Travelling Musicians: Brexit and Its Impact on Touring

By Laurine Payet, Music Journalist

This month’s theme is travel, but travel does not only include tourism. For a lot of music artists, travelling is part of their job. Touring in the live music industry - and the music industry in general – is essential for most musicians. It is a way to be closer to the fans from all different places, sell merchandising directly artists to the public and bring new crowds.

Now that live music has started again in most venues, touring in foreign countries is still harder than it was before. Indeed, the current pandemic has forced a lot of borders to close abruptly. On the occasion where they were to open, the conditions to enter or leave countries are so difficult and expensive that touring is in most cases cancelled. However, while this is a situation hopefully getting better in the near future, something else is massively impacting the live industry for an indefinite time, maybe forever.

Brexit: What it means

Brexit was voted with a referendum in 2016 and became effective on the first day of 2021. With the United Kingdom, having left the European Union, immigration rules have changed indefinitely. And it is no longer as easy to live and work in the United Kingdom, as an EU national, and vice versa. The immigration policies are now closer to that of the United States, for example. Entering the United Kingdom, as a European, without a visa is only possible for short holidays purposes, without work or studies involved. For UK citizens entering the EU, the rules depend on the countries but are close to being equivalent.

The implications for musicians

For British musicians visiting Europe, or vice versa, a visa or work permit is now required for any work, including touring. This means that all musicians or members of the crew surrounding the artist will have to apply for one. And having this accepted is a long and difficult process.

It mainly requires proving you have a stable audience in the country of the gig. This will make it much harder for smaller and independent artists. The process also costs money, more or less depending on the country but this will be an added financial pressure for small artists while big acts have the backup of major labels to get around the issue. Marginalized musicians without representation are likely to be most heavily impacted, LGBTQ+ artists amongst them.

Failed negotiations

Before Brexit became official and effective, both sides said to have tried to find a way to avoid the consequences of touring performing acts, especially for music. While proposals have been made from the EU and the UK, the EU has considered its neighbour’s offer not nearly good enough.

The deal would have given EU musicians 30 days in the UK to tour without a visa. However, with the EU considering this far too short, it was rejected and henceforward there has been no deal at all.

A global petition and still no outcome

Making a living out of music, from the creative to the business side, is already a difficult feat. Scared for their future, the music community has predictably tried to raise its voice to make an impact on what is to become a big issue for them. Tim Brennan, a retired touring video tech, started a petition to get the attention of the UK government and got viral. The petition has reached over 286,000 signatures by now but was rejected by the government, still blaming the EU for the lack of agreement.

Brennan opened up about the situation saying “The big artists will have a massive entourage who will sort all of the mess out for them and one way or another, they’ll do it. It’s the little guys and the new bands who still stand to lose out on so much. When it comes to carnets, visas, work permits and everything else, there just doesn’t seem to be any form of clarity from the government in telling us what is actually going on.”

Furthermore, Culture Minister Caroline Dinenage is not acting with any sense of urgency to fix the issue at hand.

More than just a visa problem: collateral damages

The difficulty of touring will be the first impact, but it will drag along a range of issues. Touring includes many jobs, from promoters to tech crews. A lack of agreement will - and has already started to – cause the loss of a huge number of jobs, causing financial strain to people across the music industry.

Merchandising and physical music are also predicted to significantly drop. Gigs also mean merch stand, where a large proportion of the merchandising is being sold, alongside CDs and vinyl for the collection addicts. The sale of those items will exclusively be online for most bands, but the pricing of shipping costs post-Brexit is likely to refrain fans from buying their favorite band’s merchandise.

While touring in Europe used to be an easy and essential way for upcoming and independent bands to make themselves known, this is soon to be impacted by Brexit and its consequences on immigration laws in both the UK and the EU. The lack of interest of the government has been glaringly obvious. With an approximative worth of £111 billion in cultural industries - £5.2 billion in the music industry alone – the government is once again treating the sector as a background issue. Clearly showing priorities, they claim to not have been able to sort anything out while actively negotiating arrangements for the fishing industry, worth four times less than the music industry.

The full impact cannot yet be measured as it is too soon to collect data of changes, but the outcome is easily predictable. Many artists, especially independent artists, will see stagnation in their careers directly due to this political act. This will greatly impact marginalized musicians already struggling in the sector, especially the queer community, people of color and women.