The Music Venue Trust has published its annual report for 2025. It reveals a sector that is still “structurally fragile” and operating on very small profit margins.
The report shows that over half of the UK’s grassroots music venues (GMVs) showed no profit at all in 2025 (53%, in fact). It suggests that much of that is down to the government’s changes in national insurance and business rates, which has led to 6,000 jobs being lost in the sector.
The report also states that “the majority of GMVs are now one financial shock away from crisis, while the national touring circuit continues to contract.”
It also says that we lost 30 small venues last year and 175 UK towns and cities, home to 25 million people, no longer receive touring shows from professional artists.
Grim news, then. The report concluded “that current economic models for grassroots live music are no longer working.”
Speaking at the launch of the report yesterday at the V&A Museum, Mark Davyd, the MVT’s CEO said that the body will invest £2 million immediately into a number of targeted programmes designed to permanently reduce costs and improve sustainability.
He also laid down an ultimatum to the government regarding the grassroots levy on stadium and arena shows. So far, this is voluntary, and it has been left to individual artists to do the decent thing. Some have - Coldplay, Sam Fender, and Katy Perry being high-profile examples. But most, it has to be said, have not.
“We have reached the limits of what venues can absorb on margins of 2.5%,” Davyd said. “This sector has done all it can to keep music live in our communities; it now needs permanent protection, structural reform, and leadership that recognises grassroots venues as essential national infrastructure. That obviously needs to come in the form of a coherent strategy from government, but they are not the sole solution. The music industry itself is in the last chance saloon with regards to the levy; if voluntary industry action does not deliver by June 2026, the government must legislate.”
In addition to this, Davyd called on the government to put in place permanent legal protection for venues through enshrining Agent of Change in law, and the creation of a permanent Live Music Commission to “implement the Fan-Led Review and provide national leadership.”
There will be a King’s Speech this Spring. Small venues up and down the country will be hoping that the government will take the opportunity, at the very least, to make the grassroots levy mandatory.
