The results of four years of experimentations across Europe
After four years of experimentation and research across Europe, Better Live has published Decarbonising the Artist and Audience Mobility in Music, a white paper devoted to one of the major environmental challenges facing live music: the mobility of artists and audiences.
The results of these four years are substantial: drawing on experiments carried out in nine European territories and comparative research conducted in six countries, the document analyzes the conditions for transforming the sector and puts forward recommendations aimed at public policymakers.
How can the environmental footprint of live music be reduced without giving up the touring of artists, the diversity of programming, and access to music across regions?
That is the question that has occupied the 11 partners of Better Live project since its launch, and it is now the starting point of its white paper, published in July 2026.
Titled Decarbonising the Artist and Audience Mobility in Music, this document of more than 80 pages brings together the results of the experiments carried out during the project, the research conducted in parallel across several European countries, and a series of recommendations addressed to public decision-makers.
The white paper was written by Virgo Sillamaa, research coordinator at EMEE (European Music Exporters Exchange network), who has supported Better Live’s research work since its inception. The research was also carried out by a team including Daniel Nordgård, as well as Liucija Fosseli and Aleksandra Novak from the University of Agder in Norway.
It is the culmination of work begun in 2023 with the creation of the Better Live Blueprint, a conceptual and methodological framework that turned the project’s initial intuitions into hypotheses to be tested, data to be collected, and ultimately, subjects of research.
