performer/audience format being more popular than listening to music while eating.

Yet another piece of legislation which has been put into affect within London is the need for venue owners to complete form 696 10 days before the gig, which asks for information such music genre and expected ethnicity of a crowd for any gig along with the names and addresses of all performers. After a campaign against the form took place, an abridged version of the form took its place, replacing the ethnicity question with a less suspicious ‘target audience’ substitute. These various forms of control over live music from the government could be seen as an almost Orwellian effort to control the supposed ‘trouble making’ elements of music. The original ethnicity question in the 696 form seems designed primarily to find black dominated genres of music, which many still immediately associate with gang culture. The repercussions of these actions could lead to silencing a music subculture that provides a voice for a section of society that has no traditional platform to express itself, being poorly represented in most medias.

Whether the economic recession will have an effect on live music is hard to predict, but it will obviously have a certain impact on the venues that cater for live music, be it with venues closing down or small businesses doing better as the larger chains struggle. Doom and gloom isn’t a certainty at all, with entertainments still performing well in the wake of economic downfall, with theatres actually showing an increase in profits for 2008 . It may also effect how people spend their money. People may be more willing to spend money on going to smaller venues to see a local band for a night out as opposed to large scale or stadium venues to see a touring or international act due to their reduced budgets. The economic recession could also help create healthier local music scenes, with people putting more stock in their local bands as the ability to see big name bands and attend large festivals diminishes.

While the state of live music is debatable for small to medium acts, it still remains a massive source of income for the acts with the financial backing to launch stadium tours. In spite of relatively low album sales, Madonna topped a poll of highest earning musicians of 2008, due largely to her sell out tour (Waddell 2009). Also making up the top 5 earners were Bon Jovi, The Police, Bruce Springsteen and Celine Dion, with none releasing an album in 2008, and earnings coming mainly from large venues. This shows that there is still a large demand for live music, with money to be made from it, even if it doesn’t give much hope for the musicians who play small venues. The major festivals also prove that there is still taste for live music, with most selling out within days of the tickets going on sale, although maybe not to same level as previous years (this could be yet another effect of the economic recession).