United Kingdom
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When the United Kingdom votes on July 4 to elect its next government, business leaders around the world will be closely monitoring the outcome to see what it means for them. For the music industry, the upcoming general election — announced by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday (May 22) — could also lead to major change depending on who wins.
According to the latest opinion polls, the Labour Party is more than 20 points ahead of the ruling Conservative Party, which has been in power for 14 years. Unless Sunak achieves an extraordinary turnaround in the next six weeks, Labour leader Keir Starmer is widely expected to be the next resident of Number 10 Downing Street, most likely with a big majority of Parliamentary seats.
Should that happen, Starmer has said he plans to make a number of reforms that will impact the world’s third-largest recorded music market, touring and regulation of the tech industry, all of which will reverberate beyond the United Kingdom’s borders.
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Tougher Rules for Ticket Resale Platforms and Prospect of Future Arena Tickets Tax
In March, Starmer announced that a future Labour government will cap the resale prices of concert tickets and introduce tougher regulations for secondary ticketing platforms such as Viagogo, which has already been subject to numerous investigations and inquiries in the United Kingdom.
The Labour policy would limit the number of tickets individual resellers could sell on resale platforms and give the U.K. competition watchdog greater powers to take “swift” action against services and scalpers who break the rules, Starmer said.
Any change at Number 10 could also have big implications for the global touring business. Earlier this month, a Parliamentary committee called for a new voluntary levy to be added to arena and stadium tickets sold in the United Kingdom to support struggling grassroots music venues.
To stem the tide of small venue closures, the Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) Committee said the voluntary levy should be introduced “no later” than September. If progress is not made, the government should set up a statutory levy, advised the committee, which also called for a cut in sales tax (VAT) on tickets for grassroots music shows.
Whichever political party wins on July 4, it will be expected to respond to the CMS committee report on the grassroots music sector. As for the committees themselves, they all cease to exist after Parliament is dissolved on May 30, although a new bunch will be formed after the election made up of a cross-party selection of MPs. They can pick new topics or industries to investigate — or can choose to build upon the work of their predecessors, meaning Parliamentary interest in the music business is unlikely to go away.
Given the huge contribution the U.K. music industry makes to the country’s economy — £6.7 billion ($8.2 billion) in music sales, concerts, recording studios, touring and music tourism in 2022, according to trade organization UK Music — government leaders will be keen to be seen doing all they can to protect the sector.
Regulating AI and Big Tech
Following the general election, the hot issue of regulating the use of artificial intelligence (AI) is likely to be near the top of the legislative agenda and will continue to be a source of heavy lobbying from the tech and music industries.
The current Conservative government has spent the past several years consulting on the topic but has yet to deliver any firm plans and has generally pursued a light touch “pro-innovation” approach to the regulation of AI.
In 2023, the government quietly shelved a proposal by The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) for a new text and data mining (TDM) exception that would have allowed AI developers to freely use copyright-protected works for commercial purposes (albeit with certain restrictions) following fierce criticism from the music industry.
Since then, there have been repeated calls from music trade groups like labels trade body BPI for the government to follow the European Union’s lead and defend creators, musicians and rights holders from the potential risks of generative AI models.
Earlier this month, the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Music called for a comprehensive “pro-creative industries” AI bill that protects the music business from the “threats” posed by the technology. Among its recommendations were banning AI developers from using copyright-protected music for training purposes without consent, as well as the requirement for tech companies to clearly label all AI-generated content.
If Sunak retains power, music executives will be keen to see him urgently press ahead with U.K.-specific legislation around AI and ensure the United Kingdom doesn’t fall behind other countries and markets in regulating the sector.
Labour’s position on AI, as outlined by Starmer last summer, is that they will bring in stronger regulations than the Conservatives, although details are thin on the ground and the party’s stance does appear to have softened in recent months as it attempts to court business leaders and tech executives by presenting itself as a “pro-innovation” government-in-waiting. Labour had been working on an AI strategy document ahead of the general election announcement, which it was expected to launch this month.
Addressing Artists’ and Songwriters’ Discontent Over Streaming Terms
Over the past four years, the United Kingdom has led the way in addressing artist discontent over low payments from music streaming. Since 2020, when the pandemic-enforced shutdown of the live industry brought the issue to the fore, there have been numerous Parliament-led inquiries into the record business, including a review of the major labels’ market dominance by the U.K. competition watchdog.
In December 2021, a bill was debated in Parliament that would have required record companies to pay musicians and songwriters a bigger cut of streaming revenue. It was defeated at the first stage, but the prospect of government intervention in the U.K. music business has seen record companies beef up their public policy teams and divert a huge amount of time and resources into dealing with the various probes.
The heightened scrutiny of the music industry has yet to result in any law changes, but it has increased pressure on labels to improve artist terms and contracts. A government-led working group focusing on creator remuneration recently launched (which insiders say is likely to continue post-election) and the noise around low streaming royalties for many artists is unlikely to die down anytime soon.
Last month, the Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) Committee published a report calling for government ministers to “do more to make sure music makers are paid fairly” and to press ahead with a package of sweeping copyright reforms. The committee’s recommendations included overhauling the revenue split between recording and publishing rights from music streaming, currently set at around 55% for recording and 15% for publishing, to better reward songwriters.
“It’s vital that any incoming administration ensures we deliver on recommendations made by the Culture Select Committee to reset the streaming market and support grassroots live touring,” says Annabella Coldrick, chief executive of the U.K. Music Managers Forum (MMF).
“More broadly, we need a government that values British music, puts it at the forefront of U.K. growth policy, and backs it with a credible music strategy to maximize our industry’s potential both domestically and internationally,” Coldrick adds.
Whether that responsibility falls to Sunak or Starmer will be determined by the British public on July 4. If Labour does win the general election, there’s a chance that two high-profile figures from the music world could join them in government. Dave Rowntree, the drummer for Blur, is running as the Labour candidate for the Conservative-held Mid Sussex seat, while Tom Gray, co-founder of indie rock band Gomez and chair of songwriters and composers body the Ivors Academy, is the party’s chosen candidate for the Brighton Pavilion constituency.
The troubled launch of Co-op Live, the United Kingdom’s biggest entertainment arena, has hit further difficulties with GM Gary Roden resigning from his role just a few days ahead of the venue’s already delayed opening.
Roden’s exit was announced late Thursday evening (April 25) U.K. time by Jessica Koravos, president of Oak View Group (OVG) International. “Gary Roden has decided to resign,” said Koravos in a statement. She went on to thank the outgoing exec for “his help bringing the UK’s newest arena to live entertainment fans” and wished him “the best for the future.”
Replacing Roden in the position of interim GM is Rebecca Kane Burton, who ran the U.K.’s highest-grossing venue, London’s The O2 arena, from 2012 to 2016 before serving as CEO of LW Theatres. Burton takes over at Co-op Live with immediate effect, said Koravos.
The change of leadership at Co-op Live follows a tumultuous week at the 23,500-capacity venue, which was originally due to open on Tuesday (April 23) with the first of two consecutive shows by British comedian Peter Kay.
Those plans were postponed after a heavily publicized preview show at the Manchester arena 48 hours prior, headlined by Rick Astley, which saw Co-op Live cut capacity, resulting in large numbers of fans’ tickets being canceled on short notice as the venue was not ready.
Two days later, Co-op Live announced that Kay’s opening shows were being rescheduled to Monday (April 29) and Tuesday (April 30) to give operators “the extra time we need to continue testing” the building’s infrastructure and power supply, according to a venue spokesperson.
At the time of publication, representatives of Co-op Live had not responded to inquiries from Billboard asking if the two Kay shows were still going ahead next week — or if a 10,000-capacity test concert by The Black Keys scheduled for Saturday (April 27) was still taking place.
Koravos’ statement doesn’t mention either upcoming event and simply says, “We are focused on opening Co-op Live.”
Set to be the United Kingdom’s biggest and most sustainable arena, Co-op Live is the first major project outside the United States from Oak View Group (OVG), the Denver-headquartered global management and development giant co-founded in 2015 by Tim Leiweke and Irving Azoff. (Harry Styles, who grew up in the small Cheshire village of Holmes Chapel, around 30 miles outside of Manchester, is an investor in the project and advised on aspects of the venue’s design).
Prior to his sudden and unexpected exit on Thursday, Roden had sparked ire from U.K. trade body The Music Venue Trust for comments he made in an interview with the BBC in which he reportedly said that some small grassroots venues were “poorly run” and that calls for a £1 ticket levy from every arena ticket to support pubs and clubs was “too simplistic.”
Referencing those comments, Koravos said that “neither Co-op Live nor Oak View Group share the sentiment expressed by former Co-op Live General Manager Gary Roden regarding the grassroots industry.”
Koravos went on to say that the venue remains “committed to grassroots music in Manchester and beyond” and will donate over £1 million a year to good causes via the Co-op Foundation.
“Oak View Group and Co-op Live remain happy to meet with grassroots organisations once the venue is fully operational,” Koravos’ statement concludes.
Artists confirmed to perform at the venue this year include the Eagles, Take That, Liam Gallagher, Olivia Rodrigo, Nicki Minaj, Kid Cudi, Slipknot, Eric Clapton, Pearl Jam, Justin Timberlake, Noah Kahan and Megan Thee Stallion.
Independently released songs and albums accounted for almost one-third of all music consumption in the United Kingdom last year, marking the sixth consecutive year of growth for the country’s indie sector, according to new figures from labels trade body BPI.
In total, the equivalent of more than 53 million independently released albums were streamed or purchased in 2023 across digital and physical formats, representing 29.2% of all music consumption in the U.K. That number is up 12% on 2022’s figure and marks an increase of almost 30% over the number seen in 2017 when indies accounted for just over one-fifth (22.1%) of music consumption.
Helping drive growth across the indie sector was the booming popularity of physical formats, with nearly four in every 10 vinyl LPs (39%) and just under one-third of CDs (33%) bought by British music fans last year having been released by artists signed to or distributed by an independent label, reports BPI.
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Arlo Parks, Kylie Minogue, Enter Shikari, The Prodigy and homegrown rappers Dave and AJ Tracey were among the most popular indie acts in the U.K. across digital and physical formats, along with recently-crowned multi-Brit Award-winning singer-songwriter Raye, whose single “Escapism” featuring 070 Shake was one of the U.K.’s biggest hits last year with 142 million streams.
However, there are a number of provisos to consider when analyzing the apparent growth of the U.K. indie market. BPI’s analysis of the sector is based on the Official Charts Company’s (OCC) data and definitions for what counts as an independent release. In essence, that means any album or song not attributed to the three majors — Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group — on the OCC database.
However, in addition to fully independent or self-released records, that broad classification includes some “indie” albums and songs distributed by major-owned companies like Sony-owned The Orchard or Warner-owned ADA. Raye, for example, is distributed by Sony-owned independent distributor Human Re Sources. BPI said it was unable to provide a more detailed breakdown of indie music consumption.
According to the London-based trade body, almost 400 indie singles and albums achieved BRIT-certified platinum, gold or silver sales status in 2023. (Platinum status in the United Kingdom is awarded for album-equivalent sales — representing combined consumption across formats — of more than 600,000 units for singles and more than 300,000 units for albums, with gold and silver awards having incrementally lower thresholds.)
In terms of vinyl releases, more than 200 indie titles sold more than 1,500 copies last year, including albums by alternative rock band Bdrmm and R&B singer Jorja Smith.
“It’s great to see independents thriving, and not just the more celebrated labels and their artists, but increasingly also a dynamic and entrepreneurial community of much smaller micro-labels and self-releasing artists that are redefining the sector and who, with support, can drive further growth,” said Femi Olasehinde, founder of U.K. indie imprint Just Another Label and BPI Council independent representative, in a statement.
Total U.K. recorded music revenue— comprising digital and physical revenues by majors and indie labels, public performance rights and synch — climbed 8.1% to 1.43 billion pounds ($1.8 billion) in 2023, BPI reported earlier this year. That’s the highest number ever achieved in the U.K. in one year, not adjusting for inflation, helping to maintain the U.K.’s long-held status as the world’s third-biggest recorded music market in IFPI’s annual rankings behind the United States and Japan.
BPI’s latest figures on the independent sector are taken from “All About The Music 2024,” the 45th edition of its yearbook measuring the state of the U.K.’s recorded music industry, which was published Tuesday (Apr. 16).
Included among BPI’s analysis are newly released statistics about the U.K. vinyl market, which climbed 18.6% to 142 million pounds ($181 million) in 2023, marking the 16th consecutive year of growth.
BPI said the rising popularity of pop releases helped drive the rise in vinyl revenue, with the genre accounting for nearly a quarter of the market (23.7%) of U.K. vinyl sales, up from 19.6% the previous year, on the back of big-selling albums by Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo and Lewis Capaldi.
Hip hop/rap also grew its share of the vinyl market to 5.3% in 2023, led by a re-issue of De La Soul’s 1989 debut, 3 Feet High and Rising, although rock comfortably remained the biggest genre among vinyl fans with a dominant 55% share of the market.
LONDON — From New Order to The Smiths, Oasis to The 1975, Buzzcocks to Take That, the list of famous music acts that have come out of Manchester, England, is long and illustrious. This month, another significant chapter in the northern U.K. city’s celebrated music scene begins with the opening of the 23,500-capacity Co-op Live — the United Kingdom’s biggest and most sustainable entertainment arena.
“We want this venue to be recognized as the next generation in arena facilities that sets the benchmark moving forward. The noise about this building, once it has opened, I think will reverberate a long way,” says GM Gary Roden as he sits in a temporary temporary office trailer next to the venue, shortly after taking Billboard on a behind-the-scenes tour.
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Due to open its doors April 23 with the first of two consecutive shows by British comedian Peter Kay, Co-op Live is the first major project outside the United States from Oak View Group (OVG), the Denver-headquartered global management and development giant co-founded in 2015 by Tim Leiweke and Irving Azoff, which operates more than 400 buildings globally.
In the last 16 months, OVG has built and opened seven new arenas, including the Climate Change Arena in Seattle, UBS Arena in New York and Acrisure Arena in Palm Springs, Calif. Arenas are also under development in Brazil, Nigeria, Canada and Wales. OVG COO Francesca Bodie (who is Leiweke’s daughter) says that starting the company’s international expansion in the United Kingdom was a “natural and deliberate step” to take due to the country’s status as “one of the greatest cultural destinations in the world.”
Bodie tells Billboard that Manchester was picked because of its “phenomenal musical heritage and community,” as well as OVG finding the “perfect” location to build a new facility in the city’s Eastlands district, next to Etihad Stadium — the 53,400-capacity home ground of Premier League and UEFA Champions League holder Manchester City football club. “We have built a great foundation in the U.S. and are now focused on projects further afield where we can deliver state-of-the-art venues in places that are in desperate need of something new,” she says.
Manchester City’s parent company, the City Football Group (which is majority-owned by Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates), is an equal joint-venture partner and investor with OVG in Co-op Live, which cost £365 million ($462 million) to build and was designed by Populous, the global design firm behind the Madison Square Garden-owned Las Vegas’ Sphere. Construction was handled by local firm BAM Construction, while the naming rights were awarded to Manchester-based Co-op Group in a 15-year sponsorship deal reported to be worth just under £100 million ($127 million).
Also listed among Co-op Live’s investors is multi-Grammy-winning pop star Harry Styles, who grew up in the small Cheshire village of Holmes Chapel, around 30 miles outside of Manchester, and advised on aspects of the venue’s design.
“To have an artist of that scale investing in our building and be advising us along the way is a very fortunate position to be in,” says Roden. “Tim Leiweke and his team spoke to him at the start of the process about what does an artist need from a building. ‘What matters to you?’ And quite rightly, what artists care about most is their fans and the fan experience.”
Rendering of your view if you have tickets behind stage left.
Courtesy of Oak View Group
To that end, every aspect of Co-op Live has been designed with the audience and performer in mind, says OVG. That means a complete advertising blackout inside its “immersive bowl” interior during shows, comfortable tiered seating that OVG says brings fans 23 meters (75 feet) closer to the stage than arenas of a similar size (complete with beverage holders on every seat), first-class acoustic and audio-visual technology and the largest floor space of any U.K. indoor venue (30,677 square feet in standard-end stage mode and 35,520 square feet when center stage is in the round), capable of holding up to 9,200 people.
The venue also boasts 32 bars and restaurants, including multiple luxury VIP lounges and premium dining options, as well as its own private nightclub. The first thing that general admission ticket holders will see upon entering Co-op Live is “The Street” — a huge indoor food and drinks market with a bar that is 22 meters long (72 feet) that has been designed as the “heartbeat” of the building.
“Everything has been built around this idea of: ‘How do we give the fan the best experience they’ve ever had coming to an indoor arena?’ ” says Roden. He confidently states that the legacy issues for many music fans visiting arena-size venues “where you find your seat, have a terrible warm beer, eat a burger that tastes like cardboard and queue for 30 minutes for the toilet” won’t apply at Co-op Live.
Sustainability is another key consideration in the building’s design, with Co-op Live set to be the United Kingdom’s first and only 100% electric arena, powered by a combination of renewably sourced electricity and a football pitch-size field of on-site solar panels. Meanwhile, the venue’s rectangular flat roof will harvest Manchester’s famous abundance of rainfall, which will then be used to water its plants and flush its toilets.
Air-source heat pumps, reuseable cups, food sourced from nearby vendors and a pledge of zero waste to landfill are among the other environmental initiatives OVG hopes will make Co-op Live the most sustainable arena in Europe. That commitment extends beyond the building’s walls with a neighboring mile-long pedestrian path upgraded with lighting installations and busking spots for musicians to encourage local visitors to walk to the venue rather than drive. Surrounding Co-op Live, a “biodiversity ring” of lush greenery has been planted to provide a natural habitat for wildlife and attract bees.
“The Street” — an indoor food and drink market with a long (72 feet) bar.
Courtesy of Oak View Group
OVG says Co-op Live will bring in between 750,000 and 1 million new ticket sales each year, creating more than 1,000 jobs and contributing £1.5 billion ($1.9 billion) to the local economy over the next 20 years. But not everyone is happy about its arrival.
During the planning process, ASM Global, owners of Manchester’s existing AO Arena — a busy venue located in the heart of the city, which opened in 1995 and regularly features in Billboard‘s year-end Top 10 Venues list, grossing $76.1 million in 2023 from 102 shows, according to Billboard Boxscore — strongly opposed OVG’s plans to build the rival facility. It argued that Greater Manchester, which has a 2.8 million population across the city and its surrounding towns and boroughs, is not big enough to support two separate 20,000-plus-size arenas.
In the past year, AO Arena has undergone a major £50 million ($63 million) upgrade, increasing its overall capacity from 21,000 to 23,000, expanding its standing floor space by 100% and opening new VIP bars and restaurants, ahead of Co-op Live’s opening. (The United Kingdom’s leading venue is London’s 20,000-capacity The O2, which took in $219.5 million last year, making it the world’s second-highest-grossing arena behind Madison Square Garden, according to Billboard Boxscore figures).
“We wouldn’t have put a spade in the ground if we didn’t believe the Manchester market could take two arenas,” says Roden. “The goal is not for us to bring in the same number of shows that were already coming to Manchester. Our goal is to bring in more shows to the city and have international artists stay here longer.”
Bookings indicate the strategy is working with multiple show residencies at Co-op Live scheduled for the Eagles (five nights), Take That (seven nights), Liam Gallagher (four nights), Olivia Rodrigo (two nights) and Nicki Minaj (two nights) in 2024. Other upcoming shows include Kid Cudi, Slipknot, The Black Keys, Eric Clapton, Pet Shop Boys, Jonas Brothers, Pearl Jam, Justin Timberlake, Noah Kahan and Megan Thee Stallion. In November, MTV’s Europe Music Awards (EMAs) will be held at the venue, marking the first time the event has been held in Manchester.
“The moment when we hear that first chord come out from an amp and we hear the fans reacting to that is going to be something to behold and I can’t wait for people to experience it,” says Roden, looking ahead to opening week. “We feel we’ve created a world class facility that showcases Manchester not only to the U.K. and European market but globally as well.”
“In many ways, Co-op Live embodies what OVG is all about,” adds Bodie. “Creating venues that set new industry standards and develop amazing experiences for fans and artists alike.”
A U.K. Parliament committee has issued fresh calls for a “fundamental reform” of music streaming to address what it describes as “pitiful returns” for songwriters and publishing rights holders.
A report from the Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) Committee published Wednesday (April 10) calls upon the British government to “do more to make sure music makers are paid fairly” and to press ahead with a package of sweeping copyright reforms.
Those reforms include changing the revenue split between recording and publishing rights from music streaming, currently set at around 55% for recording and 15% for publishing. That weighting “does not reflect the importance of songwriters, composers and publishers in the music streaming process,” says the committee. Its members want government ministers to bring forward a consultation with fans, creators and industry stakeholders to “incentivise an optimal rate” for publishing rights that will “fairly remunerate creators for their work.”
Other recommendations in the CMS report include the introduction of a statutory “private copying” levy like what exists in other European countries such as France, Germany and Italy. That would require a small tax to be charged on the purchase of electronic devices and blank media that can be used to store songs, which is then paid out to artists and songwriters via collecting societies. The introduction of such a scheme would generate between £250 million ($313 million) and £300 million ($376 million) a year, claims the CMS committee, and safeguard reciprocal payments from other markets where private copying mechanisms exist.
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“Not only does a lack of such a scheme in the U.K. prevent British creators from receiving payments from the domestic market, but it has also put their payments from abroad under threat,” says the report, calling for the introduction of a private copying levy within the next 12 months.
On the subject of artificial intelligence, the CMS committee echoed its previous demands for stronger enforcement of creators’ rights against AI developers using copyright-protected works for training purposes without consent or fair compensation.
“We are concerned that the status quo simply favours AI developers, given creators’ concerns that their IP is already being used in AI development without licence or any practical means of recourse,” states the report, which criticizes the government’s lack of progress on establishing a code of practice around the use of AI and intellectual property.
More support also needs to be given to freelancer staff and the self-employed working in creative industries, such as the music business, in response to long-held complaints around contracts and working conditions, say committee members.
The CMS report is the latest chapter in a long and ongoing series of government-led interventions into the U.K. music industry fueled by artist discontent over low payments from streaming, beginning with a 2020 Parliamentary inquiry into the music streaming business. That probe wrapped the following year by calling into question the major record labels’ dominance of the industry and declaring that the music streaming business “needs a complete reset.”
Numerous government-led working groups, investigations and initiatives followed, including studies looking at “equitable remuneration” and the impact of AI on the music industry. A working group focused on creator remuneration is due to meet for the first time this month.
Despite the progress that has been made, CMS committee chair Dame Caroline Dinenage MP said the U.K. government “needs to move further and faster to ensure music makers really are properly rewarded for their work.”
“If creators are no longer to be the poor relations, the government needs to play catch up by plugging the gaps in outdated copyright and intellectual property regulations,” said Dinenage in a statement accompanying Wednesday’s report.
In response, Jo Twist, chief executive of British labels’ trade body BPI, said the committee was right to highlight creators’ concerns around generative AI, which she called “unquestionably the most significant issue facing the creative industries today,” but said the report fails to recognize that, “with the support of their labels, more U.K. artists are succeeding in the streaming economy than ever before.”
“In an increasingly competitive global industry, their approach risks limiting investment and harming the U.K. talent of the future,” said Twist in a statement.
Umbrella trade group the Council of Music Makers, whose members include the Musicians’ Union and Music Managers Forum, was more positive about the committee’s findings. In a statement, the organization said the report provides a good summary of the issues and some of the proposed solutions to improve creators’ remuneration, but cautioned that for real progress to be made, “we need stakeholders from across the music industry to stop denying reality and to, instead, come to the table with solutions, whether that’s the copyright reforms proposed by MPs or a negotiated agreement.”
The Oak View Group (OVG) will soon enter a key phase of its long-planned pivot to international markets with the opening of Coop Live in Manchester, United Kingdom, next month.
After its record post-pandemic run — which included opening seven arenas in 16 months, including Climate Change Arena in Seattle, UBS Arena in New York and Acrisure Arena in Palm Springs, Calif. — the Tim Lewieke-led management and development company will transition from U.K. venue developer to U.K. venue operator in one of Europe’s largest concert and live entertainment economies.
First Manchester, then the world, says Francesca Leiweke-Bodie, OVG’s COO (and Leiweke’s daughter). She explains the United Kingdom will be the launch point for expanding the company’s private-public partnership model, which looks to government groups to aid in land acquisition in exchange for fully private financing and development work. Leiweke-Bodie says the model is key to driving expansion opportunities into Africa, Asia and the Middle East, where huge gaps in the world’s touring infrastructure prevent popular arena and stadium tours from accessing hundreds of millions of fans.
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Billboard recently caught up with Leiweke-Bodie to discuss the opening of Coop Live and detail OVG’s near-term expansion plans around the globe.
Why did OVG decide to begin their international expansion efforts with the Manchester project?
London and the U.K. have always been a frontrunner for where we as a company want to plant a flag and show the other countries and municipalities that we’re speaking to about public-private partnerships and prove what is possible when the private sector can step in and invest. That doesn’t happen as much overseas, where the market is really heavily driven by municipal financing. Having this project in the U.K., a $375 million privately funded arena with huge community support and more than $1 million going back to the local business — when other potential partners come to Manchester and see what we are doing, there is no doubt that we’re the real deal and will deliver on our promises.
What’s the biggest challenge OVG faces in its efforts to expand internationally?
I think the hardest thing to come by, whether it’s domestically or internationally, is land. We want to build in the urban core. We want to be where the fans want to be — in the city centers. We can do everything else. We’ll build it. We’ll finance it. We’ll book it. We’ll take the risk. But the partnership that we’re always looking for is the land opportunity. Most of these cities are much older than the United States with dense urban cores that we can’t even fathom. To find four or five acres available to build these types of projects with access to public transit is the crux of what we’re trying to create with these city partnerships. There’s also inbound opportunities from local owners and developers that see an opportunity to take land that they might have identified for retail and say, “Let’s rethink this.”
Once the Manchester facility opened, what’s next for OVG?
Hamilton, Ontario is next. It’s an existing 18,000-seat arena we’ve already started work on, taking the building down to its studs and [which] will reopen in late April. It’s the first project in Toronto that was a public-private partnership and ultimately became a renovation project, but it’s effectively a new arena. In North America, there’s only a few strategic markets left where one could make a really big difference with another arena. But overseas, we have a tremendous amount of opportunity because of the growth internationally of global music, from American country music to Latin.
What other metropolitan characteristics appeal to OVG?
Countries or cities that not only attract from surrounding countries but serve as the point of destination for a much broader area. One example is Sao Paulo in Brazil. From a financial perspective, Sao Paulo is an incredible point of destination for not only Brazil, but for Latin America. That’s why we want to plant our flag there because it doesn’t have an arena. Vienna, Austria is the same thing. You know, it is central to continental Europe. You can get to it from six different countries via car. We have about two dozen cities like that we’ve identified.
How does programming and booking drive the OVG strategy?
That’s such a key element. The first domino that we were really thinking about and analyzing from a construction and design perspective is making sure that the building is both turnkey and equipped with all acoustic treatments and back-of-house amenities to accommodate major tours. We talk to local promoters, and figure out what is coming in the rider and work with our partners at the building to alleviate costs. Arenas have to compete with the stadium shows and we have to make the economics work so we’re really looking at the take-home revenue for an artist to make sure that their touring costs are competitive and can exceed the expectations of fans and market partners.
LONDON — Strong growth in streaming, vinyl and even CD sales saw music spending in the United Kingdom increase for a ninth consecutive year in 2023, according to annual figures from labels trade body BPI published Thursday (March 14).
Total U.K. recorded music sales — comprising digital and physical revenues, public performance rights and sync — climbed 8.1% to 1.43 billion pounds ($1.8 billion) last year.
That’s the highest nominal amount ever achieved in the U.K in one year, although when the figures are adjusted for inflation, last year’s record revenues are actually 478 million pounds ($610 million) below the 1.9 billion pounds ($2.4 billion) where the music industry should have been in real terms since 2006, the first year when public performance and sync were included in the annual total, reports BPI.
Driving the growth was an 8.4% year-on-year rise in streaming revenues, which increased to 962 million pounds ($1.2 billion) and accounted for just over 67% of annual trade revenues in 2023 — broadly flat with its share of the U.K. market in the previous 12-month period. Ten years prior, streaming represented just 8.6% of British labels’ income.
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Breaking down streaming revenue, paid subscriptions to services like Spotify and Apple Music generated 827 million pounds ($1 billion), up 8.1% on 2022, while ad-funded revenue grew by over 12% to 71 million pounds ($90 million) and video streaming trade income rose 6.9% to 64 million pounds ($82 million).
Download sales fell 5.8% to 26 million pounds ($33 million), while total digital revenue was 989 million pounds ($1.2 billion), up 7.9% on the previous year.
BPI reports that nearly 2,250 artists registered more than 10 million audio streams in the U.K. last year — a rise of 17% over the past two years — with Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” the most-streamed track, racking up almost 200 million audio and video streams. Behind Cyrus was Dave and Central Cee’s “Sprinter” (160 million streams) and “Escapism” by Raye featuring 070 Shake (142 million streams).
In terms of physical format sales, labels and artists received 243 million pounds ($310 million) in 2023, up almost 13% on 2022, when physical trade revenues dropped by a tenth.
Fueling physical’s recovery was a double-digit (18.6%) rise in vinyl album revenues, which totaled £142 million ($181 million) on the back of popular new releases by Taylor Swift, The Rolling Stones and Lana Del Rey, who had the top three best-selling vinyl titles in the U.K. last year with 1989 (Taylor’s Version), Hackney Diamonds and Did You Know There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, respectively.
More surprisingly, CD revenues also grew in 2023, up 5.4% year-on-year to just under £100 million ($127 million) with Take That’s This Life the year’s biggest-selling CD release.
Despite the compact disc’s resurgence, which BPI partly attributed to high-profile annual marketing events such as Record Store Day and National Album Day, vinyl moved further ahead as the country’s leading physical format in terms of label income, making up just over 58% of all physical music trade revenue, compared to 55% the previous year.
Public performance revenue climbed 7% year-on-year to 155 million pounds ($198 million), while sync sales dropped 7.6% to just under 40 million pounds ($51 million).
BPI’s year-end figures differ from those released by the Digital Entertainment and Retail Association (ERA) in January as the two organizations have different counting methods.
BPI’s financial figures are based on Official Charts Company (OCC) data and a survey of its record label members, which include the U.K. arms of Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group, as well as over 500 independent labels. ERA’s year-end results, which also use OCC data, also include retail value, hence the higher numbers.
The U.K. is the world’s third biggest recorded music market behind the U.S. and Japan with sales of just under $1.7 billion in trade value, according to IFPI’s 2023 Global Music Report.
“Led by streaming, this ninth consecutive annual rise in recorded music revenues highlights how a balanced and prosperous market enabled by significant label investment can help even more artists to succeed,” said BPI CEO Jo Twist in a statement.
After excitedly booking her showcase at next week’s South by Southwest music festival, Zoë Mead, the British shoegaze artist known as Wyldest, tried to land other U.S. club and festival gigs to offset her already-high travel expenses.
To do all this legally, she learned, required getting a temporary work visa costing $460 plus another $2,800 for faster processing. Hiring a lawyer or immigration specialist to file the application would have added another thousand dollars minimum to the bill. “It’s just too risky,” she says. “You have to reject a hell of a lot of things, which is really frustrating.”
And beginning April 1, immigration and visa entry costs for international artists playing festivals, concerts or label events in the U.S. are set to rise even higher.
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The fees for filing “O” and “P” visa petitions — the former covers “individuals who possess extraordinary ability,” the latter “internationally renowned performing groups” and music ensembles of up to 25 people — will increase from $460 to maximum costs of $1,655 and $1,615, respectively. That price includes a $600 Asylum Program Fee, which the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will use to offset the costs of adjudicating cases of immigrants seeking asylum from persecution and violence — a process unrelated to the music business.
There are, however, reduced rates for visa applications backed by a promoter, agency, festival or record company (the so-called petitioner) with less than 25 full-time employees. For those companies, the new fee is capped at $830 (including a $300 asylum levy). For non-profit petitioners, the total fee is capped at $530. (Crews and traveling production staff also require either an appropriate O or P visa to work in the U.S., while artists invited to perform at official showcase events like SXSW, such as Mead, maybe able to enter the U.S. using an ESTA/Visa Waiver, which costs $21).
USCIS representatives say the increased fees will cover rising business costs and reduce processing backlogs. They also contend the pricing surge will not affect musicians because promoters, club owners and labels will be paying the fees.
It’s cold comfort for international acts — especially those starting their live careers — who fear those costs will ultimately be passed on to them, making it too expensive for all but established artists to play U.S. dates. “It’s going to have a chilling effect,” says Rita Sostrin, a Los Angeles-based immigration attorney who represents many international acts. “I’m certainly hearing a lot of displeasure from my clients for these higher fees.”
The fear among international artists, especially those at the start of their live careers, is that the extra costs will ultimately be passed onto them, making it too expensive for all but established international acts to play American concert venues and festivals. “That burden of applying for and paying for the visas is shared across the artists, managers, promoters and venues,” says Neeta Ragoowanski, president of the Music Managers Forum U.S., which opposes the fee increases. “It’s going to affect artists’ decisions on how these tours go,” she says.
Last year, USCIS temporarily paused its plans to increase fees following strong opposition from artist and music-industry advocacy groups such as the National Independent Venue Association and UK Music.
The new fees being introduced April 1 are nominally lower than the non-tiered rises first proposed by USCIS, but still represent “a significant extra burden for touring U.K. bands and artists, particularly for emerging acts that operate on the tightest of margins,” says UK Music interim chief executive Tom Kiehl.
Those margins are being squeezed tighter by the majority of international artists needing to pay out for “premium” visa processing, says Andy Corrigan, owner of U.K.-based Viva La Visa, which specializes in immigration services for music acts and has recently work on U.S. touring arrangement for The Damned and former Spice Girl Melanie C. Premium processing fees rose in February from $2,500 to $2,805 with the time for processing applications increasing from 15 calendar days to 15 business days.
“Almost every band that we deal with has to use premium because the standard processing is so uncertain,” he says. “The whole system is loaded against new and emerging artists. It’s grossly unfair.”
Corrigan says he has lowered his company’s visa fees following the price rises “to try and mitigate the increase in costs for everybody,” but fears that some artists will be tempted to enter the U.S. illegally, without the proper visa documentation in place, as a result of the extra financial burden being placed on them.
“People have got to take a longer-term view and recognize the value of cultural exchange and music, and not just think that they can squeeze every dollar out of the sector,” says Jon Collins, chief executive of U.K. industry trade group LIVE. He calls USCIS’s January sudden announcement of the rise in visa fees – following a period of consultation – a “fait accompli” that will have a detrimental impact on the health of the U.K. and U.S. grass roots music industry.
“It just feels like you’re constantly being slapped in the face,” says Mead, who had to turn down an invitation to play a pre-SXSW festival, New Colossus, in New York next month. “It was already expensive, and they put it up even more, and it’s like, ‘how?’”
LONDON — The British government’s Intellectual Property Office has said that bringing streaming in line with TV and radio broadcasts in the U.K. by obligating record companies to pay performers ‘equitable remuneration’ does not provide “a simple solution” to creators’ concerns over low returns from services like Spotify and Apple Music – and is “unlikely to yield a net positive income for the industry at large.”
In its report into the potential impact of equitable remuneration on the U.K. music business, published Monday, the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) says its introduction could result in labels reducing their investment in developing new acts and would see rightsholders paying out “a significant sum of money” in administration costs.
The report goes on to say that more work is needed to fully assess whether labels’ ability to negotiate competitive deals with streaming services on behalf of artists would be weakened — as claimed by record labels – by changing how royalties are paid out for music streams.
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“While not a satisfying conclusion, it is clear that more research is required into the nuances of how best to balance the incentives to create with the need to monetise creation,” states the report.
The IPO research paper into equitable remuneration is the latest chapter in a long and ongoing series of government-led interventions into the U.K. music industry fuelled by artist discontent over low payments from streaming.
In 2021, a Parliamentary inquiry into the music streaming business called into question the major record labels’ dominance of the industry and branded the global streaming model as unsustainable in its current form, saying it “needs a complete reset.”
One of the key proposals made by the Parliamentary inquiry was changing the revenue model for music streaming by forcing record labels to pay performers equitable remuneration — equivalent to a 50/50 royalty split — on music streams, which it called “a simple yet effective solution to the problems caused by poor remuneration.”
A similar statutory right to equitable remuneration has existed in the U.K. since 1996 for TV and radio broadcasts, where revenues are split 50/50 between labels and performers and distributed via by the collecting society PPL. The statutory right guarantees royalties to non-featured performers, such as session musicians, whenever a song they played on is broadcast on U.K. radio or television.
By contrast, under the current music streaming model only the copyright owner receives payment from streaming platforms, which it then shares with the artist according to the terms of their contract. Average royalty rates are typically set between 25% and 30% on new artist deals and far less on legacy contracts, while some indie labels now offer artists 50/50 profit-share deals. (Session musicians do not typically receive any royalties from music streaming).
The IPO’s report examines what impact equitable remuneration would have on the U.K. music business by applying several predictive models to streaming over a five-year period.
When equitable remuneration is applied to 100% of streaming income — based on a scenario where a record company invests £150,000 and a release generates £240,000 (3 times the recoupable advance) — earnings for featured artists almost double to just under £115,000, while record label revenues move from a £90,000 profit to a loss of almost £13,000. Session musician income jumps from zero to just under £30,000.
In instances where equitable remuneration is applied to 35% of streaming income, the same metrics see label revenues drop from £90,000 to just under £54,000, while featured artists’ income rises from a flat £60,000 advance to almost £100,000 (including recoupable costs spent).
The research also models the impact on loss making deals and instances where 7x the record company advance is generated, as well as the impact of equitable remuneration on DIY artist deals.
The IPO’s modeling surmises that equitable remuneration would make record label investment “more risky and more difficult to justify,” while DIY artists would see increase in administration costs and receive little financial gain or, for heavily streamed releases, a reduction in profits.
“If the intention is to better support the careers of current and future artists then there is a significant risk that introducing” a full version of equitable remuneration “would make it more difficult for the current label investment model to continue,” says the report.
The research paper, which was carried out by the IPO in conjunction with a working group made up of industry stakeholders, additionally looks at the potential impact of the U.K. introducing a version of equitable remuneration similar to what already exists in Spain.
In Spain, 5.6% of streaming income is currently shared out between featured artists and non-featured performers, with equitable remuneration paid by streaming platforms, not labels. However, the practice has been mired in litigation since its introduction in 2006 and critics say that it resulted in only marginal gains for artists and performers.
When applying the so-called ‘Spanish model’ to the U.K. business, researchers found that it offers a much less significant shift in revenue than other ER methodologies but raises unanswered questions around whether it would make “a material difference” to creator earnings.
The report warns that if an equivalent to the Spanish version of ER was introduced in the U.K. streaming services might look to recover “some or all” of the extra revenue they would have to pay out from their deals with rights holders.
Reaction among U.K. music trade groups to the IPO’s findings was mixed.
Jo Twist, CEO of labels trade body BPI, said the report reinforces record company’s long-held concerns around equitable remuneration. Making such a change to how streaming royalties are shared “would undermine the essential role that labels play in investing in and supporting artists,” Twist said in a statement.
The Council Of Music Makers noted that the IPO report “reaches no conclusions, and no decisions should be made on the basis of its ambiguous findings.” The trade group said it would continue to work with all industry stakeholders on a “wider discussion” around creator remuneration from streaming and various solutions that have been proposed.
Responding to the IPO’s research, government ministers Julia Lopez and Viscount Camrose said that “in light of the risks” highlighted in the report, “the government does not intend to apply the ‘broadcast model’ of equitable remuneration to on-demand streaming.”
Instead, the findings “lend weight to the view that the best way to address creator concerns is through dialogue among industry and, where appropriate, industry-led actions,” said Lopez and Camrose in an open letter to Dame Caroline Dinenage, chair of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee.
LONDON — A U.K. Parliament committee is calling on the British government to address the “endemic” misogyny and discrimination that many female artists face in the music industry.
A report from the Women and Equalities Committee (WEC) published Tuesday (Jan. 30) urges ministers to take legislative steps to protect musicians and creators from sexual harassment, including banning the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in cases involving sexual abuse, bullying or misconduct.
The highly critical 70-page report acknowledges that female representation is improving in many areas of the business but warns that progress remains slow with sexual harassment and abuse against women common occurrences in an industry “still routinely described as a boys club.”
“People in the industry who attend awards shows and parties currently do so sitting alongside sexual abusers who remain protected by the system and by colleagues,” said the cross-party committee of MPs.
Their inquiry found a “culture of silence” existed across the music industry with many victims of sexual harassment or abuse afraid to report such incidents.
Victims who do speak out struggle to be believed or may find their career ends as a consequence, the committee found. They said that much of the evidence they had received had to remain undisclosed, “including commentary on television shows and household names,” due to confidentially and legal clauses.
The report follows an inquiry into misogyny in the U.K. music industry, which began in June 2022 and saw a number of artists and executives give evidence, including senior executives from all three major labels, representatives of the live industry, former BBC Radio 1 DJ Annie Mac and British pop singer and Ivors Academy board director Rebecca Ferguson.
Giving evidence in September, Ferguson, who first shot to fame on the U.K. version of The X Factor, said that misogyny in music was just “the tip of the iceberg of the things that are happening behind the scenes.”
She said that women in the music business who experience abuse often feel that they “can’t speak up” because “they are scared they will never work again.” Ferguson told MPs that she had been informed rapes were going unreported.
In addition to sexual abuse and harassment, the inquiry found that women pursuing careers in music face limited opportunities compared to men, a lack of support and persistent unequal pay, while female artists are “routinely undervalued and undermined.”
The committee recommends that ministers introduce legislation to give freelance workers the same protections from discrimination as employees, as well as imposing a legal duty on companies and employers to protect workers from sexual harassment by third parties.
On the subject of non-disclosure agreements, the report said the government should consider a retrospective moratorium on NDAs signed by victims of sexual abuse.
The report also called for stronger safety requirements for industry sectors where harassment and abuse are known to take place, such as recording studios and music venues.
Additionally, managers of artists should be licensed, while record labels were recommended to regularly publish information about the diversity of their creative rosters, workforce and gender and ethnicity pay gaps – a practice that many labels and large music companies already do.
The committee said the music industry and the British government should increase investment and support in diverse talent, particularly in male-dominated areas such as A&R, sound engineering and production.
“Women’s creative and career potential should not have limits placed upon it by ‘endemic’ misogyny which has persisted for far too long within the music industry,” Caroline Nokes, chair of the Women and Equalities Committee, said in a statement.
Responding to Tuesday’s report, Jo Twist, CEO of U.K. labels trade body BPI, and Yolanda Brown, BPI chair, said all parts of the music industry have “a shared responsibility” to tackle misogyny in music “head on.”
Silvia Montello, CEO of the London-based Association of Independent Music (AIM), said the report “makes for uncomfortable but sadly unsurprising reading.”
“It should not still be this hard, here in 2024, for women to be supported to succeed and to be taken as seriously as our male counterparts,” said Montello in a statement.