The inaugural census asked 6,000 working musicians around the country a multitude of questions. The survey is the first of its kind in the country, created by The Musicians’ Union and the charity Help Musicians. It is expected that the survey will be repeated every three to five years.

The census also shed light on other demographics within working musicians in the UK as it was discovered that 70% of musicians are educated to a degree standard or higher with 50% holding a music degree.

Natalie Pohl, the Musicians’ Union General Secretary said about the survey: “The first Musicians’ Census highlights the challenges musicians face carving out and sustaining a career as a musician in 2023. As the UK’s trade union for musicians, this Census will help us be more effective at representing our members and tackling the nuanced challenges different communities of musicians face.”

More than half of the survey’s respondents reported they have to work multiple jobs in order to make a living. Investigations show that on average, a working musician has three or four other jobs. Musicians who are lucky enough to be able make it their entire livelihood on average earn only £30,000 a year, which is £4,000 less than the UK median average salary for the financial year ending in 2022. Only 3% of those who answered the survey earn £70,000 or more.

An anonymous respondent to the survey said: “a real glass ceiling in terms of performance pay with fees for most performance opportunities the same as they were 20 years ago … the hours are unsociable, rehearsals are often unpaid and there is much unpaid waiting around. Being a full-time musician and trying to be present as a parent is effectively impossible.”

44% of respondents complained of financial barriers that were holding them back in their career. Most notable and obvious financial issues surrounded around transport and equipment costs.

Furthermore, a lot of issues with debt were highlighted as well as the racial inequality in demographics. Overall, 17% of musicians were found to be in debt, whilst with black musicians it was found to be 30% were in debt.

In order for the statistics to make greater sense, 87% of the respondents were white and it was found that global majority musicians ultimately make less money than white musicians. From all of the respondents, a third of global majority musicians earn less than 25% of their income from music, whilst it is only a quarter for white musicians.

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The union are calling on the government to ‘Invest in Musicians,’ so that they can ‘continue to make music during the pandemic and bounce back as the industry gets on its feet.’ They point to some very worrying statistics which state that, according their polls taken in 2020 to asses the impact of Covid-19 on the industry, 38% of musicians ‘fall through gaps in Government support,’ 34% of musicians are ‘considering leaving the industry,’ and a whopping 88% of musicians think the government has not done enough to help them. The MU are attempting to rectify the situation by lobbying the government on a series of points; to ‘ensure the Self Employment Income Support Scheme continues to run alongside the furlough scheme,’ to boost the Self Employment Scheme to match ‘the same level of support as furlough,’ ‘waive the January 2021 tax bill,’ for those who haven’t received support, create a ‘Seat Out to Help Out Scheme,’ increase funding for artistic projects through ‘Arts Councils, Creative Scotland and PRS Foundation,’ and also provide ‘individual investment in musicians and other freelancers in England through the Cultural Recovery Fund.’

To help build pressure and raise awareness to their cause, the MU are encouraging their members to share their stories of how they have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic and then posting these on their instagram feed. The stories posted highlight the professionals working in all fields of the music industry, including the often forgotten musical links to healthcare as well as musicians developing portfolio careers and performers. Regardless of their role in the industry and how much of the £5 billion contribution the industry makes annually to the UK economy, there is no doubt that every single person in music has been adversely affected by this pandemic and they have not seen the support they deserve from the government.

While financial support is of course helpful, many musicians may be happy to temporarily look for other work to get them by during the pandemic, or have enough savings to rely on. However, what is most distressing for many musicians is the seemingly complete lack of compassion, empathy or even understanding which the government has offered to the industry consistently. While Rishi Sunak was bending over backwards to salvage the hospitality industry, which has allowed to reopen briefly in September, the music industry was told to stay shut despite months of poorly thought out support packages and misguided efforts to organise financially unviable socially distanced arena gigs operation at half capacity.

After the Sunday announcement from Downing Street with Boris Johnson saying that a second lockdown was coming in the next week, Johnson also mentioned the extension to the furlough scheme that has been set in place since the first lockdown in Mach. This led to a lot of self-employed workers (from all industries as well as the music industry) what will happen to them.

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UPDATE [2 Nov, 7pm] Government announced details of the nationwide lockdown in England, and extensions to the Government’s SEISS and furlough schemes UK-wide. SEISS is going up to 80% for November – but it is nowhere near parity with employed people as it goes back down to 40% in December. And there’s still no word on closing gaps in support that 38% musicians and 3m #ExcludedUK fall through Read our full #Lockdown2UK update at the link in bio. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ This morning @rishisunakmp said #SEISS will be expanded. This is critical. 70% musicians are unable to undertake more than a quarter of their usual work, and 36% do not have any work at all. Our members and all self employed people should receive an equal level of support as #furlough And the gaps that 38% musicians and 3m #ExcludedUK fall through must be closed. https://musiciansunion.org.uk/Home/News/2020/Nov/England-to-Go-Under-Nationwide-Lockdown [Image description: carousel of two slides. Slide 1: a screengrab of a tweet from BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. Text says: Rishi Sunak says the PM will unveil more help for self employed: “what we have done, typically… is adjust the value of the grants, as we have adjusted the value of the support to those who are employed… you can expect us to do the same again” #R4Today Slide 2: a quote from MU General Secretary Horace Trubridge. Text says: Our members are creative, pioneering, entrepreneurial people who have invested a huge amount of time and money in honing their talent. They should be receiving an equal level of support as people on PAYE.] #MusiciansUnion #MusiciansLife #SelfEmployed #SelfEmployedLife #SelfEmployedMusician #FreelanceLife #LockdownUK #Covid19 #Covid19UK #Coronavirus #CoronavirusUK #FreelanceMusician #FreelancceMusicians #DIYMusician #DIYMusicians #FreelancersOfInstagram #MusiciansOfInstagram #LetMusicLive #LetTheMusicPlay #WeMakeEvents #MusicIsLife #KeepMusicLive #BehindEveryMusician

A post shared by Musicians’ Union (@wearethemu) on Nov 2, 2020 at 3:02am PST

The furlough scheme is set in place to pay for up to 80% of workers’ wages in the event that they are out of work and cant work from home when their workplace is closed. Originally this was going to be cut as we exited the lockdown but has now been extended with the new lockdown quickly approaching. But this comes back to what will happen for those who are self-employed. Will they get equal treatment or like last time will they get forgotten for a large part of this lockdown.

In the first UK Lockdown, it was only after a couple of months that self-employed workers were able to apply for the ‘Self-Employed Income Support Scheme’ (SEISS) allowing them to receive payments for a percentage of what they would have earned. However, this didn’t help them fully with some still seeking Universal Credit benefits. The major problem is that the furlough scheme will help workers longterm and past the lockdown (until reduced) whereas the SEISS will not help the self-employed past Decembers end of the lockdown (2nd of December 2020)

This has to be a joke? Right? pic.twitter.com/hVpxOhkvf7

— Matthew Bourne (@SirMattBourne) October 12, 2020

This comes after the still fresh bitter feud between those in the creative industries and Rishi Sunak the Chancellor of the Exchequer after Sunak showed disregard for many of the creative workers telling them to “Retrain” even going as far as to have a promotional picture of a ballet dance saying she will retrain. This left a lot of creative workers feeling neglected and abandoned by the government after all the hard work they put out before the pandemic.

It should be noted that a large part of the government as well as the media branded these comments and posters as “Crass” and “not appropriate“. With the music industry and all creative industries being such a large part of everyone’s life and the lifeblood for a lot of self-employed workers we sincerely hope that the government won’t forget about all self-employed workers. Creative industries do more than a lot of people can imagine and their work deserves to be appreciated and cared for.