In January, the UK’s Live Trust announced that it would be distributing £500k from a voluntary levy on stadium and arena concert tickets to support grassroots venues – but also the artists who play in them.
Now details of how the latter element – the UK Artists Touring Fund, overseen by the Featured Artists Coalition, MMF and Musicians’ Union – will work have been announced, with applications opening tomorrow (Wednesday 10 March).
The fund has an initial £125k to distribute, with its first phased focusing on UK-based artists playing headline tours in small-to-mid-sized venues across the country this year.
Artists can apply for up to £7k each to support tours with at least three headline dates, as long as at least three quarters of their concerts are promoter-booked with guarantees.
The idea is to plug any shortfall between the revenue and costs for the shows, rather than pay for the tours entirely. “Fair and reasonable” pay is also required for all the musicians, managers and crews involved. You can find full details here.
