On Friday, as the dust settled on the local elections the UK's Prime Minister was busy writing a letter to music fans.
You may have missed the letter from the PM to you, the music fan, which was published by the NME, so here's what he did and - crucially - didn't say.
“To all live music fans,
“I grew up with music all around me. I listened to it at home. I played the flute, piano, recorder and violin. And I also know there is nothing quite like the atmosphere and feeling of watching live music.
“Even now as Prime Minister, to wind down at the end of a long day I will put music on with the family. So I know firsthand how important it is to the people of this country – one that is the birthplace of current superstars from your industry like Olivia Dean, Adele, Ed Sheeran, and Dua Lipa – that they are able to afford the escape of going to a live event such as a concert or a gig at the end of a long week.
Hang on, not to be pedantic but I thought this was to all live music fans, and suddenly the letter switches to address the "industry"?
However, it's great to see a shoutout to the British-Albanian pop phenomenon, book club mogul, and good egg Dua Lipa.
Notably, Dua was also one of the artists who wrote to the PM to make good on his Labour manifesto pledge back in November, before they finally announced the results of their consultation and that some action was going to take place a few days later.
“And our creative industries are booming. I’ve made them one of the eight sectors of our Modern Industrial Strategy so that we can keep backing you with big commitments from government. You are an engine for economic renewal across our country, bringing billions into the British economy, creating jobs and opportunity.
“I have made a commitment to put fans first, and working with the Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy I will make sure this happens as quickly as possible.
Here's where it starts to feel like the PM is on autopilot, repeating wording from their manifesto and their press release in November promising to put a cap on ticket resell prices, which would effectively end the rip off of ticket touts.
In this next bit, see if you can find a commitment as to when this will happen. For context, the recent letter from Which? that we wrote about last week was about getting this commitment into the King's Speech, which takes place this week:
“We will crackdown on ruthless ticket touts preying on music fans by selling tickets for exorbitant and unaffordable prices, stopping them from seeing their favourite artists. Let me get that straight.
“We will protect fans so they can keep more of their hard-earned cash, by making it illegal for tickets to live events to be resold for more than their original cost.
“And I want to make it clear
Uh-oh, the dreaded phrase to hear a politician use.
...that I welcome British artists coming out in defence of their fans, who spend this hard-earned cash day in day out to follow them to venues around the country.
“If we are going to crack down on unscrupulous ticket touts and really put fans first, we must work with groups and people across the sector – including fans, performers and campaigners – as well as parliamentarians to ensure we get it right the first time and make the lasting change you want and deserve.
“And that is what we will do. We will make progress on the legislation to protect fans and create a policy that will stand the test of time. This is the first step to stamping touts out for good.”
"Make progress" - what does that mean? When? How?
Letter source: NME
Get to know our new podcast co-host Helena Wadia on this week's DiS playlist powered by Qobuz.
Explore new music in rich Hi-Res lossless quality with Qobuz, and click this link to access a 30-day free trial.
Starmer's letter comes hot on the heels of the Fan-Led Review of Live and Electronic Music, which involved over 4000 music fans having their say and small groups of passionate music fans meeting with members of the Culture Media and Sport committee (full disclosure: that included me at an event with 20 or so others that took place at Ministry of Sound and it was such an interesting few hours).
To help you digest the 100-page report and 50 fantastic recommendations, on this week's podcast Helena Wadia and myself explored the bits of the report which really stood out to us and how we would love to see gig-going evolve.
The Labour government have less than two months to respond to this report and we would really urge you to get your MP, mayor, councillors, and other representatives to read the fan-led review and hopefully act on it.
🎧 If you're not already subscribed, you can listen for to our podcast for music fans for free on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
