Better Live research plan

The context of the research

Better Live project seeks to develop and pilot ways to decarbonise the live music industry, focusing more specifically on the smaller and independent actors, such as venues and festivals, promoters and touring artists.

The project seeks to create new knowledge through two processes: experimentation with co-programmed tours and research about the opportunities and challenges of applying the Better Live approach more broadly.

There have been many studies on the carbon footprint of music industries, especially with regards to live events and touring; also, various approaches have been proposed, tested and reported, including guidelines and calculators for practitioners.

On the other hand, other studies and reports have made high-level conclusions and recommendations about what kind of events are (not) green and could (not) be made to be more environmentally sustainable.

The current project will formulate its own set of practice and policy recommendations with regards to environmentally good practices.

Research
Team

Virgo Sillamaa

Researcher, coordinator of the research work package
EMEE, research coordinator
virgo@europeanmusic.eu

Daniel Nordgård

Research leader
University of Agder, Professor in music business and management, director of CreaTeME Center for Excellence
daniel.nordgard@uia.no

Expertise

The experiments are focused on building longer and slower tours through co-programming and collaboration between local and regional venues and festivals. This is expected to lead to a lower carbon footprint per tour stop, more cultural offerings per tour and more mentally and physically sustainable and meaningful touring for artists, who can engage with local audiences in a deeper way.

Framing the experiment:
Context and State of the Art: Exploring the intersection of ecology and music
Implementation of the Experimentation: Practical application of sustainability principles in the music sector.
Defining the Blueprint: Creating a structured framework for experimentation.
Venue Typology Definitions (LAGs): Categorization of venues based on capacity and type (many type of organization and venues from 50 to 500 capacity.
Tracking Decarbonization Effectivenes, Analysis and Evaluation of decarbonization levers.
A pool of experts has been supporting the project since its inception:
Gwendolenn Sharp / Hervé Fournier / Hugo Poitout / Charlotte Rotureau / Richard Philip / Pablo Belime / Derek Salmon / Garance Amieux /  Marguerite Courtel

Research

The Better Live project has resulted in a comprehensive White Paper outlining practice and policy recommendations for sustainable touring and live music across the sector. The research identifies and analyses the key challenges to implementing these recommendations—whether economic, social, political, or policy-related—from two essential perspectives: the regulative environment and the viewpoints of live music actors (festivals, venues, promoters, etc.).

The actor perspective analysis focused on identifying the key strategic considerations live music actors must address when developing a “low carbon strategy”, including economic, social, cultural, and political dimensions.

The regulative analysis mapped local, national and relevant European policies that could have a significant effect on live music practices in a region or a country. These included high-level political strategies, such as EU’s Climate Law, but also local regulations on sustainable use of energy or materials when operating a building, such as a venue. Another important area of policies was cultural and business support to music sector operators that might increasingly include so-called eco-conditionality clauses. Finally, the regulative analysis also aimed to provide tentative assessments of needed policy changes if the Better Live policy recommendations were to be implemented, and the particular resistance points to these changes.

Therefore, the main research questions are:
What are the main policies on local, national and European Union level likely to significantly impact the touring of artists and related live music organisational practices?
What kind of policy changes would be needed to implement the Better Live project recommendations?
What are the main challenges of relevant live music actors in implementing the Better Live project recommendations?

Methodology

Literature review – contains the review of relevant academic literature, studies and reports by various public authorities and private organisations, policy documents
Focus group interviews and individual semi-structured interviews with festival and venue programme managers, agents, artists managers and artists, policy makers and sectorrepresentatives involved in advocacy or policy making
Country case studies
Comparative analysis of findings
The number of interviews per country case study will vary somewhat, but on average there will be the following number of interviewees per case study:
10 festival and venue programme managers (1-2 focus groups + 5 individual interviews)
10 agents, artist managers, artists (2 focus groups)
Up to 4 policy makers, sector representatives (based on relevance)

Timeline

2023
Creating the Blueprint, a methodology document providing the framework for the experiments
2024
Desk research, focus group discussions and individual interviews
2025
Desk research, focus group discussions and individual interviews completed, analysis and drafting of the reports and articles.

Presentations of working papers at academic and music industry conferences.

2026
Publishing the final project White Paper

Outputs
Outcome
Dissemination

The research will produce:

A final analysis for the project : the White Paper (see button below)

1-2 papers for conference presentations
1-2 scientific articles for publication in academic journals
(to be realised most likely after the project has concluded)
White paper