On-the-road Realities and Unseen Labour

The UK music industry generated £7.6 billion last year. Taylor Swift became a billionaire off the back of a tour. So why are some artists still losing money every time they play a show?

That's the question at the heart of this episode, as Sean sits down with David Martin, CEO of the Featured Artists Coalition (FAC), and musician and former FAC board member Roxanne de Bastion to talk about the newly launched UK Artist Touring Fund (UKAT).

Applications are open now. If you are a touring artist, go to thefac.org/ukatfund before midnight on 20 March 2026. Or stay tuned for phase two.

The fund distributes money raised through a voluntary £1 levy on arena and stadium tickets - contributed by tours from artists including Harry Styles, Katy Perry, Coldplay, Radiohead and Enter Shikari - to help emerging and mid-tier artists cover genuine shortfalls on their UK headline tours. In Phase One, artists can receive up to £7,000, covering up to 40% of tour expenditure.

In this episode we cover:

- Why the music industry can be booming at the top while artists on the road are losing money every night - and how British artists' share of the global market has fallen from around 17% to 9% in the last nine years.

- The real costs of touring - from Travelodge bills and van hire to session fees, sound engineers and childcare - and how costs have risen sharply since 2022 while support fees have barely moved in decades.

- Why record labels stopped providing tour support, and what that has meant for the generation of artists trying to develop their careers on the road.

- How UKAT works: who qualifies, what it covers, why support tours are excluded from Phase One (and when that changes), and the separate access fund for artists with disabilities, caring responsibilities or other access needs.

- The Live Nation question - how the UK's biggest promoter reports losses in its UK entity while the wider group generates billions globally through Ticketmaster and venue operations - and what it would take to bring major players fully into the levy.

- Why funding touring is also a working-class issue: every genre the UK is globally known for - grime, drum and bass, early rock and pop - came from working-class underground movements, and rising costs are pricing those voices out.

- The safety argument: as David describes, sending artists out on the road without the resources to do it properly is not just a financial issue - it is a physical safety issue. The death of Viola Beach is a reference point nobody in the industry has forgotten.

- What Roxanne would spend £500 million on, and what both guests hope and fear music will be like in 2050.

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Links

UKAT Fund - apply by 20 March 2026: thefac.org/ukatfund
Featured Artists Coalition: thefac.org
Roxanne de Bastion: roxannedebastion.com/
Los Campesinos! touring economics breakdown: https://community.drownedinsound.com/t/how-los-campesinos-lost-over-1000-playing-a-sold-out-show-in-dublin/87034
Enter Shikari / Rou Reynolds episode: https://youtu.be/gTkSAokv6UU?si=vBeWvwp7y2l78I3A

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Edited by: tell.studio (Phil, Louisa, Owen, Matt)