Report: 1.5 Million Young Britons Abandon Music Ambitions as Venues Vanish

The UK has lost around 11,000 pubs, bars and grassroots venues since 2019

A new UK survey has found that more than 1.5 million young Britons may already have abandoned ambitions to perform live music, with the closing of pubs and grassroots music venues making it harder to find places to play.

The issue:

Since 2019, the UK has lost around 11,000 pubs, bars and grassroots venues.
A February survey by OnePoll – which covered 2,000 UK adults aged 18+, and 2,000 UK adults aged 18-25 – found that nearly one in five Britons must now travel more than 30 minutes to reach a venue hosting regular live music.
31% say there are fewer venues hosting live music locally than five years ago.
54% of adults aged 18-25 have wanted to perform live music in a band, as a DJ or as a solo artist, however 28% have given up or scaled back their ambitions due to a lack of suitable venues.
22% say performing live feels unrealistic where they live.

National coalition:

The findings come on the eve of this year’s Seed Sounds Weekender, the UK’s largest multi-venue festival that will take place on April 24-26.
The event will transform more than 2,000 pubs, bars, restaurants and hotels across 20 UK towns and cities into live music stages for over 2,000 performances.
Presented by live music marketplace GigPig, the event is backed by an industry-wide coalition aiming to halt the erosion of seed music venues.
The coalition includes major hospitality operators such as Stonegate Group, New World Trading Company, Arc Inspirations, Bootlegger, Katie O’Brien’s and Heartwood Collection sites across the country.

What they said:

Dave Pichilingi, CEO for the UK and North America at independent label and management company Modern Sky UK: “So many of the UK's biggest music acts started in pubs, bars and other seed music venues. I know because I booked a lot of them at that level back in the day. Ed Sheeran, Olivia Dean, The 1975, Florence + The Machine, Laura Marling, Skepta, Jungle... The list goes on. Still today, many of the acts we represent at Modern Sky UK find their audience, hone their craft and build confidence in seed venues. If we lose them, then we lose the first step on the road to arenas, stadiums and festival headline slots.”