Scotland is a country that has found itself in the limelight these recent months. With the country’s hosting of the Commonwealth Games having only just finished and a referendum on independence (from the rest of the UK) due in September: the nation is enjoying it’s rare moment to step out on it’s own and out of the shadow of it’s neighbours and UK partners: England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
It’s rare moment out of the shadow of it’s larger neighbours might not just be a temporary thing though. The Scottish Government (made up by the very pro-independence Scottish National Party) has planned a referendum on breaking up the 300-year-old union with the rest of the UK. With this in mind, it seems an interesting prospect to consider the consequences of an “Out/Yes Vote” on the country’s music industry.
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One of the facts throbbing in the face of many who watched the Commonwealth Games closing ceremony was the fact that Kylie Minogue – an Australian – was the star attraction. Not Annie Lennox, Calvin Harris or more of Rod Stewart (like the same games’ opening ceremony). This might fly in the face of the country’s cultural nationalism and it’s tendency to ooze ‘Scottishness’ at every opportunity, but the reality is slightly less surprising when pondered upon. The ceremony was for the Commonwealth, of which Australia is a member, and perhaps unlike the London 2012 Olympics and it’s similarly music-centred set list, the ceremony was almost entirely geared towards the idea of Scotland as an open, free-thinking, pluralistic society. Having Kylie crack out a few songs helps this image along, if only a tiny bit. Having an Aussie perform instead of a Scot is hardly making yourself the new-Martin Luther King, but the message it sends: that Scotland is willing to be a “team player” in the world of arts is an important one.
This passion to be seen as an ‘open’ country extends right from the Scottish Government in Holyrood to the toilet-circuit bars and venues that the music industry calls its own. But the increasing hardship faced by international concert promoters should remain a prescient fact to anyone with the slimmest of stakes in the Scottish music sector. Big, international promoters are increasingly more and more selective with where they choose to put their big name stars. If Timberlake, Bieber or Azalea (for example) want to make their money, they can no longer accept gigs at venues which won’t sell out with ease. In Scotland, the two cities with big enough surrounding populations to merit the gaze of a parsimonious promoter are Glasgow and Edinburgh, two cities striding the country’s central belt and home to around a third of the country’s people.
Other big centres of population in the country simply cannot promise the same levels of attendance that artists and promoters are so keen for: Stirling, Aberdeen and Dundee are just three examples of places that cannot bring the goods. Either their numbers remain too small or Glasgow/Edinburgh are too close to bother. And as such their local arenas and large venues will consistently miss out on big-name arrivals. Any town or city in the United States that benefits from being a regular stop on the big touring schedules of pop stars will testify to the huge benefit that it can bring. A regular presence of the commercially-gifted musician in a town or city that is otherwise stuck in the middle-of-nowhere can be the difference between a successful (and open) concert/music venue and a closed, unused one.
It can also be a big factor in the quality of a local music scene. Big concert venues also make helpful epicentres to a local music scenes and can bring benefits to the local economy. Giving local acts something to aim for and more opportunities for smaller Scottish performers to support incoming headliners. Were Scotland to go independent, it’s new status as it’s own fully-fledged country will probably entitle more Scot artists to the privilege of shadowing the bigger, foreign names. UK tours (including Scotland) already have this ritual, but separation may mean that Scottish (and not English) artists will be the lucky ones on their home turf.
This automatic deference to big-money music doesn’t mean that the Scottish music industry won’t get patriotic when it needs to. And it’s unique brand of cultural patriotism is behind much of the fastest growth in recent years, especially in live music. When Will Page, chief economist at PRS for Music, spoke to the BBC in 2012 he said: “What you’re seeing is that big festivals like T in the Park are as big as they can be”. “Boutique festivals are cropping up everywhere – Knockengorroch in the southwest of Scotland, for example – [are] actually driving [the] growth”.
Identikit festivals which house similar set lists to other high-profile events aren’t living up to the potential many would expect. This is good news for an independent Scotland whose home demand for festivals tends to favour smaller more unique events. Festivals like Loopallu (in the highland village of… you guessed it… Loopallu) is like many other Scottish festivals in that it tends to support it’s nation’s own musical talent at the expense of the rest, somewhat unsurprisingly. Franz Ferdinand, Paolo Nutini, KT Tunstall and other chart-familiar acts are regular headliners at this and other similar shindigs up and down the country. It’s not a guaranteed outcome — but independence will probably only bolster this pattern of home-grown patronage.
It also bodes well for the industry as a whole as the country’s music sector tends to be made up of predominantly “small to medium sized businesses” according to the Live Music Exchange. These types of enterprises are far more likely to partner with companies and ventures of a comparable size and re known, and as such produce some favourable outcomes for music fans from home and abroad. Eye O’ The Dug is one example: a festival supported and ran by Fence Records, an fairly little-known independent outfit with it’s roots in the late 90’s.
Being the smaller sibling in a country dominated by it’s much more populous southern rival – England – has meant that Scots music-makers have often had to make do with little or no attention from the country’s music powerhouse: London. This lack of starpower that the UK capital can give in abundance doesn’t necessarily mean that the country is perpetually down and out. The country is very similar to Canada in the way that it has a very strong tradition of state subsidy and public sector patronage. There is a healthy culture of ‘help’ in Scotland when it comes to music, with the Scottish Government, Creative Scotland (a public body for the creative industries), local authorities and enterprise networks: Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, all providing some sort of financial support for small music ventures deemed worthy.
This patronage all takes place without the say-so of the executive UK Government, a body that is already nervous in interfering in the country’s national expenditure even without an upcoming independence referendum on the horizon.
This doesn’t look set to stop either. The Scottish electorate almost always vote for what’s called a ‘centre-left’ party. Both Labour and the Scottish National Party are partys in this mould who look favourably on public sector finance in the creative industries. Anyone arguing for a government-free, private sector approach to the country’s music industry either isn’t in Scotland, isn’t liked by most Scottish people or won’t be liked by most Scottish people in the near future. The terms ‘right-wing’ and ‘conservative’ are enough to send a chill down the spine of most politically aware Scots. This – like many of the things I’ve mentioned here – doesn’t look set to change any time in the near future.
Scottish superstar DJ Calvin Harris made his debut on the Forbes richest celebrities under 30 list last year, with a combined worth of over $46 million dollars, a fortune that makes his among the richest musicians on the planet. The tendency to try and carbon copy his style of success to produce similarly popular Scots will be hard to resist (The Bass City Rollers or Susan Boyle perhaps? What label wouldn’t love the money they’d bring in?). But if one thing is for certain — the Scottish music industry won’t just be looking to replicate Harris’s fame and fortune or the worldwide recognition he has. Their energies – I predict – will be expended on creating a wider music scene that enables young, new, poorer artists to transit to success and achieve a small slice of his fame. Even if it’s only a small slice.
With independence from London, England and the rest of the UK… I think Scottish music can look forward to bigger pay-days, bigger artists and bigger slices. The size and quantity of these slices will be determined by the knife that cuts them. Something we’ll know a long time after independence: not if and when it happens.
What Independence Might Mean for the Scottish Music Industry?
Scotland is a country that has found itself in the limelight these recent months. With the country’s hosting of the Commonwealth Games having only just finished and a referendum on independence (from the rest of the UK) due in September: the nation is enjoying it’s rare moment to step out on it’s own and out of the shadow of it’s neighbours and UK partners: England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
It’s rare moment out of the shadow of it’s larger neighbours might not just be a temporary thing though. The Scottish Government (made up by the very pro-independence Scottish National Party) has planned a referendum on breaking up the 300-year-old union with the rest of the UK. With this in mind, it seems an interesting prospect to consider the consequences of an “Out/Yes Vote” on the country’s music industry.
***
One of the facts throbbing in the face of many who watched the Commonwealth Games closing ceremony was the fact that Kylie Minogue – an Australian – was the star attraction. Not Annie Lennox, Calvin Harris or more of Rod Stewart (like the same games’ opening ceremony). This might fly in the face of the country’s cultural nationalism and it’s tendency to ooze ‘Scottishness’ at every opportunity, but the reality is slightly less surprising when pondered upon. The ceremony was for the Commonwealth, of which Australia is a member, and perhaps unlike the London 2012 Olympics and it’s similarly music-centred set list, the ceremony was almost entirely geared towards the idea of Scotland as an open, free-thinking, pluralistic society. Having Kylie crack out a few songs helps this image along, if only a tiny bit. Having an Aussie perform instead of a Scot is hardly making yourself the new-Martin Luther King, but the message it sends: that Scotland is willing to be a “team player” in the world of arts is an important one.
This passion to be seen as an ‘open’ country extends right from the Scottish Government in Holyrood to the toilet-circuit bars and venues that the music industry calls its own. But the increasing hardship faced by international concert promoters should remain a prescient fact to anyone with the slimmest of stakes in the Scottish music sector. Big, international promoters are increasingly more and more selective with where they choose to put their big name stars. If Timberlake, Bieber or Azalea (for example) want to make their money, they can no longer accept gigs at venues which won’t sell out with ease. In Scotland, the two cities with big enough surrounding populations to merit the gaze of a parsimonious promoter are Glasgow and Edinburgh, two cities striding the country’s central belt and home to around a third of the country’s people.
Other big centres of population in the country simply cannot promise the same levels of attendance that artists and promoters are so keen for: Stirling, Aberdeen and Dundee are just three examples of places that cannot bring the goods. Either their numbers remain too small or Glasgow/Edinburgh are too close to bother. And as such their local arenas and large venues will consistently miss out on big-name arrivals. Any town or city in the United States that benefits from being a regular stop on the big touring schedules of pop stars will testify to the huge benefit that it can bring. A regular presence of the commercially-gifted musician in a town or city that is otherwise stuck in the middle-of-nowhere can be the difference between a successful (and open) concert/music venue and a closed, unused one.
It can also be a big factor in the quality of a local music scene. Big concert venues also make helpful epicentres to a local music scenes and can bring benefits to the local economy. Giving local acts something to aim for and more opportunities for smaller Scottish performers to support incoming headliners. Were Scotland to go independent, it’s new status as it’s own fully-fledged country will probably entitle more Scot artists to the privilege of shadowing the bigger, foreign names. UK tours (including Scotland) already have this ritual, but separation may mean that Scottish (and not English) artists will be the lucky ones on their home turf.
This automatic deference to big-money music doesn’t mean that the Scottish music industry won’t get patriotic when it needs to. And it’s unique brand of cultural patriotism is behind much of the fastest growth in recent years, especially in live music. When Will Page, chief economist at PRS for Music, spoke to the BBC in 2012 he said: “What you’re seeing is that big festivals like T in the Park are as big as they can be”. “Boutique festivals are cropping up everywhere – Knockengorroch in the southwest of Scotland, for example – [are] actually driving [the] growth”.
Identikit festivals which house similar set lists to other high-profile events aren’t living up to the potential many would expect. This is good news for an independent Scotland whose home demand for festivals tends to favour smaller more unique events. Festivals like Loopallu (in the highland village of… you guessed it… Loopallu) is like many other Scottish festivals in that it tends to support it’s nation’s own musical talent at the expense of the rest, somewhat unsurprisingly. Franz Ferdinand, Paolo Nutini, KT Tunstall and other chart-familiar acts are regular headliners at this and other similar shindigs up and down the country. It’s not a guaranteed outcome — but independence will probably only bolster this pattern of home-grown patronage.
It also bodes well for the industry as a whole as the country’s music sector tends to be made up of predominantly “small to medium sized businesses” according to the Live Music Exchange. These types of enterprises are far more likely to partner with companies and ventures of a comparable size and re known, and as such produce some favourable outcomes for music fans from home and abroad. Eye O’ The Dug is one example: a festival supported and ran by Fence Records, an fairly little-known independent outfit with it’s roots in the late 90’s.
Being the smaller sibling in a country dominated by it’s much more populous southern rival – England – has meant that Scots music-makers have often had to make do with little or no attention from the country’s music powerhouse: London. This lack of starpower that the UK capital can give in abundance doesn’t necessarily mean that the country is perpetually down and out. The country is very similar to Canada in the way that it has a very strong tradition of state subsidy and public sector patronage. There is a healthy culture of ‘help’ in Scotland when it comes to music, with the Scottish Government, Creative Scotland (a public body for the creative industries), local authorities and enterprise networks: Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, all providing some sort of financial support for small music ventures deemed worthy.
This patronage all takes place without the say-so of the executive UK Government, a body that is already nervous in interfering in the country’s national expenditure even without an upcoming independence referendum on the horizon.
This doesn’t look set to stop either. The Scottish electorate almost always vote for what’s called a ‘centre-left’ party. Both Labour and the Scottish National Party are partys in this mould who look favourably on public sector finance in the creative industries. Anyone arguing for a government-free, private sector approach to the country’s music industry either isn’t in Scotland, isn’t liked by most Scottish people or won’t be liked by most Scottish people in the near future. The terms ‘right-wing’ and ‘conservative’ are enough to send a chill down the spine of most politically aware Scots. This – like many of the things I’ve mentioned here – doesn’t look set to change any time in the near future.
Scottish superstar DJ Calvin Harris made his debut on the Forbes richest celebrities under 30 list last year, with a combined worth of over $46 million dollars, a fortune that makes his among the richest musicians on the planet. The tendency to try and carbon copy his style of success to produce similarly popular Scots will be hard to resist (The Bass City Rollers or Susan Boyle perhaps? What label wouldn’t love the money they’d bring in?). But if one thing is for certain — the Scottish music industry won’t just be looking to replicate Harris’s fame and fortune or the worldwide recognition he has. Their energies – I predict – will be expended on creating a wider music scene that enables young, new, poorer artists to transit to success and achieve a small slice of his fame. Even if it’s only a small slice.
With independence from London, England and the rest of the UK… I think Scottish music can look forward to bigger pay-days, bigger artists and bigger slices. The size and quantity of these slices will be determined by the knife that cuts them. Something we’ll know a long time after independence: not if and when it happens.
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