The Artist Pledge

Music Venue Trust has been campaigning for the upper echelons of the music industry to reinvest in the grassroots for the past 5 years. Our proposal is simple: Every ticket sold at arena and stadium level contains a levy as a financial contribution back into the grassroots.

The charity’s work on a levy, to ensure the economic sustainability of the Grassroots Music Venue sector – the artists that play in them, the people that work in them and the audiences who make up their communities – has made some advances but progress has been slow. Industry representatives regularly tell us that change will need to be artist-led.

We have realised that the best way to work towards long-term investment in the music ecosystem is to engage with grassroots artists now and gain their commitment to make it easier for those who follow them. We are asking artists to pledge that their future success will acknowledge where they came from and contribute a small amount of money back into the grassroots sector, if and when they reach arena and major festival level.

We want to ensure that the talent pipeline is supported, offering opportunities to a wide range of aspiring musicians from across the UK, so that everyone who dreams of being a musician feels that is a possibility for them.