Music sector cannot cope with coronavirus and a hard Brexit, says ISM report
Lucy Thraves
Wednesday, October 28, 2020
The Incorporated Society of Musicians' (ISM) fifth report into the impact of Brexit on the music sector.
The report demonstrates that:
- Musicians have lost substantial amounts of work and earnings due to Brexit, and their biggest concern is securing future work in the EU/EEA after the transition period
- Over half the music workforce has identified Brexit as having had a negative impact on their professional work
- The music sector, worth £5.2 billion a year, cannot cope with the simultaneously devastating effects of Covid-19 and a hard Brexit this December.
The report highlights the devastating consequences of the coronavirus pandemic on the music sector, with cancellations, closures and the loss of work virtually overnight.
To give the sector the best chance of survival, the ISM is calling for the government to:
- Request an extension to the transition period to recover some of the time lost to Covid-19 that would have been spent negotiating the UK’s relationship with the EU
- Negotiate a two-year, multi-entry touring visa that is cheap and admin-light
- Introduce an urgent sector-specific package of financial support for the creative sector – similar to the 50 billion euro programme launched in Germany.