Years of work have gone into developing the concept. A key milestone came in 2023 when Enter Shikari committed to donating £1 from every ticket on their arena tour to prove the concept was viable. (https://www.musicvenuetrust.com/2023/05/music-venue-trust-announces-groundbreaking-initiative-with-enter-shikari/)

The £1 ticket levy is now in place, administered through the LIVE Trust. As progress and uptake of the levy progresses, we are aware that many in the industry, and indeed the public, have questions about how the levy will work. We have outlined here the frequently asked questions about the levy including how it works, who is involved, and who it will benefit.

We hope this illustrates how beneficial, effective, and straightforward this mechanism is.

Grassroots Levy FAQs

How Does It Work?

Fans buy their tickets as usual through their ticket provider. Included in the face value ticket price will be £1, a contribution to invest in the grassroots music industry.
After the concert has taken place, this £1 is taken from gross revenues and donated into the LIVE Trust, managed by LIVE, the live music industry umbrella body. You can find out more about the LIVE Trust here.

The current proposal is that no money is removed; the whole £1 goes into the trust. Industry is currently in discussion with the Government, however, over whether this £1 will be subject to VAT and this has yet to be decided.

Once in the trust, the money will be allocated to agreed organisations within the live industry who will be given grant-making responsibility to distribute these funds. Venues, artists, and promoters will be able to apply for funding to an organisation that already has an established record of distributing funding effectively to the relevant sectors.

MVT supports the creation of the LIVE trust which demonstrates broad representation for all industry stakeholders, including having venues from GMVs to arenas, artists and their representatives, and national and independent promoters among its trustees.

The venue sector already has an effective mechanism to distribute such a fund and can work broadly with other organisations active in the grassroots sector so that such a fund has the most impact on the purpose for which it is required: ensuring that local communities have access to high quality music experiences in their town or city, and the continued and sustainable development of world class British talent.

So, it’s in the ticket?

MVT believes that it should be, yes. Now known as the ‘Enter Shikari model’ (after the band adopted this on their 2024 tour) £1 from every ticket is effectively ‘donated’ from gross revenues of ticket sales to the trust. This is to avoid any of the £1 being extracted for other purposes (such as VAT).

We believe that fans should not face additional ‘add-on’ fees that are already creating considerable extra costs such as ‘booking fees’ and ‘print your ticket at home’ fees. The grassroots contribution should not, in our view, be an additional fee; it should, like the production of the event, the rider, the catering, and the security, be an inherent component of the cost of any event. The grassroots contribution is not an additional tax, it is a reasonable and justified contribution into research and development.

Where does the money go after someone has bought their ticket?

The money is donated into the LIVE Trust, managed by LIVE, the umbrella body that represents live music in the UK.
 

And after that? How does it get to venues?

From there it will be shared with distribution bodies within the industry who represent sectors of the grassroots ecosystem; venues, artists, and promoters. Those bodies will make proposals to the LIVE Trust based on the needs of their sector, of local communities, and live music audiences. The LIVE Trust will allocate funds to each sector and monitor how its money is used to ensure it is being effectively distributed. Each representative organisation will deliver a grant application process which receives applications, assesses them, creates a grant agreement, monitors delivery and outcomes, and reports on the use of the money to the LIVE Trust. MVT aims to be one of the organisations distributing funding to support Grassroots Music Venues, artists and promoters; we have successfully distributed over £4 million to the sector in the last two years.
 

What progress has happened so far?

The LIVE Trust was set up in early 2025, following a ministerial meeting in December 2024 where the industry committed to the voluntary ticket levy.

So far, approximately 8% of tickets put on sale in 2025 contain the ticket levy. Sir Chris Bryant, Minister for Creative Industries, Arts and Tourism, speaking to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee in May 2025, said he would, “prefer to see more than a million by the end of the year. I want to see more money going in because some of this is urgent, we can’t hang around.” The Minister added that while a voluntary model remains preferable because “it’s quicker to achieve,” he would like “to go a bit faster over the next phase”.

The Government and the LIVE Trust continues to work with the wider industry on implementation and progress of the ticket levy.

Why is a voluntary levy the preferred model over a statutory or devolved levy?

The benefit of a UK-wide voluntary levy – over devolved or local levies, or a statutory levy – means that GMVs all over the UK can benefit directly from the money raised from all UK arenas and stadiums, rather than relying on shows held only in their local area.

This means that rural GMVs, and those near stadiums with fewer shows, are likely to benefit disproportionately from the LIVE Trust money. We think this is a good thing because GMVs in cities with many shows (think London and Manchester) tend to already benefit more from high-profile city cultural strategies, historically greater funding, and higher footfall. We want to ensure that all GMVs across the UK benefit from the money raised, and not just those close to an arena.

Additionally, as the levy is voluntary and administered through the LIVE Trust the money can be ring-fenced for Grassroots Venues, artists and promoters. In contrast, a statutory levy will mean that the money will not be ring-fenced by the Treasury, or the Barnett Formula, for cultural activities and in particular for the grassroots music ecosystem. This means that if there is a statutory levy, there is a risk that grassroots venues, artists and promoters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will see little to no additional funding from the levy.

Shouldn’t the government support GMVs as it does in other countries?

In short, yes. We absolutely believe this. The Government, however, cannot and will not support every sector and industry with the amount needed to sustain it. The Government does support GMVs through funding grants and through other mechanisms like business rates relief, but this support is insufficient to tackle the challenges being faced by the grassroots sector.

As the ones who rely on the talent that starts in GMVs, those higher up the industry chain have a responsibility to reinvest in the ecosystem from which that talent emerges. Grassroots Venues, artists, and promoters are the ones taking on the financial risk to present new and experimental artists who eventually play arenas and festivals. We believe that the music industry should invest in the research and development work that the grassroots sector performs, in the same way that nearly all successful industries invest in research and development. There is a strong case to be made that the Government should support the live music industry to do this, through tax incentives and by taking action to reduce VAT on tickets to the European average (circa 5-7%).

We continue to work with the Government on the ticket levy and we are confident that if industry does not progress further with the voluntary levy, then the Government will have no other reasonable option than to enforce it on a statutory basis, likely at a much higher rate than what we are proposing here (see below).

How much money do Grassroots Music Venues need?

The grassroots music industry needs a reliable, consistent pipeline of funding that enables it to continue to invest in research and development, new talent, and to provide for local communities.

The amount is less important than the mechanism; there will always be upcoming talent to support, and venues that can be assisted.

We have always said we do not support a compulsory levy, and therefore do not support a statutory amount on ticket prices, such as the 3.5% tax in France.

We believe that the amount needed by Grassroots Music is equivalent to £1 on every ticket sold for a music performance by arenas and festivals.

Based on current sales for 2025, this would amount to £22.3 million.

Can the industry raise that much?

In short, yes.

The Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) Select Committee’s inquiry into Grassroots Music Venues reported:

• “…evidence from Creative UK contrasted the grassroots crisis with the fact that “seven new arenas are being built, which will generate hundreds of millions a year”, and reflected on the levy burden by adding that “Electric Group—which owns large music venues in Brixton, Bristol, Sheffield and Newcastle—and entertainment giant Live Nation reported record profits in 2023”.

The French tax, collected directly by the Centre national de la musique (CNM), is payable by any show organiser holding the ticket office or by the seller for shows presented free of charge, whether professional or not, private, associative or public structure. Also concerned are those referred to as “occasional organisers”, which often include festival committees, tourist offices, event companies, fairs, and exhibitions, etc. The tax is 3.5% (raised from 3% post-Covid).

France is moving towards a 1.75% levy on streaming which will also go into the CNM and be available to support the development of French music. If it reaches legislation, it will add €20 million to the already bursting coffers of the CNM, which underwrites a Grassroots Music Venue sector which receives more than 60% of its gross income from subsidies. An equivalent level of funding in the UK would deliver £300 million of funding – enough to pay for grassroots live music touring in its entirety while increasing payments to artists by circa 125%. The UK grassroots sector does not need that kind of cash injection to return to economic viability. It needs a sustainable, affordable, long-term solution which offers ongoing funding opportunities.

To try to avoid that new tax in France, the leading streaming services voluntarily offered to pay €14 million per year from 2025 onwards. We believe this indicates the kind of contribution industry could voluntarily make. We are in fact, asking for less.

Canada has just introduced a 5% levy on streaming services, again to inject money into funds to support the development of national talent and ensure communities have access to live music.

The UK industry could afford a great deal more than is being asked and still be highly profitable.

Why should the industry raise this money?

There is an incredible contribution being made to British music by GMVs across the country. The grassroots sector invests over £276 million every year into the development of new British talent, supporting both frontline performing artists and production and technical/logistics crew. While average turnover was roughly £526 million, only £114 million of this income derives from ticket sales. This means Grassroots Music Venues are effectively subsidising live music at the grassroots level to the tune of over £162 million a year, an increase of 41% on 2023.

This level of required subsidy cannot be met by these independent GMV operators on their own. The scale of the task is simply outside of their ability to deliver it. The whole industry has a duty and responsibility to invest in research and development.

Seven new arenas are proposed to open in the UK in the next five years. Those arenas, with the recent addition of the Co-op Live Arena in Manchester opening in 2024, are incredibly reliant on the talent pipeline that starts at venues like Night & Day, The Lexington, Club Ifor Bach, and King Tuts. But the companies building these arenas have no plans to make a financial investment in the pipeline on which their future success depends.

While GMVs’ primary focus is live music, they often perform other functions in their community too. The most common additional functions being social and education (cultural projects, community work, courses). GMVs also regularly provide tools and space for musicians (rehearsal studios, recording studios), show theatre/dance/comedy, and multimedia/audio-visual art.

This situation is worsening every year and it simply cannot go on.

Are festivals liable to pay the levy?

Whether festivals with over 5,000 attendees are liable to pay the levy is still under review by the LIVE Trust and we hope to have an update on this soon.
 

How will the funds collected from the levy be allocated among venues, and what criteria will determine eligibility for support?

For the venue sector, MVT will take a very broad view of the investment opportunities available. There are some instances in which a collective investment into services or supplies, such as energy provision, may be better achieved as a collective than as an individual grant recipient. We will consult with the venue members of the Music Venues Alliance, present to them opportunities to invest in the sector, and take their lead and guidance on how these funds can make the most difference to their individual and collective sustainability and economic viability.

In the case of individual grants to venue operators, there will be a strict application and grant process for venues (and others) applying for funding from the grassroots contribution fund. Those involved in the distribution of funding will come together to decide on a fair, unilateral application process and criteria which will ensure funding is directed towards projects that support the development and growth of both venues and artists.

MVT already has considerable experience in applications and grant-making through our Pipeline Investment Fund and Music Venue Properties, and has successfully distributed over £4 million in the last 2 years via a robust and resilient grant application process and collective investment structure. We are proud to have supported many GMVs in making successful applications for such funds, as well as supporting them to access national funding, for example through our resources and guidance to apply to Arts Council England.

How does raising money for GMVs support the wider Grassroots Music ecosystem?

There is an incredible contribution being made to British music by GMVs across the country. The grassroots sector invests over £276 million every year into the development of new British talent, supporting both frontline performing artists and production and technical/logistics crew. While average turnover was roughly £526 million, only £114 million of this income derives from ticket sales. This means Grassroots Music Venues are effectively subsidising live music at the grassroots level to the tune of over £162 million a year, an increase of 41% on 2023.

This level of required subsidy cannot be met by these independent grassroots music venue operators on their own. The scale of the task is simply outside of their ability to deliver it. The whole industry has a duty and responsibility to invest in research and development.

While GMVs’ primary focus is live music, they often perform other functions in their community, too. The most common additional functions being social and education (cultural projects, community work, courses). GMVs also regularly provide tools and space for musicians (rehearsal studios, recording studios), show theatre/dance/comedy, and multimedia/audio-visual art.

The economic pressures on venues not only results in venue closures or venues deciding not to continue as a live music space. They fundamentally undermine the ability to take risks on programming, forcing out new and emerging artists who need a vital step up in their career to the benefit of tribute and cover acts who can guarantee an audience. It is vital to have this investment into the next generation of British artists, both as an economic investment in the future health of the UK music industry and as an aspirational example to our communities.

It is an old cultural maxim that you cannot be it if you cannot see it. Too often, whole communities are losing access to an inspirational moment which can inspire young people to think that a career as an artist, sound engineer, lighting technician, is something that is available as a choice to them.

Venues, and venue operators, are a key mechanism by which to make this investment. They are independent entrepreneurs, familiar with the challenges of both artists and promoters, and best practice examples in how to make even the smallest investment go a very long way.

How has the grassroots football sector become more resilient as a result of the funding made available from top clubs?

In football, there is already an existing system to support grassroots football clubs which sees 15% of Premier League central revenue support clubs in the EFL, National League, and women’s game, as well as wider grassroots and community football. In 2019/20 this amounted to £455 million. The Football Foundation, funded by the Premier League, ensures grants are available to improve the experience of playing football for everyone.

Over the last 23 years, the Football Foundation has ensured that over £1 billion has been invested back into grassroots football facilities to ensure they are maintained for the future for their local communities.

These grants ensure that grassroots football clubs and local communities have the sports facilities they need from changing rooms to goalposts. Not only have these investments made physical improvements, but they have provided the platforms and community spaces for people to come together to improve their mental health, find secure employment, and create new opportunities.

Like Grassroots Music Venues, local football clubs often act as hubs for the delivery of vital community outreach work, investing in and supporting upcoming talent and local community activity. The top football clubs in the Premier League have recognised the need to invest in grassroots football, both for the strength of the top-flight game, and for the wider health and enjoyment of the nation.

Grants from the Football Foundation have enabled teams to be created, teams to grow and develop, and for facilities to be improved. Grassroots football would not be the same without it. Grassroots music deserves the same funding, investment, and resulting resilience.

Will fans be paying more?

MVT does not believe there is any need for the grassroots contribution to add cost to tickets. The mechanism relies on £1 being taken from gross revenues of ticket sales, and given to the LIVE Trust. There is no need for an additional charge on tickets for fans, although we acknowledge that we are not the final decision makers within the process of pricing tickets.

The cover price of the ticket already includes many things which fans are not aware of, from the cost of moving trucks to the design of the light show. We believe the live music industry is capable of realising that the grassroots contribution is simply one of those costs; it is different from the restoration levy or facility fee charged by arenas and stadiums in that every person involved in the production of large-scale events is, eventually, a beneficiary of the grassroots contribution scheme.

Think of it more like a pension or savings scheme for the music industry and less like a tax.

What stops venue operators from just using the money to pay themselves?

Firstly, under-payment of venue operators is a serious challenge to the sector – the average Grassroots Music Venue operator earned less than minimum wage in 2024. While the fund will not simply pick up the bill to see their salaries increase, we do want this investment to create the conditions whereby venue operators, and people who aspire to run venues, can see a pathway to paying themselves adequately for the role they perform.

Secondly, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of venues who are choosing to register as a not-for-profit entity (most commonly a Community Interest Company) from 2.8% in 2015 to 33% in 2024, a 29% increase in not-for-profit registration since 2023. These organisations are legally bound by their articles of association to reinvest surpluses back into cultural activity.

There will be a strict application and grant process for venues (and others) applying for funding from the grassroots contribution fund. Those involved in distributing the fund will come together to decide on a fair, unilateral application process and criteria which will ensure funding is directed towards certain projects that support the development and growth of both venues and artists.

MVT already has considerable experience in applications and grant-making through our Pipeline Investment Fund and Music Venue Properties, and we are proud to have supported many venues in gaining funding from such funds.

What would stop pubs from just putting on a few gigs in order to gain access to this money?

In terms of grants made from the trust by MVT, we will be accepting applications from venues that meet the definition of a Grassroots Music Venue, Grassroots Music & Arts Space, or a Grassroots Music Pub. This is the same process we run for the Pipeline Investment Fund and would require demonstrable evidence of an ongoing relevant music programme, as well as an effective application to the trust.
 

If GMVs are receiving more money, is there a risk that their landlords will start raising their rent?

There is always the risk for a small business, including a GMV, that their rent will go up. Through our Emergency Response Service, we often provide advice, support and, where able, financial assistance to venues facing rent problems.

In terms of the grassroots contribution, GMVs will be receiving money for specific, criteria-meeting projects, to help them grow and thrive. This money is intended, through the grant application process, to enable GMVs to develop their business to weather financial crises, rent rises, and other financial challenges in the long-term.

Our Own Our Venues project directly tackles the issue of the vulnerability of Grassroots Music Venues to poor tenancy conditions, we would like to see this fund support that project and grow the number of venues who are moving into the Music Venue Properties protected status of tenancy.

Won’t some venues naturally fail? Aren’t some venues just ‘badly run’? Will the contribution support these?

Like any market, there are often unforeseeable or inevitable reasons that businesses – including music venues – have to close.

That does not change our view that the utmost must be done to protect those venues that are lifelines to cultural access for their communities. The concept of a ‘badly run’ venue is highly subjective, and goes to the purpose of what the venue is being run for. The music industry has thrown up several examples of people describing venues as ‘badly run’, based on the subjectivity that a well-run venue must be able to meet its financial obligations and demands. The reality is that a premises being run as a grassroots music venue in 2024 is almost certainly losing money on its live music offer. Economics would tell you that the best way to resolve that issue would be to stop presenting loss making events, but it is precisely those events, featuring new and emerging artists who have not yet found an audience, that it is most important that these venues provide space for.

Aside from the obvious public examples of such statements quickly appearing to be ill-considered, there is an underlying theme of intent revealed by the accusation of ‘badly run’ which should be considered. An arena level operator is judged on their performance of running events which show their shareholders and investors a good return at the end of each year. It would be impossible to consider the performance of grassroots music venue operators with this criteria, as it would inevitably result in the cancellation of most of their new and original programming.
The trust will have an application process for funding that will be agreed with its represented stakeholders. Applicants will have to successfully apply for funding for their project, ensuring the distribution of funds is worthwhile and fair.

MVT acts to protect, secure and improve GMVs right across the country, including working to gain recognition of the essential roles these venues fulfil, not only for artist development, but also for the cultural and music industries, the economy and local communities.

We therefore believe this trust will directly contribute to protecting, securing, and improving Grassroots Music Venues across the UK, while making them more efficient and improving the experience for performers and audiences.

In addition, the trust will be directly supporting and boosting the careers of countless British artists contributing to the diversity and variety of British music.

Could the levy discourage large venues and promoters from hosting a certain number of events?

As outlined above, we believe the industry can well afford this small contribution to ensure that the grassroots industry can thrive and grow. The contribution is not designed to be a drag or tax on large venues, but simply to ensure that everyone benefitting from the risk taken by the grassroots industry to invest in new talent is sharing the burden of the financial demands on that same grassroots industry.

It should be noted that the leading arenas owners and event promoters operating in the UK are national subsidiaries of multinational entities. These companies are already making financial contributions to schemes elsewhere in the world which ensure that Grassroots Music Venues and artists benefit from the success at the top of the industry which they have contributed to, including when British artists perform in other countries. A British artist contracted by a British agent with a British manager delivering a show for a British based promoter in France is already financially contributing to the future success of French artists and the sustainability of French venues in French towns and cities. Why can’t we do the same in the UK?

Why aren’t GMVs applying for cultural funding like other cultural buildings?

GMVs regularly apply for a range of funding from numerous sources, including Arts Council England, PRS Foundation and MVT’s own financial support grants. In truth, this funding is both not enough in terms of amount, and not consistent enough in terms of when and how often it is made available.

These venues need a sustainable financial support package, and it should be designed around them and sourced from the beneficiaries of their work. The sustainability of the grassroots contribution arises from its ongoing nature, being entirely reflective of the success of UK arena shows and festivals. As a new fund it can be designed to directly address need and be bold about how to invest most effectively.

There are numerous administrative burdens to applying for cultural funding for GMVs, which for many include not having the financial, legal, or administrative resources to fill out long, complicated funding applications.

In support of this issue, the CMS Select Committee report noted:

• “We welcome the efforts by Arts Council England to address issues resulting from the live music sector’s ability to access public funding raised in our predecessor committee’s ‘Live music’ inquiry six years ago, and indeed Grassroots Music Venues said that ACE funding through Covid had been a lifeline. However, we are concerned that perceptions and administrative burdens remain largely the same. We recommend that the Government and Arts Council work to reduce the administrative burden of applying for public funding.”
   

Why can’t we leave it to artists to contribute on a tour-by-tour basis?

While we welcome the generosity of artists who have already contributed to this initiative, relying on artists to volunteer to do this on a tour-by-tour basis creates an inconsistent funding mechanism for Grassroots Music, as well as creating competition between artists.

It is also unlikely that such ad-hoc contributions will add up to the above noted figure needed to support the grassroots sector on an ongoing basis.

We support David Martin’s (Chief Executive, Featured Artists Coalition) evidence to the CMS Select Committee, where he stated:

• “It cannot be a downward pressure on artists or a voluntary thing where you have some artists, potentially British artists, saying, yes, they are very happy with the levy, and then you have foreign artists coming to the UK saying they are not prepared to do that. It creates an uneven playing field.”
   

What’s the difference between LIVE Trust and Liveline?

Liveline was created by Save Our Scene and MVT to distribute funding directly to Grassroots Venues, artists and promoters. It currently raises all its available funding from donations, partnerships and collaborations.

LIVE Trust is the new registered charity which was created to collect funds raised by a voluntary £1 contribution from arena and stadium tickets. As such, MVT and SOS firmly advocate that the LIVE Trust be the first point of call for those in touring seeking to support the grassroots. The LIVE Trust plans to work with established funding distributors to get money into the hands of grassroots venues, artists and promoters.

Once the LIVE Trust is fully operational, Liveline will present its funding opportunities to the LIVE Trust, seeking funds it can quickly and simply distribute to support the grassroots live music ecosystem.

You can read more about how Liveline works and how it interacts with MVT and the LIVE Trust here.

Are promoters involved?

We support the idea that promoters would be supported through this fund and are working with the Association of Independent Promoters to identify how that would best be done. There is not currently in place an existing fund distribution mechanism for promoters, but we would suggest that such a fund would need to be based on the idea of enabling risk taking; this is the key role played by promoters in the grassroots sector.
 

What are the long-term plans to ensure the financial sustainability of Grassroots Music Venues beyond the initial contribution and VAT relief measures?

We believe the grassroots contribution is a long-term plan to ensure the financial sustainability of Grassroots Music Venues.

If enacted successfully, the ongoing financial viability of the trust will be secured through the continuing success of UK arena shows and festivals, evidenced by the fact that eight new arenas are due to open in the UK in the next five years, including most recently the Co-op Live Arena in Manchester. It will only be through poor implementation – such as through artist donations made on a tour-by-tour basis – that the grassroots contribution will fail.

We do not believe financial viability is the only challenge GMVs face, however, or that the grassroots contribution is the only solution. MVT is advocating for a range of long-term policies to ensure the financial sustainability of Grassroots Music Venues. You can read about them in our 2024 manifesto here.

Who is actually paying?

The whole industry has a duty and responsibility to invest in research and development.

The aim of the grassroots contribution is that those in the music industry making the most profit, reinvest in the talent pipeline that supports and continues to drive those profits. The contribution will come from those involved in the design, promotion, and execution of music performances.

It should be noted that the leading arena owners and event promoters operating in the UK are national subsidiaries of multinational entities. These companies are already making financial contributions to schemes elsewhere in the world which ensure that Grassroots Music Venues and artists benefit from the success at the top of the industry which they have contributed to.