The precarious nature of live music venues at the moment, is not to be underestimated. Of course, live music will always exist by hook or by crook, but why does it have to be so difficult for venues?
With that, the Music Venue Trust have shared their annual report, which shows how hard 2025 was.
They reported that 30 grassroots music venues closed their doors forever between July 2024 and July 2025, with another 48 stopping their operations as gig spaces also.
For those that remain, they saw money drying up, with over half of venues reporting no profit at all in the 12 month period.
“We have reached the absolute limit of what goodwill can possibly absorb,” Music Venue Trust CEO Mark Davyd said. “For years, grassroots music venues have quietly carried problems that should never have been theirs to solve. Rising costs. Shifting policy. Regulatory confusion. Political drift. Industry indifference. And because they didn’t collapse overnight, everyone else has been able to pretend that the system more or less works.
“Well, here’s the headline from this report: It does not work.”
National Insurance increases have contributed to job losses, while increases in business rates have been devastating for venues.
The grassroots sector subsidised live music by £76.6million in 2025, while recent big shows at arenas saw UK live music contribute £8 billion to the economy. It’s not like music is going out of fashion, or anything.
The previous MVT report showed one UK venue closing every fortnight, and this year’s report shows that has mercifully slowed somewhat. However, touring is still in a state of collapse, and Brexit has made it increasingly difficult for bands trying to earn a living.
At the level where people enter the world of live music, is where the problems are most keenly felt.
“When venues were forced to cut jobs, they couldn’t get rid of executives because they don’t have any,” said Davyd. “They didn’t trim luxuries because there aren’t any to trim. With no other option, venues were forced into a corner and forced to make a terrible decision none of them wanted to. They cut the first rung of the ladder. The trainees. The junior sound engineers. The box office assistants. The casual staff learning how venues actually work. Those people didn’t just lose jobs. They lost routes in.”
“That long term loss is invisible in the short term, and it is exactly why it is so dangerous. This isn’t just about fairness or opportunity. It’s about whether this industry still works ten years from now.”
Davyd continued that the 6,000 job losses weren’t the result of venues being bad at business, but “because people keep have been making poor decisions at a political, policy and structural level, with the ridiculous expectation that the smallest, most fragile part of the live music ecosystem would be able to quietly absorb the consequences.”
The Music Venue Trust will be expanding its frontline Venue Support Team and Emergency Hardship Relief Fund to try and prevent avoidable closures, as well as investing £2million immediately to permanently reduce costs and improve sustainability.
It isn’t just music venues – business rates and political inaction has been hurting pubs, restaurants, bars, theatre and comedy clubs, leaving a bleak outlook for the UK.
Addressing the politicians in the room, Davyd said: “My message is blunt: Stop mucking about. Stop making speeches that don’t actually move things forward. Just get things done. These are not radical demands. They are the minimum required for a sector this important.
“People who say it cannot be done should get out of the way of the people doing it,” Davyd ended. “Music Venue Trust is moving forward in 2026 and beyond. We are not asking if this can be done. We are doing it.
“The only remaining question, for everyone in this room and beyond, is whether you are going to do it with us.”
The Pop Corporation 
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