Your Questions Answered
How will the Live Music Act Affect me?
I’m a musician – how do I get a gig?
Where are the venues in my hometown?
How do I know my ticket is legitimate?
Are festivals in decline?
What’s all the fuss over secondary ticketing about?
Where can I find out about the economic effects of festivals?
‘How will the Live Music Act affect me?’
- In England and Wales, performances of live amplified music to audiences of less than 200 people between the hours of 8am-11pm will no longer require local authority permission.
- There will be no audience limit for performances of unamplified live music.
- Hamish Birchall, a leading figure behind the campaign for the new act, explains some of its key features in this blog post.
- You can read the Live Music Act 2012 here.
- Here is a copy of the DCMS Report into the Licensing Act that contributed to the Live Music Act.
‘I’m a musician – how do I get a gig?’
- You can read a guide to getting gigs created by Jazzworks here.
- A Musicians’ Union guide for venues with useful information is here.
- The Musicians’ Union website also provides advice.
- Music writer Sam Saunders discusses some of the potential pitfalls here.
- Matt Brennan discusses some of the advantages of a relationship with the PRS here.
- A guide to playing live produced by Generator is here.
- Tips and tricks for playing solo gigs from Tom Robinson can be found here.
- A BBC guide to playing live.
‘What are the venues in my home town?‘
- The Generator directory is a useful searchable resource with a comprehensive list of venues.
- The industry publication Music Week also offers a directory to subscribers (walled content).
- Here is PRS press release listing the UK’s top 100 venues compiled from an analysis of over 10,000 events.
‘How do I know my ticket is legitimate?‘
- The Society of Ticket Agents and Retailers provides a code of practice and ‘kite mark’.
- You can get guidance and a list of their members here.
- A blog post here examines the reasons for festival cancellations, with a follow up here.
- This Guardian article looks at the background to recent cancellations.
- This report examines the relationship between festivals and local tourism.
- An online interview with prominent promoters Michael Eavis (Glastonbury) and Rob da Bank.
- Summary of a YouGov report into falling festival attendance. A link to the full report (walled content) can be found here.
‘What’s all the fuss over secondary ticketing about?‘
- The Channel Dispatches documentary about the scandal can be viewed here.
- This blog post looks at some of the underlying issues, including the nature of a ticket itself.
- A brief summary of a report by the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee into ticket touting can be found here.
- A summary of the report by the Office of Fair Trading into ‘Ticket Agents in the UK’ can be found here.
- This blog post examines the current scandal in light of historical events regarding the recording industry.
‘Where can I find out about the economic effect of festivals?’
- This website contains downloads with impact studies of the Edinburgh festivals.
- A summary of a report into the economic impact of the Reading Festival (2009) is available here.
- A summary of findings on the economic impact of the Glastonbury festival (2007) with links to the full report is available here.
- A summary of the Economic Impact Assessment for T in the Park (2005) is available here.
- A summary of the second annual survey by the Association of Independent Festivals is available here.
- Information from an article about the contribution of music festivals to local tourism can be found here.
- A UK Music report on the contribution of festivals and major events to tourism in the UK can be found here.
- A report on the impact of folk festivals on cultural tourism is available here.
- This blog post investigates the nature of the term ‘impact’ and some of the uses to which it is put.