‘Current Economic Models For Grassroots Live Music Are Not Working’ Finds Music Venue Trust Annual Report

As is tradition, the UK’s Music Venue Trust (MVT), which represents hundreds of UK grassroots music venues (GMVs), has published its Annual Report 2025, revealing a grassroots music sector that contributes over £500 million ($672 million) annually to the UK economy, but remains structurally fragile, with venues operating on average profit margins of just 2.5%.

More findings from the report, taken from MVT’s summary published to the press today: “more than half (53%) of the UK’s GMVs showed no profit at all in 2025, with UK Government changes to national insurance and business rates resulting in a loss of 6,000 jobs (a 19% contraction in the overall workforce) as venues struggled to meet unsustainable tax burdens.”

The report finds, that “the majority of GMVs are now one financial shock away from crisis, while the national touring circuit continues to contract. Over the past year alone, 30 GMVs permanently closed, and 175 UK towns and cities, home to an estimated 25 million people, no longer receive regular touring shows by professional artists.”

As the Trust has been highlighting for years, GMVs are the talent incubators of the live entertainment world. If they close in droves, emerging artists are being starved of essential development opportunities, which in turn undermines the talent pipeline that underpins the wider UK live music and recording industries.

The MVT identifies financial viability as the primary cause, concluding that “current economic models for grassroots live music are no longer working.”

Speaking at the launch for the Annual Report held at V&A South Kensington in London, UK, CEO Mark Davyd laid out MVT’s plan of action, moving decisively from crisis response towards sector revival.

While expanding its frontline Venue Support Team and Emergency Hardship Relief Fund to prevent avoidable closures. The Venue Support Team is a national emergency support service providing expert advice on planning, licensing, legal and financial issues to prevent closures. The Emergency Hardship Relief Fund can grant up to £10,000 ($13,450) for venues facing imminent closure due to crises such as fire, flood, or sudden financial shock.

MVT will also invest £2 million ($2.7 million) immediately into a number of targeted programs designed to permanently reduce costs and improve sustainability.

These projects include:

• Venue MOT: a diagnostic and improvement program to help venues cut costs, improve operational efficiency and increase income
• Off the Grid: installing solar and battery systems in GMVs to eliminate energy bills
• Stay the Night: grants to create or upgrade artist accommodation and backstage facilities
• Raise the Standard: capital grants for professional sound and lighting equipment to improve artist and audience experience and support technical staff

Collectively, these initiatives aim to reduce operating costs while strengthening venues’ long-term viability.

A centrepiece of the plan is the development of Liveline, a fully funded national touring program in partnership with Save Our Scene and the Association of Independent Promoters, designed to address the root causes of the touring crisis. By covering venue costs, reducing promoter risk and guaranteeing artist fees, Liveline aims to restore a viable touring network to towns that have been excluded from professional live music, reconnecting artists with audiences across the UK.

Mark Davyd, MVT CEO and founder, said, “The future of British music depends on stabilizing and rebuilding the grassroots touring network. The arrival of Grassroots Levy funding in 2026 will provide the opportunity to take a radical new approach and that is exactly what we intend to do. For ten years Music Venue Trust has explored the best ideas from around the world, worked with our sector to understand what would make the biggest difference to them, and brought forward innovative, groundbreaking ideas that we can now deliver practically. This is no longer just about rescue, it is about working with our partners and colleagues, including the crucial role to be played by the LIVE Trust, to deliver investment and reform that restores the infrastructure that music careers are built on.”

Alongside its own interventions, MVT, a registered UK charity, has also set out a clear set of demands for government action, calling for fundamental tax reform to address pre-profit taxation, permanent legal protection for venues through enshrining Agent of Change in law, and the creation of a permanent Live Music Commission to implement the Fan-Led Review and provide national leadership.

The charity also makes clear that if a voluntary industry contribution mechanism cannot be proven to work by June 2026, the government must legislate a statutory Grassroots Levy to secure sustained investment into the sector.

Added Davyd, “We have reached the limits of what venues can absorb on margins of 2.5%. This sector has done all it can to keep music live in our communities, it now needs permanent protection, structural reform, and leadership that recognizes grassroots venues as essential national infrastructure. That obviously needs to come in the form of a coherent strategy from government, but they are not the sole solution. The music industry itself is in the last chance saloon with regards to the levy; if voluntary industry action does not deliver by June 2026, the government must legislate.”

Additional recommendations from the report include reforms to unlock investment via tax reliefs, coordinated action to reduce post-Brexit touring barriers, and ensuring that public funding schemes explicitly support the grassroots talent pipeline they ultimately rely on.

The Music Venue Trust Annual Report 2025 can be viewed in full here.

MVT also runs its own podcast, called ‘The Last Safe Space’.

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