Live Music

Baroness MacLeod of Camusdarach Excerpts

Thursday 2nd July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness MacLeod of Camusdarach (Lab)]

My noble friend Lord Brennan has consistently championed live music, and we are grateful for that. As we have heard, he is an accomplished musician himself, so he does his bit to enrich our lives within and outwith the Chamber.

I have no doubt that many in this House understand and applaud the cultural contribution live music makes. I am not so sure we think enough about its economic importance. From the Shetland Islands to the most southerly tip of England, music contributes to the economy.

Let me tell you about the splendid Skye Live festival, set up by Niall Munro in 2015. This three-day festival is independent and, against the backdrop of the Cuillins, it generates an estimated annual revenue of about £2 million and pours money directly into event production and local staffing. That is a great boost to Portree, a village of only 2,000 people. It serves as a prime driver for Scotland’s booming tourism industry, which now attracts a million and a half visitors each year and boosts the Scottish economy by nearly £600 million.

Live music brings jobs; it employs talented musicians, maintains venues, fills hotel rooms and campsites, and benefits the transport system. As we have heard, not everything in the garden is rosy: fewer people are attending live music events and touring to European countries is more difficult since Brexit. Venues large and small struggle to stay open, so there is a major contraction on the touring circuit and margins are getting ever tighter. This contraction means fewer paid performance opportunities, fewer chances to build audiences and less sustainable career development. It particularly affects artists based in Scotland, where the domestic market is too small to sustain many professional music careers on its own.

My plea to the Minister today is to be prepared to help. Without intervention, the live music sector risks becoming less diverse, less independent and less able to develop the artists who will become the headliners of the future.