Music venues are closing “under extreme and totally unnecessary financial pressures”, an industry body has warned as it outlined how businesses are being taken over by non-profit organisations to meet rising costs.
The Music Venue Trust (MVT) said that venues are closing at a lower rate, with 46 settings shutting doors in 2024, when compared to 2023 – the worst year in decades for the sector.
A total of 40 venues are also no longer operating as grass roots music spaces, MVT reported.
In 2023, a total of 125 spaces closed or stopped hosting live music, accounting for 16% of grassroots venues.
Mark Davyd, chief executive of MVT, said: “The 2024 annual report recognises that, after 10 years of work by MVT, a very broad consensus has been built among politicians, industry, artists and the public that grassroots music venues must be protected, supported, encouraged and nurtured.
“In 2025, we have to see that consensus bring forward positive, practical interventions in the real world.
“Venues, despite all the very welcome good intentions and acknowledgements they are receiving for their vital work, are still closing, still under extreme and totally unnecessary financial pressures, still failing to be recognised, as everyone agrees they should and must be, when government designs policy, taxation, and legislation.
“It isn’t good enough to keep saying how much we all value them, we’ve got to practically do something about it. We need action not words.”
The report also found how the impact extended to key British towns and cities such as: Bath, Bedford, Cambridge, Derby, Dundee, Galashiels, Hull, Leicester, Newport, Northampton, Norwich, Portsmouth, Wolverhampton, Stoke, Reading, Windsor, Wolverhampton, and York – which the MVT identified as no longer key areas where primary and secondary music tours regularly stop.
It said the result of the closures means a decrease in the total number of live music shows (down 8.3% since 2023) along with a decline in ticket revenues (down 13.5% since 2023).
A survey of the 810 members of the Music Venues Alliance (MVA), found that 33% of grassroots venues are now registered as not-for profit entities – a 29% increase since 2023.
MVT claims “this means that the sector as a whole effectively subsidised live music activity to the tune of £162 million”.
In 2024, MVT had a 97.6% success record on having planning applications near venues rejected after the making of a complaint.
The Culture, Media and Sport Committee, previously called for a levy on tickets to large concerts at stadiums and arenas to help fund grassroots venues, which the Government has backed if voluntary.
The Government said an “industry-led” levy “within the price of a ticket” would be the quickest and most effective way for revenues from the biggest shows to help the grassroots sector.
