Brand Funded Grassroots Music
There have been plenty of well meaning campaigns and hashtags over the past year in music #BrokenRecord #LetTheMusicPlay #Venues. As well as a large amount of money paid out to support cultural organisations and venues across the UK. As we prepare to come out of the latest lockdown I want to get something off my chest.
I get to confront the reality of the commercial support into music events, organisations and businesses all the time. It's a large part of the role I perform for some of my clients. I have been keeping an eye on those that have been active, and those that have hidden away.
Music has always been a great marketing angle for all kinds of brands. Alongside Sport, they are out on their own in their power and influence. Some brands take the long term view, Levi’s for example, or Dr Martens. They have built around music for donkey's years. Others do so in cycles, normally when the brand director changes and they want tickets to the European Championships instead of Glastonbury.
In short, brands who’ve benefited from culture need to start giving back to that culture. And after we’ve all waited so long for this pandemic to end, and the music has been on pause, how should these brands change and help the industry flourish in meaningful ways? How can they work with the industry when it is on the brink of collapse? And who can they learn from?
I’m just one of thousands of people with an opinion on this, but I thought I’d use this new blog as a way to spout some opinion, call out some people that have impressed me, shame some that haven’t and try and flirt with the ones I have an idea for.
It had been almost 15 months of closure for many musicians and venues. Despite the best efforts of many to innovate, and there have been some great examples, the reality is, all it did was help the rich or more established get richer, or more PR. I’ve read lots of glowing reviews of shows by acts such as Nick Cave, Dua Lipa, Kylie, Biffy Clyro, Billie Eilish and many more who have done huge numbers on streamed shows. I’ve also seen the numbers, for a few of these, they took home more money than they would have earned for headlining festivals last summer. Not bad work if you can get it.
However, I have worked on, or been approached for at least 10 shows in the past 12 months with musicians who do not benefit from the same advantage these others had in terms of fanbase. Therefore ticket sales were never going to guarantee the kind of returns for the show to even cover its production costs, let alone deliver eye watering profits.
So where are the brands in all this ? Well, McDonalds & American Express have sponsored or created streamed shows for huge artists like Sam Smith, Stormzy, Lewis Capaldi, Jess Glynn and more. All of whom could have comfortably sold their own shows.
I took at least 3 very different proposals to over 50 brands for sponsorship with lineups that needed a little more consideration. The artists involved were not all household names, they didn’t have the vast (and largely passive) social media following, or they didn’t guarantee millions of eye balls that a free ticket to the McDonalds - ‘Im Lovin’ it Live, mega lineup had.
Music has always worked in cycles, both in terms of fame and genre. The smart brands have always known the best time to get involved is at the beginning and stick with it. There is no better social currency than telling your mates about the next big thing, and then being proved right about it.
Right now, we risk a ‘lost generation’ of musical talent, because this hiatus has left many of us who live by new music discovery under served. So where does that take us next…? Well, your local small venue isn’t waiting for Kylie’s promoter to call up and book a 200 cap space on a Tuesday night in June.
It seems to me, there is a huge gap here for a coalition of brand partners to join the dots and do something amazing. Imagine a selection of brands, each from a key sector attached to live music (drinks, food, fashion, tech etc), forming an Avengers like team to underwrite a month of live music in every small venue. No genres, just emerging talent everywhere you look across the UK. Throw in the odd big name who gives a shit about helping and then there are a few nice underplays to boost the PR. Ensuring the lineups provide the kind of gender balance and opportunities that many festivals still seem to miss the elephant in the room on, while we are at it.
After a long wait for live to return, it is no surprise to see a huge demand result in many large scale events selling out their weekend festivals in record time. Great news. Well, kind of. I mean, Festival Republic won’t go bust if they have to cancel Reading & Leeds, especially with all our ticket money in their account for 12 months. Boomtown didn’t want to take the risk on paying out now to suppliers for late August dates with no insurance in place to cover any unknown consequences of the 21st June reopening. Venues don’t (on the whole) sell tickets, and they need footfall now. Our next generation of talent needs to build fanbases, and unless some of the brand money in the space looks at a strategy for new music, then it won’t happen.
