When the United Kingdom votes on July 4 to elect its next government, business leaders around the world will be closely monitoring the outcome to see what it means for them. For the music industry, the upcoming general election — announced by Prime MinisterAccording to the latest opinion polls, the Labour Party is more than 20 points ahead of the ruling Conservative Party, which has been in power for 14 years.
To stem the tide of small venue closures, the Culture, Media and Sport Committee said the voluntary levy should be introduced “no later” than September. If progress is not made, the government should set up a statutory levy, advised the committee, which also called for a cut in sales tax on tickets for grassroots music shows.
In 2023, the government quietly shelved a proposal by The Intellectual Property Office for a new text and data mining exception that would have allowed AI developers to freely use copyright-protected works for commercial purposes following fierce criticism from the music industry. In December 2021, a bill was debated in Parliament that would have required record companies to pay musicians and songwriters a bigger cut of streaming revenue. It was defeated at the first stage, but the prospect of government intervention in the U.K. music business has seen record companies beef up their public policy teams and divert a huge amount of time and resources into dealing with the various probes.