Music is the shared language that connects us. It crosses boundaries, bridges divides and helps us understand one another. In a time when it feels too many of us have lost the ability to understand one another, music matters more than ever.
It is woven into the fabric of our national life. In the UK, a live gig or concert takes place every 137 seconds. It accompanies our celebrations and our sorrows, marks our milestones and brings people together.
We are rightly proud that the UK is one of the world’s three largest exporters of music, producing artists who light up the world. Music is not simply one of our greatest success stories, it matters deeply to who we are as a nation.
But music’s value cannot be measured only by chart success or export figures. It is a civic space - as important as any high street or town hall - where communities come together, where young people discover confidence and creativity, and where new ideas flourish. When someone is excluded from a life animated by music, we all lose. Our culture is poorer, our communities are weaker, and we miss the talent that might otherwise have enriched so many lives.
That is why this plan is rooted in one simple principle: music belongs to everyone. It is broad and inclusive. It should never be the preserve of those whose parents can afford lessons or instruments. Every child deserves the chance to experience the richer, larger life that music can bring.
Nowhere is that more important than for children in care. We are their corporate parents and we should be as ambitious for them as every parent is for their child. Like sport, art, dance and drama, music can be the lifeline that sustains them at the most difficult moments of their lives. We owe it to them to ensure those opportunities are not the exception but the expectation.
We celebrate the artists who represent Britain on the world stage. Ed Sheeran, Adele, Harry Styles, Stormzy, Dua Lipa and so many others. But great artists do not emerge by accident. No man - or woman - is an island. The success of every great artist rests on the support of someone who believed in them - a teacher, a parent, another artist or a friend - great venues, communities who back them, audiences who care.
Every headline act started somewhere, often in the grassroots music venues where they learned their craft. Yet those foundations have come under increasing pressure. In the last decade, creativity has too often been pushed out of classrooms and communities. The number of young people taking arts subjects at GCSE has fallen dramatically. Grassroots venues have struggled to survive, leaving too many towns and cities without the places where musicians develop their skills and audiences discover something new.
As Paul Simon once sang, “Every generation throws a hero up the pop charts.” But pop is getting posher, and that must change. We are not short of talent. But while talent is everywhere, opportunity is not. So after a decade when culture and creativity was erased from the classroom and the community, we have wasted no time putting music back at the heart of the curriculum, investing in creative careers and rebuilding opportunities for young people in every part of the country.
Through this government’s new programme, Every Child Can, we will stop at nothing to ensure that every child can find their spark, through new initiatives such as turning our incredible network of libraries into music lending libraries and a creative mentoring programme for children in care. We are strengthening the ecosystem that supports talent from schools to grassroots venues and from rehearsal rooms to recording studios because success depends on every part of that journey.
Thriving music depends on thriving places. These places and spaces are for us, an integral part of our civic inheritance that should be protected, nurtured and defended. In my town, Wigan, that gave us brass bands, Northern Soul and The Verve, almost all the venues that bands cut their teeth in have disappeared. This cannot be right. We were the first government to back a voluntary grassroots levy to support our venues, but we will do more, whether it’s defending our venues against noise complaints or reforming the system so more money flows to the grassroots.
To everyone who makes music happen - this government is on your side. And to the fans who make the UK music scene the best in the world, this plan is for you. We will stamp out ticket touts who are causing misery in the industry and we will always have your back.
Because when everyone has the chance to make, perform and enjoy music, we do more than create great artists. We build stronger communities, broaden opportunity, strengthen our national story and ensure that Britain’s music continues to light up the world for generations to come.
Lisa Nandy
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
