Gig Going on London’s Periphery: Charting the Mainstream in the Margins – Kevin Milburn

Kevin Milburn’s post charts the shift of live activity in London from the early 1960s to the present day from the west to the east and southeast, highlighting the closure of significant venues along the way, including the Lewisham Odeon, as played by The Beatles. The post shows that such sites were not threatened by lack of use or decline but instead because of being based in areas newly attractive to investors, alongside other external factors, a story very pertinent at a time when, according to one report, London lost 30% of its venues between 2007 and 2015.  

Hidden revenues in playing ‘unsigned stages’ on the festival circuit – Matt Brennan

Music festival season for young, inexperienced, and unsigned artists, can be a time spent anxiously waiting to see whether they are one of the chosen few selected to perform on the ‘unsigned stages’ that are present at most major festivals in the country.

Less well known than the much-touted exposure that they can bring an unsigned band is the introduction that they bring to the PRS whose collection of revenues from events like festivals is hotly disputed by promoters. Here, Matt Brennan discusses the implications and advantages for unsigned bands of a relationship with the agency.  

Is the price of recorded music heading towards zero? – Will Page (2006)

The paper offers a framework to help understand the economics behind the commonly held observation that the price of recorded music is ‘heading towards zero’. This economic approach helps show us how recorded music has long lost any notion of being a ‘pure private good’ and now risks becoming a ‘pure public good’.  

Economic Insight 15: Adding up the music industry for 2008

Author(s): Will Page Organisation / Affiliation: Performing Right Society Date: 20/07/2009 Report assessing the total value of the U.K music industry. Addresses methodological issues in creating such a figure and provides comparative date- including estimates of figures for different sectors. Notes the likely effect of the wider economic downturn. Total figure given as £3.6 billion for 2008. Live music grew …