LIVE Trust update as Katy Perry makes MVT donation

Katy Perry has become the latest artist to pledge £1 from every ticket sold for her newly announced UK tour leg to the Music Venue Trust (MVT), as the business awaits the green light for the LIVE Trust.

The American pop star, who played her first UK shows at London’s 200-cap Water Rats and 1,145-cap Scala in 2008, becomes the first international act to follow the likes of Coldplay, Sam Fender and Enter Shikari by donating a percentage of tour proceeds to the organisation.

“I’m proud to donate £1 from every ticket on the UK leg of The Lifetimes Tour to Music Venue Trust so that venues like Water Rats and Scala, where I played my first UK shows, can continue to usher in the next generation of music talent” says CAA-represented Perry, who will play arenas across the UK in October 2025, promoted by AEG.

“We want to say a huge thank you to Katy and her team for stepping up to support grassroots music venues, artists and promoters,” adds MVT CEO Mark Davyd. “The contribution from these shows will keep venues open, get new and emerging artists out on tour, and enable promoters to bring the best in new music to our communities.”

Davyd tells IQ the charity’s mission extends to supporting the whole ecosystem at grassroots level.

“Whether it’s artists being able to tour or promoters being able to take risks or venues being able to be open, it all helps each other,” he says. “We have our own internal distribution of funding through which we have successfully distributed over £4 million in the last three years to artists, so we will continue to do that, but we imagine that as the financial support expands organisations like FAC, MMP, AIP, MU, etc will identify funding partners to distribute money for them or build mechanisms themselves.”

“A strategy that keeps venues afloat but bypasses the artists who perform on those stages will simply repeat the mistakes of the pandemic”

Last week, the UK government urged the live industry to introduce a voluntary ticket levy to support the grassroots music sector in its response to the Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) Committee’s report.

However, prior to that, the Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) and Musicians’ Union (MU) penned a joint open letter calling for a blanket ticket levy to share the cost of investing in the future of the UK live scene, insisting that “just supporting venues in itself will not save grassroots music”.

Speaking to IQ, FAC CEO David Martin stresses that the group was established to represent the UK’s artist community.

“We make no apology in campaigning for their interests, especially when artists are facing such massive shortfalls from the increased costs of touring,” he says. “Alleviating those pressures and encouraging more live activity is the only effective solution to the grassroots music crisis.

“A strategy that keeps venues afloat but bypasses the artists who perform on those stages will simply repeat the mistakes of the pandemic, with disastrous consequences for the wider live music business. While the generosity of individual artists in donating to MVT is commendable, it does not equate to a sustainable, transparent and long-term strategy to safeguard the sector’s future.”

The LIVE Trust, an industry-created charitable body which would collect and distribute funds, is currently in the process of being set up with the UK charity regulator. Martin says the FAC endorses the body as “a vehicle for collecting and distributing a blanket levy”.

“It is now imperative for the sector to unite in agreeing on a clear pathway to achieve this goal, fostering economic activity, live touring, and audience growth,” he adds.

“LIVE’s members are working to increase the profile of the Trust ahead of launch and include discussion as to its aims and objectives”

On that subject, LIVE CEO Jon Collins offers an update on the timeframe involved in setting up the trust.

“We have covered a lot of ground in the six months since the CMS Committee recommended an industry solution to the grassroots crisis, avoiding a much more intrusive statutory intervention,” he tells IQ. “Even with a packed industry summer and an election, we have been able to agree the aims, objectives, structure, funding approach, initial trustees and mid-term strategy for the trust.

“A lot of this work goes under the radar as we work on our formal submission to the Charity Commission. We feel we have now answered all the Commission’s questions and await the green light.”

Collins continues: “It is brilliant news that Katy Perry has opted to support grassroots music, and we hope she is the first of many international artists to do so alongside their UK counterparts. With the LIVE Trust in place, there will be another option for those wishing to support artists, venues, festivals, promoters and the other actors that contribute to our grassroots sector.

“LIVE’s members are working to increase the profile of the trust ahead of launch and include discussion as to its aims and objectives in relevant tour planning.”

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