Abstract
This chapter examines the process, and potential outcomes, of researching live music in cities through the means of a ‘live music census’, drawing on the UK Live Music Census, the first attempt to conduct such an exercise across multiple cities (Glasgow, Newcastle and Oxford). It begins with a discussion of the broader context of the research—the growth of ‘music cities’ as both a concept and as a tool for cultural policy and regenerative efforts by city authorities themselves. The research activity itself associated with this is then outlined, including previous census projects, leading into selected key findings from the case-study cities of the UK Live Music Census, with an emphasis on points of comparison, including divergence and common ground, across those cities. The chapter concludes with a consideration of the potential for live music censuses to inform policymaking, at national and local levels. It notes that research of this kind can encourage local authorities—and national government—to look across their portfolios of activity and take strategic stock of the situation for live music, including those participants in a live music ecology—the city beyond the official narrative of a ‘music city’—who may otherwise be difficult to identify.
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- 1.
The use of culture in general, and music specifically, for regenerative purposes is not new—see Frith (1993, pp. 15–24) for an account of such efforts in the UK in the 1980s. It has, however, gained pace since the 1990s, alongside a broad turn from ‘cultural’ to ‘creative industries’ policy and an often ‘instrumental’ view of the value of culture (Belfiore 2012).
- 2.
Vitae, the professional development organisation for researchers, defines Knowledge Exchange as “direct engagement between the academics and public/private sector via collaborative or contract research, or through the exploitation of intellectual property through the creation of start-up companies, or in many other ways. The key common element is that information and expertise is exchanged with businesses, society and/or the economy” (np).
- 3.
UK Music is the key lobbying and representative umbrella organization for the British music industries. PRS for Music is the UK’s royalty collection society, representing songwriters, composers and music publishers.
- 4.
Founded in 2014, the Music Venue Trust is a charity that represents, and lobbies on behalf of, music venues in the UK.
- 5.
Attitude Is Everything is a charity promoting access to live music for deaf and disabled people, Julie’s Bicycle promotes sustainable environmental practice in the arts, Making Music is a society for amateur musicians and Arts Council England an arms-length funding body.
- 6.
The Bristol Live Music Census in 2016 was one example of this.
- 7.
The Census Toolkit is available on the project website at: http://uklivemusiccensus.org/#toolkit.
- 8.
Other researchers have subsequently taken up the challenge, for instance, as part of the Poplive Project in the Netherlands being conducted by the Erasmus University and the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, in collaboration with the VNPF (Dutch Association of Music Venues and Festivals) and MOJO Concerts BV.
- 9.
The Sage Gateshead is one of the leading concert venues in the North East of England, built with extensive funding from the National Lottery (approximately £60m) and explicitly as part of a programme of culture-led regeneration (see Bailey et al. 2004).
- 10.
As we note in the census report “There is … precedent for combining the two conurbations in this way. The NewcastleGateshead initiative, for instance, is the public-private partnership supported by Gateshead Council and Newcastle City Council to promote joint culture, business and tourism within the conurbation formed by Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead” (Webster et al., p. 116).
- 11.
We did, however, wish our findings to be relevant to that bigger picture and hence based our calculations on the methodology deployed in UK Music’s Wish You Were Here report when estimating GVA and employment figures from our primary data. A full account of our economic methodology can be found in Webster et al. (pp. 14–16).
- 12.
Selecting the definitional categories for venues involved a great deal of negotiation across the various parties in the focus groups. A detailed key of the complete results of these discussions can be found in Appendix 2 of the census report (Webster et al. 2018, p. 115).
- 13.
Population figures are sourced from the UK’s Office for National Statistics, with Glasgow and Newcastle-Gateshead figures from Population Dynamics of UK City Regions and the population of Oxford from their 2011 Census Questionnaire for England.
- 14.
The Agent of Change principle makes the person or business responsible for any change (the ‘agent’) responsible for managing the impact of that change. For instance, a developer building housing next to an existing venue will be responsible for ensuring that the dwellings have sufficient soundproofing. Conversely, a venue opening next to existing housing would be responsible for mitigating any sound leakage.
- 15.
This is far from a uniquely British problem. See, for instance, Ballico and Carter (2018) for a discussion of comparable issues facing venues in Sydney and Perth.
- 16.
This refers to the devolved governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which have distinct policies in some regulatory areas, such as planning.
- 17.
See Williamson et al. (2011) for a broader discussion of the use and reception of research findings outside academia.
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Behr, A., Brennan, M., Cloonan, M. (2020). The UK Live Music Census: The Value of Researching Live Music in Glasgow, Newcastle, Oxford, and Beyond. In: Ballico, C., Watson, A. (eds) Music Cities. New Directions in Cultural Policy Research. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35872-3_9
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