23/07/2019: UK Music CEO Michael Dugher called on new Tory leader and incoming PM Boris Johnson to take swift action on a range of challenges facing the UK music industry and delivered a strong warning over the threat of a “cliff-edge” Brexit.
In a keynote speech at the Musicians’ Union conference in Brighton today (Tuesday), Mr Dugher outlined the areas where Mr Johnson should act to safeguard the music industry which contributes £4.5 billion a year to the UK economy.
His intervention came just moments after the former Foreign Secretary was revealed as the new Conservative leader after defeating Jeremy Hunt in the run-off for the top job.
Mr Dugher praised Mr Johnson’s work as Mayor of London when he established the Music Venue Taskforce which paved the way for the “pioneering” London Music Board which has driven important victories under his successor Mayor Sadiq Khan.
The UK Music chief highlighted the key issues which the new Tory leader must confront as he prepared to move into Downing Street.
Mr Dugher’s comments came as the Government today gave its backing to a number of key UK Music policies in its response to the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee’s report on the live music industry.
Music In Education
Mr Dugher said:
“Whilst we have made a little progress in terms of engaging with the Department for Education, the truth is music in education remains in a perilous state.
“Reversing the decline of music in state education must be a major priority for our new Prime Minister. We desperately need more action from Government.”
“OFQUAL statistics on the number of entries between 2014 and 2019 show a decline of 30 per cent in the number of pupils taking A-Level Music.
“50 per cent of children at independent schools receive sustained music tuition, whilst the figure for state schools is only 15 per cent.
“As part of what ministers call a “refresh” of the National Plan for Music Education, the new Government should establish a universal access to music principle within state education. That every child from every background should have access to music in their education – not just those who can access the Bank of Mum and Dad.
“If we don’t sort out music in our state education, as an industry and as a country, when it comes to the talent pipeline, we are in danger of drawing water from a well that’s getting smaller and smaller.”
Copyright Directive
Mr Dugher said in his speech that UK Music would “gently remind” Mr Johnson that supporting the Copyright Directive was the policy of the Government when he was Foreign Secretary.
Mr Dugher said:
“The Government must stand up for music creators when faced with the likes of Google who continue to make billions of dollars by exploiting the content made by others without paying fair rewards to music creators.”
“I was really proud of our successful #LoveMusic campaign and I make no apology for continuing to take the fight to big tech – and I want to thank the MU for all of its support.
“The Copyright Directive presents an important potential opportunity to address the value gap and UK Music remains committed to its implementation.
“Yet we know that with a ‘no deal’ Brexit and without a transitional phase or the withdrawal agreement, implementation of the Copyright Directive won’t happen.
“That’s why UK Music has called on the Government to set out an urgent roadmap to spell out how it will implement that Directive in the event of a no deal Brexit.”
Brexit
On Brexit, Mr Dugher urged Mr Johnson to avoid throwing the UK Music industry over a Brexit cliff.
Mr Dugher said:
“We will continue to support the MU and your members to highlight the need for touring artists and musicians to be able to move freely without the kind of cost and bureaucracy that, frankly, could make playing across Europe simply not viable for so many UK musicians. Equally, our studios, festivals and venues need to be able to bring in talent from the EU.
“My explicit message to our new Government on Brexit is this – you may be prepared to see a ‘no deal’ Brexit at the end of October. You may be happy to leap off the edge of a cliff, but please, please don’t throw the British music industry over there with you.”
Rate Relief For Venues
In his speech Mr Dugher also outlined the importance of supporting grassroots music venues, saying:
“On venues, we are calling for business rate relief to be extended to include small grassroots music venues. At present these venues are not eligible for new relief because the Treasury says they are – and I quote – “not similar in nature” to pubs and clubs. This is a nonsense, it’s discriminatory and it’s damaging. Some venues have seen their business rates increase by over 800 per cent.
“We may have stemmed the tide of venue closures in London recently, thanks to things like Agent of Change, but according to the Music Venues Trust, we have lost 35 per cent of grassroots music venues in the past decade or so.
“Rectifying this needs to be in the new Chancellor’s in-tray.”
Inclusion
Mr Dugher concluded his speech to the Musicians’ Union with a “final, really important ask of our new Government”.
The UK Music CEO said:
“Working in music must be inclusive to all.
At present 34 per cent of creative industries workers are self-employed, compared to 15 per cent of the working population. In music, performing and visual arts, its 61 per cent.
“They are, however, not eligible for shared parental leave. The next Government must back the #SelfieLeave campaign. Failure to do so will continue to institutionalise an inequality between men and women that has a serious impacts on our industry.
“Working with the MU, UK Music remains deeply committed to improving diversity within our workforce. We will continue to survey and report on Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority and female representation. As our Diversity Report, published last December made clear, yes progress has been made in recent years but with we still have much, much more work needed to be truly representative.
“That’s why as a member of the Creative Industries Council, I was pleased earlier this month to sign a new Diversity Charter on behalf of UK Music and our members to improve diversity across the creative industries.”
Read more here:
FULL MUSICIANS UNION SPEECH FROM UK MUSIC MICHAEL DUGHER BELOW
Michael Dugher Speech – MU Conference – July 2019
Thank you. It’s great to be here along with Peter Leathem, CEO of PPL, one of the board directors of UK Music and star on the front cover of the latest edition of Music Week. PPL, chaired now of course by your outstanding former General Secretary John Smith, do a brilliant job and as one of our principal funders, none of what we do at UK Music with the MU would be possible without their support – so thank you Peter.
It’s also great to be here with Kevin Brennan MP, Tom Watson’s Deputy in the Shadow DCMS team. I say this as CEO of UK Music but also from my time in the House of Commons, there is no greater friend and champion of the MU in Parliament than Kevin Brennan.
It is two years since I spoke at your last conference and I’d like to reflect on what we have achieved together in that time, but also more importantly to address the issues we still face together as an industry.
This morning the Government published its official response to the recent report from the House of Commons DCMS Select Committee into live music. Both the report and the response demonstrate the impact UK Music, together with the MU, are having and its critical we maintain this momentum.
In the next 24 hours we will, in effect, have a new Government. Now it may not be the new Government that many of you wish to see, but we will have a new Prime Minister, a new Chancellor, a new Cabinet. And I think it’s important that today we set out our stall. That we spell out what we as UK Music will ask of this new government on behalf of our industry, our musicians – your members.
But first of all I’d like to pay tribute to one particular area of the MU’s work and that is the proactive approach your union has taken to tackling sexual harassment and abuse in the workplace.
UK Music is proud to support the Code of Practice your union has agreed. We regularly guide potential victims to the expert support and advice that you as a union offer. This is really vital work. It is something that Naomi raised again at the last UK Music Board meeting and we look forward to working with the MU to how we can further develop our collaboration in this area.
And I also want to pay a tribute to your General Secretary, Horace, and not just for the leadership and commitment he has shown in this area.
Early on in my career, I worked in the trade union movement for what was the old Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union, working with my old mate and that other great friend of the MU, now the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Tom Watson, more than 20 years ago.
Our General Secretary at the time was a man called Ken Jackson – a short, no nonsense Lancastrian. The phrase “not to suffer fools gladly” could have been invented for Ken.
I remember once when an employer complained to Ken about what they saw as the unreasonableness of his shop stewards. Ken Jackson dismissed this by simply saying: “The worst employer deserves the worst shop stewards”.
But I can honestly say that here at the MU, you have the best of general secretaries.
Horace knows his membership inside out.
He is relentless. He is fearless. He is totally dedicated to the membership.
The one word I now associate with the MU is ‘campaigning’. This is a great campaigning union. And that is due in no small part to the drive and leadership of Horace.
I was at a meeting recently of the Government’s Creative Industries Council and the Minister for Immigration quoted back at me something Horace had said to her at a meeting a few weeks before, when Horace had been arguing for the continued free movement of musicians.
Now I know we live in strange times politically, but a Conservative Immigration Minister praying in aid the General Secretary of the MU – about how a crude cap on salaries and a quota based on formal skills just won’t work for musicians. I thought we might not be there yet on policy, but the Government are certainly hearing the message.
The MU’s #WorkingintheEU pledge is getting traction, but we have a huge amount of work to do in this area and in others.
So this week is a significant week for the country. That’s why I want to talk today about what should be in the ‘in-tray’ for Prime Minister Boris.
Firstly, we should acknowledge we did have some success with Boris Johnson when he was Mayor of London.
Thanks to our combined efforts and in the face of huge concerns about the closures of grassroots music venue in the capital, Boris established the Music Venue Taskforce, which both UK Music and the MU sat on. This paved the way for the pioneering London Music Board, which has in itself driven important victories under my friend the current Mayor of London Sadiq Khan.
And I’m pleased to say that in the last two years UK Music has established similar Music Boards in Liverpool City Region and in Sheffield City Region, under their respective mayors. In both cases, I’m pleased to report that UK Music successfully argued for the MU to be part of those Music Boards.
Only last week, the Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham announced that following UK Music’s six-month review into supporting the music scene in Greater Manchester, he would be accepting our recommendation for a Music Board to cover that part of the country too – and UK Music will again be arguing that this has to include the Musicians’ Union.
The Music Board in London has achieved success. It was a driving force behind Agent for Change to protect venues from developers – a major victory for UK Music, the MU, the Music Venue Trust and grassroots campaigners. Also in tackling the discrimination that was at the heart of ‘Form 696’.
When he was Mayor of London, Boris Johnson also established the ground-breaking London Mayor’s Music Fund, which has increased opportunities for young people in the capital through music. Horace and I were together for their annual event recently to raise funds and awareness. If anyone doubts the importance of music in education, seeing the work of the London Mayor’s Music Fund shows you the transformative impact that it can have.
And whilst we have made a little progress in terms of engaging with the Department for Education, the truth is music in education remains in a perilous state. Reversing the decline of music in state education must be a major priority for our new Prime Minister. We desperately need more action from Government.
OFQUAL statistics on the number of entries between 2014 and 2019 show a decline of 30 per cent in the number of pupils taking A-Level Music.
50 per cent of children at independent schools receive sustained music tuition, whilst the figure for state schools is only 15 per cent.
Research from the MU uncovered that families with a total household income of less than £28,000 are half as likely to have a child learning an instrument as more affluent peers with a family income of £48,000 or more.
89 per cent of independent schools run a choir in lunchtime or after-school compared to only 60 per cent of the most disadvantaged state schools.
12 per cent of the most deprived schools have an orchestra, compared to 85 per cent of independent schools.
According to UK Music’s 2018 report ‘Securing Our Talent Pipeline’, 17 per cent of music creators were educated at independent schools, compared to only 7 per cent across the population as a whole.
In the same report we revealed 46 per cent of music creators received financial help from friends and family to support the development of their career.
As part of what ministers call a “refresh” of the National Plan for Music Education, the new Government should establish a universal access to music principle within state education. That every child from every background should have access to music in their education – not just those who can access the Bank of Mum and Dad.
As Kevin Brennan has said: talent is everywhere, opportunity is not.
That’s why we need a broad and balanced curriculum. The creative industries are worth over £100 billion to the economy and are the fastest growing part of the economy. In a world increasingly built on automation and advancement through technology, our children need to be more creative, not less. This is the economic imperative of music in education.
Access to music also helps with a child’s wider education. Children who are engaged in education through music do better at core subjects, they do better at their Maths and English. So narrowing the curriculum is also a dumb education policy too.
The next National Plan must also ensure music education has sustained funding. We must improve support for teacher training. We must improve the OFSTED inspection framework so that a school cannot be marked outstanding if it lacks a creative education provision. And we should increase the number of rehearsal spaces and other facilities for young people outside of school hours.
The next National Plan for Music Education should be based on an independent analysis of the performance of Music Education Hubs. The Hubs were the cornerstone of the initial National Plan, but their success is mixed. It’s not good for the Arts Council to mark it’s own homework.
Conference, if we don’t sort out music in our state education, as an industry and as a country, when it comes to the talent pipeline, we are in danger of drawing water from a well that’s getting smaller and smaller.
So what else should be in Boris’ in-tray?
As well as sorting out music in education, the next thing we need from our new government is fair rewards for music creators.
Some of you may have seen that the Government published a white paper on tackling online harms. We support the Government’s objectives in combatting terrorism, child exploitation, as well as creating a powerful new regulator to deal with harms, hate and fake news online.
But we feel that the white paper also presents an important opportunity to ensure the digital market works better for music creators. That’s why we have argued that the Government should widen the scope of potential legislation to tackle economic harm, such as copyright infringement, and the organised crime that lies behind it.
Now some of you may have seen that in March Boris Johnson tweeted criticising the EU Copyright Directive. Now I could gently remind Boris that supporting the Copyright Directive was in fact the policy of the Government when he was the Foreign Secretary. But I won’t…
But what I will say is that the Government must stand up for music creators when faced with the likes of Google who continue to make billions of dollars by exploiting the content made by others without paying fair rewards to music creators.
I was really proud of our successful #LoveMusic campaign and I make no apology for continuing to take the fight to big tech – and I want to thank the MU for all of its support.
The Copyright Directive presents an important potential opportunity to address the value gap and UK Music remains committed to its implementation.
Yet we know that with a ‘no deal’ Brexit and without a transitional phase or the withdrawal agreement, implementation of the Copyright Directive won’t happen. That’s why UK Music has called on the Government to set out an urgent roadmap to spell out how it will implement that Directive in the event of a no deal Brexit.
And whilst we’re on the subject of Brexit, we will continue to support the MU and your members to highlight the need for touring artists and musicians to be able to move freely without the kind of cost and bureaucracy that, frankly, could make playing across Europe simply not viable for so many UK musicians. Equally, our studios, festivals and venues need to be able to bring in talent from the EU.
My explicit message to our new Government on Brexit is this – you may be prepared to see a ‘no deal’ Brexit at the end of October. You may be happy to leap off the edge of a cliff, but please, please don’t throw the British music industry over there with you.
Right, what else is on our list?
Here’s one for the new chancellor:
On venues, we are calling for business rate relief to be extended to include small grassroots music venues. At present these venues are not eligible for new relief because the Treasury says they are – and I quote – “not similar in nature” to pubs and clubs. This is a nonsense, it’s discriminatory and it’s damaging. Some venues have seen their business rates increase by over 800 per cent.
We may have stemmed the tide of venue closures in London recently, thanks to things like Agent of Change, but according to the Music Venues Trust, we have lost 35 per cent of grassroots music venues in the past decade or so.
Rectifying this needs to be in the new Chancellor’s in-tray.
One final, really important ask of our new Government:
Working in music must be inclusive to all.
At present 34 per cent of creative industries workers are self-employed, compared to 15 per cent of the working population. In music, performing and visual arts, its 61 per cent.
They are, however, not eligible for shared parental leave. The next Government must back the #SelfieLeave campaign. Failure to do so will continue to institutionalise an inequality between men and women that has a serious impacts on our industry.
Working with the MU, UK Music remains deeply committed to improving diversity within our workforce. We will continue to survey and report on Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority and female representation. As our Diversity Report, published last December made clear, yes progress has been made in recent years but with we still have much, much more work needed to be truly representative.
That’s why as a member of the Creative Industries Council, I was pleased earlier this month to sign a new Diversity Charter on behalf of UK Music and our members to improve diversity across the creative industries.
Conference, I want to conclude my remarks this afternoon by highlighting a point of celebration before signalling a note of caution.
The British music industry is enjoying a fantastic and renewed period of success and that is something we should absolutely celebrate.
As UK Music’s flagship ‘Measuring Music’ Report showed, music makes a £4.5 billon contribution to the UK economy.
Music exports growing by 7%.
Last year, Ed Sheeran was the biggest-selling touring artist in the world, building on 2017 when 5 of the top 10 biggest world tours were by UK acts.
3 of the top 4 most popular live arenas anywhere on the planet are here in the UK.
In 7 of the last 11 years, the biggest selling album in the world has been by a UK artist.
Year after year, decade after decade, this country produces incredibly creative music talent that consistently takes the world by storm. People around the world still look in awe at British musicians and our music creators.
On almost every economic indicator, this is an industry that out performs the national average.
Except on one thing – and this is my note of caution: Average earnings in the music industry remain below that of the rest of the economy. Whilst ever that continues to be the case, UK Music will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the MU.
The Musicians’ Union is a great union. It is today a great campaigning union. And unlike many others, it is a growing union.
I was proud to join the MU at your conference two years ago. The MU is a vital part of the UK Music family and we look forward to working with you and your members in these defining months and years to come for our country.
Many thanks.
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