Over fifty music organizations, including several from the jazz community, are co-signatories to the following statement released today, June 6, 2022:

“THE FUTURE HEALTH OF THE UK MUSIC INDUSTRY – AND OUR HARD-WIND IMPROVEMENTS IN THE REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN AND MINORITIES – ARE AT RISK BY A DRASTIC AND POTENTIALLY DEVASTATING 60% CUT TO PRS FOUNDATION FUNDING, VOTED BY THE PRS MEMBERS COUNCIL AND ANNOUNCED BY CEO ANDREA C. MARTIN.

We stand by the commitment shown by PRS for Music throughout its 22 years of investing in emerging UK talent from the grassroots up. As a major patron of the PRS Foundation, PRS for Music has made a significant contribution to making the UK music industry more accessible, fairer, more creative and more profitable.

However, PRS for Music’s track record and the music industry itself will be damaged for the foreseeable future if its unprecedented PRS Foundation funding cut is enacted.

We unite in urging PRS for music to suspend its proposed cuts to the PRS Foundation and reverse a decision that could set back the fragile post-Covid music economy by decades.

The Foundation is the UK’s leading charitable funder for the development of new music and talent. In 2021, the Foundation supported nearly 500 new music initiatives, enriching the perspectives of thousands of emerging music creators. Each year Foundation alumni are prominent on award ceremony nomination lists – BRITS, MOBO, Mercury Prize, Grammys, AIM, Jazz FM and Ivors – and on the charts – Sam Fender, Dave, Yard Act, AJ Tracey, Glass Animals and Little Simz.¹

With 60% less investment, there will be 60% less success. We do not believe that a drastic return to 2000 investment levels is fair, reasonable or even justifiable.

In April 2022, PRS CEO Andrea C Martin said in Music Week;

“The popularity of music from PRS members throughout 2021 has led to significant increases in Spotify, YouTube and Apple Music revenue… up 42.5% since 2020 and 45.5% since 2019.”²

In Martin’s speech to PRS members at their May 2022 AGM, she added:

“In a year punctuated by continued uncertainty, we achieved revenue growth of over twenty-two percent, returning to levels close to 2019. I am happy to say that we had a very good year in 2021.”³

With reference to the same PRS statement, it was stated; “[related] revenues have declined significantly in recent years, in particular due to historically low interest rates“⁴

This contrasts, however, with UK interest rates, which at the time of writing are at their highest level in 13 years.⁵

The importance of Foundation-supported programs such as KEYCHANGE and POWER UP cannot be overstated. They foster a diversity of places and people much needed in the UK music industry, responding to grassroots groundswell as well as government initiatives such as ‘Leveling Up’.

In terms of incidence, 60% of Foundation music creators and 67% of grantee organizations are based outside of London; 63% of beneficiary creators are women, mixed groups and gender minorities; nearly half are from ethnic minorities; 15% identify as disabled; and more than a quarter identify as LGBTQIA+.⁶

As signatories to this letter, we welcome the adoption of a “growth mindset“⁷ by PRS and in doing so urges you to assess the needs of the sector and seek other ways to increase revenue than clipping the wings and pulling the rug from under its much-loved PRS Foundation and much appreciated.

Our collaboration with the PRS Foundation in developing talented PRS members and future members helps generate the creative assets of the music industry, contributes to PRS revenue, the UK economy and the international cultural landscape.

As Andrea C Martin said in her speech at the AGM; “we have to be brilliant on the basics“. For this, full funding of the work of the Foundation is vital.

Otherwise, as Jess Partridge said in The Guardian, “the number of people who can afford to make music is going to be drastically reduced, (We will not have) an industry in which people from different backgrounds are empowered to participate.“

(End of statement)

LIST OF SIGNATORIES

Charisse Beaumont – Black Lives in Music (London)

Michael Bonner – Switch to music (Belfast)

Nick Brealey – Britten Sinfonia (Cambridge)

Dr Greg Caffrey – Hard Rain Ensemble (Belfast)

Annabelle Coldrick- Music Managers Forum (UK)

Graham Davis – IVORS Academy (UK)

Hamish Dunbar – OTO Projects (London)

Susana Eastburn – Sound & Music (London)

Polly Eldridge – Sound UK (Bristol)

Lizzy Ellis – Saffron (Bristol)

Tony Ereira – Come play with me (Leeds)

Richard Foote – b Music (Birmingham)

Natalie Franklin – Non-classical (London)

Amy Frenchum – Future Bubblers/Brownswood Records (London)

David Gaydon – Cheltenham Festivals

Chloe Gebhardt – LIMF Academy (Liverpool)

Dominique Gray – Opera North (Leeds)

Yvette Griffith – Jazz re: fresh (London)

Matt Griffiths – Music for young people (UK)

Spike Griffiths – Forte Project (Wales)

John Harris – Red Note Ensemble (Scotland)

Charlene Hegarty – Oh Yeah Ireland (Ireland)

Janine Irons – Tomorrow’s Warriors (London)

Andy Jones – Focus Wales (Wales)

david jones – Serious (London)

Baby J – Babies (Derby)

Deborah Keyser – Music Center Wales (Wales)

Keranjeet Kaur – South Asian Arts (Leeds)

Mark Kass – The Jazz Center (London)

Pasco Kevlin – Norwich Arts Center (Norwich)

Debra King – Brighter Sounds (Manchester)

Michael Lambert – Wide CIC (Edinburgh)

david martin – Featured Artists Coalition (UK)

Steve Mead – Jazz Festival (Manchester)

Carien Meijer – Drake Music (London)

Pamela McCormick – UD Music (London) Graham McKenzie – HCMF (Huddersfield)

Claire Moron – Cryptic (Glasgow)

Sheryl Nwosu – Black Music Coalition

Paul Pacifico – Association of Independent Music (UK)

Crispin Parry – British Underground (London)

Owen Parry – Bristol Beacon (Bristol)

Malaki Patterson – The Music Works (Gloucester)

Abigail Pogson – Sage (Newcastle)

fiona robinson – Sound (north-east Scotland)

Mick Ross – Generator (Newcastle)

Orphy Robinson & Ros Rigby – Jazz Promotion Network (London)

Joe Ross – Oxford Contemporary Music (Oxford)

Thursa Sanderson – Drake Music Scotland

Adam Szabo – Manchester Collective (Manchester)

Ammunition Talwar – Punch Records (Birmingham) JJ Tatten – The Warren (Hull)

Matt Taylor – Music Producers Guild (UK)

Cleveland Watkiss – Freedom: Art of Improvisation (London)

Mark Williams – HeartSoul (London)

Kate Wilson – Britten Pears Arts (Suffolk)