MMF reaction to Govt £330bn package of business support - new questionnaire for music makers

On Monday evening, the Prime Minister recommended people should avoid mass gatherings and no longer visit venues or pubs and clubs.  This evening, we heard details of countermeasures to alleviate the impact of this strategy, in the shape of a £330bn guaranteed loan package for businesses - with a promise from the Chancellor that he will do "whatever it takes" to save jobs and livelihoods, and will go further if required.

On initial glance this looks a welcome step for more traditional music businesses which will help maintain employment and capacity for the future. However we maintain significant concerns that the benefits will not reach the music makers, their representatives and their teams, who are predominantly small-scale, self-employed or freelance. To help policy-makers better understand the impacts of coronavirus, the MMF has launched a new questionnaire that aims to quantify the profound and potentially long lasting losses that will result from this crisis for those who make the music we all live from.