UK Live Music Census Toolkit ‘How-to’ Guide Emma Webster, Matt Brennan, Adam Behr and Martin Cloonan with Jake Ansell LARGE PRINT VERSION Introduction ....................................................................... 1 Outline ................................................................................ 4 Timeline .............................................................................. 5 Methodology ...................................................................... 7 Before the census: Top tips ............................................. 9 Before the census: 2-3 months before .......................... 10 Before the census: 2 months before ............................. 18 Before the census: 6 weeks before ................................ 20 Before the census: 3 weeks before ................................ 23 Before the census: 2 weeks before ................................ 34 Before the census: 1 week before.................................. 35 Before the census: 1 day before .................................... 38 Snapshot census date: Top tips .................................... 41 Snapshot census date: On the day ................................ 42 After the snapshot census date: Top tips ..................... 50 After the snapshot census date: Online survey period: Day/week after the census .............................................. 51 After the snapshot census date: Online survey period: One month after the census ........................................... 53 After the snapshot census date: Online survey period: Two months after the census ......................................... 55 After the snapshot census date: Data analysis: Three months after the census ................................................. 57 Glossary ........................................................................... 64 Checklist .......................................................................... 69 Introduction For 24 hours from noon on Thursday 9th March 2017, an army of volunteers in cities across the country went out and about to live music events, from pub gigs to massed choirs to arena concerts. Data was collected on audiences and venues in Glasgow, Newcastle-Gateshead, Oxford, Brighton, Leeds and Southampton (and in Liverpool on 1st June), and nationwide online surveys for musicians, venues, promoters and audiences were online from March until June. The UK Live Music Census covered all genres and took a broad definition of live music to include events featuring (named) DJs. For more information see uklivemusiccensus.org The intention was to help measure live music’s social, cultural and economic value, discover what challenges the sector was facing and inform policy to help it flourish. The UK Live Music Census was organised by researchers from the Live Music Exchange research group, a collaboration across the universities of Edinburgh, Newcastle and Turku, Finland. In 2015, the same researchers organised a pilot census in Edinburgh, inspired by work in Melbourne in 2012. For the UK Live Music Census we are indebted to the students and staff at the University of Glasgow, Newcastle University, Sage Gateshead, Bucks New University and Oxford Brookes University for their invaluable help with local censuses in March 2017. Affiliate institutions also organised their own live music censuses in 2017 in Brighton (British and Irish 1 Modern Music Institute, Brighton), Leeds (Leeds Beckett University), Liverpool (LIPA/University of Liverpool) and Southampton (Southampton Solent University). Disclaimer: This guide forms part of a toolkit which was produced by researchers at the University of Edinburgh and Newcastle University (‘we’). Note that this is a guide only and, while we encourage people to use it if they believe it will be helpful, ultimately the live music census that you run is your own and this toolkit is provided on an ‘as is’ basis. You can amend the methods according to suit your circumstances or not, but we accept no responsibility for, or any liability arising from, any census organised using this toolkit or from any other use of this toolkit. No warranties, promises and/or representations of any kind, whether expressed or implied, are given as to the nature, standard, accuracy or otherwise of the toolkit, nor the suitability or otherwise of the toolkit for your particular circumstances. The UK Live Music Census toolkit is intended for any people or organisations seeking to measure the value of live music in their local area. It draws on our own experiences of running live music censuses in cities across the UK and contains advice and tools for conducting a successful live music census. Our intention is that the toolkit should be a guide rather than being prescriptive and is based on how we ran our live music census in March 2017. However, how your live music census will actually be conducted in practice will vary according to context. 2 The toolkit consists of this ‘how-to’ guide and online appendices containing, among other things, the methodology for calculating economic value, suggested text for emails, a guide to web scraping and suggestions for profile interviews and data analysis. It also includes the survey questions from our UK census, which were devised in conjunction with a number of stakeholders within the UK’s live music sector and subsequently refined following the 2017 live music census. These stakeholders included our partners on the project, the Musicians’ Union, the Music Venue Trust and UK Music, and organisations such as Attitude is Everything, Julie’s Bicycle and PRS for Music. The methodology for calculating economic value was devised by Professor Jake Ansell at the University of Edinburgh. We hope that the toolkit will continue to be refined in subsequent live music censuses. If you carry out your own live music census, please let us know and keep us informed at [email protected] Good luck! Matt Brennan, Adam Behr, Martin Cloonan, Emma Webster with Jake Ansell 3 Outline Before the census  Apply for funding and ethical approval  Choose and confirm the snapshot census date  Plan and deliver publicity campaigns  Undertake mapping of venues and events  Identify and contact the snapshot census date venues  Recruit and train volunteers for the snapshot census date Snapshot census date  Conduct final training briefing with volunteers  Collect audience interview and venue observation data at venues  Launch online surveys After the snapshot census date  Publicise online surveys to venues, musicians, promoters and audiences  Collect additional venue data via follow-up surveys  Conduct data analysis and write and disseminate final report 4 Timeline 2-3 months before  Apply for funding and ethical approval  Choose and confirm the date and location of your census  Start mapping local live music ecology  Plan publicity campaigns and volunteer recruitment 2 months before Launch publicity campaign part 1 to announce census 6 weeks before  Book snapshot census HQ  Liaise with institutional legal department 3 weeks before  Launch publicity campaign part 2 to recruit volunteers  Identify, allocate and contact snapshot census date venues  Set up and test online surveys 2 weeks before Design and print flyers for snapshot census date 1 week before  Launch publicity campaign part 3 to publicise the census and launch online surveys 5  Conduct pre-census training for volunteers 1 day before Print out paperwork Census Date  Conduct final training briefing with volunteers  Collect audience and venue data 1 week after Publicise online surveys immediately after the snapshot census date 1 month after Publicise online surveys and collect venue survey data 2 months after Publicise online surveys and collect venue survey data 3 months after  Close online surveys  Analyse data, conduct profile interviews and write and disseminate final report Thank you for running this survey. It all helps somehow further down the line. Grateful to play a small part in it and good luck for all the ensuing work. Musician survey respondent, UK Live Music Census 2017 6 Methodology The live music census uses five methods: 1. Mapping local live music ecology. 2. Snapshot census over 24-hour period. 3. Online surveys targeting musicians, venues, promoters and audiences which remain open for three months after the snapshot census date. 4. Follow-up venue surveys (long and short). 5. Profile interviews for report. Mapping local live music ecology Desk research of local listings to produce a list of a) venues and b) events on snapshot census date. Snapshot census date Working in shifts, volunteers visit venues hosting live music over one 24-hour period. The volunteers complete short surveys using survey software and hard copy paper surveys comprising a) audience interviews and b) venue observation data collected during the 24-hour period. Online census period Up to four online surveys collect data on audiences, musicians, venues and promoters for the three months following the snapshot census date. 7