Posted by The Scottish music industry is “at breaking point”, leading figures have warned.
An open letter last week from top live music bosses in Scotland carried a dire warning, decrying First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s approach to exiting lockdown.
In a new statement, the Scottish Commercial Music Industry Taskforce (SCMIT) have directly addressed the SNP administration, admitting that failure to act would be “catastrophic”.
It reads in part: “We now write to you to highlight with urgency that Scotland’s support for music and culture has fallen behind all other parts of the UK. If not immediately addressed, the consequences of the current indecision and inaction for Scottish artists, venues, booking agents, festivals, freelancers, promoters and production companies will be catastrophic. The Scottish music industry contributes £453 million a year to the economy via music tourism alone. There are over 3,000 full-time positions and over 10,000 freelance contracts now at risk as a result of this continued inaction.”
“We are at breaking point. Scottish artists, venues, freelancers and music businesses cannot afford the impending cultural and economic cost in jobs, skill losses and cultural output, neither now nor in the future. Our industry has been closed for 12 months and will continue to generate no income until economically viable live music returns. We need to save Scottish music.”
The letter insists that the Scottish music industry is being left behind the rest of the UK, and urges Nicola Sturgeon to act now. It says: “Scottish music has been muted by government-imposed restrictions. It’s been left behind the rest of the UK, which will have a catastrophic impact on our businesses, freelancers and artists.”
The statement ends: “The Scottish Government must decide and communicate the circumstances, such as low prevalence of virus and percentage of population vaccinated, under which live music activity can go ahead without restrictions. They must also re-establish the principle that when due to public safety measures live music cannot viably go ahead, funding is in place to prevent the collapse of the Scottish live music industry.”
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