Brexit: The Impact on London’s Music Scene

London’s cultural and creative scene is probably the richest and most diverse in Europe but how will it be changed by Brexit?

First, let’s look at some of the consequences for those in the creative industries.

More Costly Gear

One immediate impact of last year’s referendum vote for Brexit was a fall in the value of the pound which has since flowed through into higher prices for imported music and artistic equipment. In the music industry alone, brands such as Sonos, Pioneer and Apple have already started to charge more in the UK for their products. Sonos has announced a 25% price rise for many products.

The ITunes and App stores lifted their UK prices by a similar amount and Mac prices have gone up 20% since October.

The reason behind this surge in prices is the 19% fall in the pound against the US dollar since the announcement of Brexit, and there will almost certainly be further import barriers such as tariffs when the UK finally leaves the EU. For many manufacturers the cost of production is now below their UK wholesale prices, making further rises inevitable.

That means more expensive equipment, higher ticket prices for audiences, and more incentive for musicians and other performers to buy their gear before more prices rise.

Harder Travel

One of the things that make London such a vibrant and creative city is the diversity of its population and its steady flow of visitors. Performers from all over the world come to London to reach its audiences, and many artists and musicians choose to make it their home. Making it harder to travel will reduce the flow of artists in and out of the UK. It will be quite some time before the details are worked out but British citizens will require some form of visa to go to European destinations.

Similarly, European artists will need visas to travel to the UK, and there will be new restrictions on travelling for work purposes. The process of getting a work visa is usually long and tiresome, imposing more paperwork and higher costs on UK promoters who invite a variety of international musicians to the UK.

Some in the industry are already speculating that a number of musicians and artists will be more reluctant to come to the UK in the future. Pound-denominated ticket revenues will lose some of their lustre and operating in other creative cities in Europe such as Berlin and Amsterdam will become relatively more convenient than it is now.

So, what is the response?

Many London performers and artists are turning their minds to the question of just how they should respond to the prospect of a London that is less fully integrated with the rest of Europe, and in danger of losing some of its standing as a creative city. Instead of starting to scope out real estate in Berlin some of the more proactive people in the creative industry have decided it is to start new artistic projects.

Musician Matthew Herbert launched a two-year album project which began the moment Article 50 was triggered to formally begin the Brexit process and will end on the day the UK leaves the EU in 2019.

Herbert’s project started with a single layer of sound, and musicians from all over Europe have been encouraged to build layers and layers of sounds, lyrics and beats from different cultures and in different languages. Ultimately there are expected to be more than 1000 collaborators participating in the project.

This music/sound exchange scheme is called the Brexit Sound Swap and so far it’s one of the more positive outcomes of Brexit.

Check out the website here and get involved.

 

By Kamelia Gantcheva

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