UK Music Labour Conference Panel - Industry leaders outline challenges to Creative Industries Minister

01 October 2025 - Press release

Industry leaders seized the chance to outline some of the challenges facing the music industry to Creative Industries Minister Ian Murray at UK Music’s packed Labour conference panel. 

 

Chaired by UK Music Chief Executive Tom Kiehl and titled Push The Button: Why Backing British Music Will Kick Start Growth, the panel discussion covered a wide range of issues including the impact of Artificial Intelligence, the barriers to EU touring, music education and how music can boost local economies.

The panel for the event on Monday featured Creative Industries Minister Ian Murray, Musicians’ Union General Secretary Naomi Pohl,  Chief Public Policy Officer of the Music Publishers Association (MPA) Ornella Akanga and Labour MP for East Thanet Polly Billington.

Naomi Pohl opened the discussion outlining some of the barriers facing musicians and crew trying to tour Europe post-Brexit.

Naomi said: “The will is really there on the UK side to negotiate an improved deal… that removes the barriers. The challenge we are up against now as an industry is that the EU Commission sees this as being a one-sided issue. So what we are trying to get across now is that there is a mutual benefit to the EU and the UK having this cultural exchange.”

Moving on to the challenges that Artificial Intelligence posed to the music industry, Ornella Akanga warned that “anything that interrupts or threatens copyright is a huge concern to us”.

Ornella added: “We need AI companies to come to the table and to share with us how they want to use our work”, saying MPA members wanted to have a choice on whether and how their work was used.

Tom Kiehl summarised to the audience the findings of UK Music’s Hometown Glory report published in July, which explained how music could boost local economies and be a key part of the Government’s growth agenda.

He said the report was particularly relevant to areas like Polly Billington’s Thanet constituency which, with towns like Margate, Broadstairs and Ramsgate, had a large creative community.

Thanet MP Polly Billington said she was keen to make a universal point before focussing on local economies.

She said: “Creativity is fundamental to the human condition. Every human experiences music – either as somebody who makes it or someone who absorbs it and experiences it.”

“Inequality and unequal access to creativity limits how we harness the talents of our country.”

Polly said music was vital to the seasonal economy of places like Margate, but it was also important to look at how that could be expanded to the whole year, creating an economy that worked in coastal communities.

Creative Industries Minister Ian Murray started his contribution by highlighting how the UK had “the best music industry in the world”.

He added: “The creative industries and music is the thing that holds our communities together – it is the glue that holds our communities together.”

With regard to AI and copyright, the Minister said that AI was now out there and “we either work with it and put the guardrails in place or have it done to us.”

On touring, Ian Murray said the Government was working very closely with the industry to resolve the problems facing the sector as this was a Labour manifesto commitment and mentioned specifically in the UK/EU summit deal.

He added: “We are trying to persuade the EU that there is a reciprocal benefit to them. We need to try to make sure that people are touring.”

The Minister also praised the “really important” Hometown Glory report as it highlighted how many of the levers to boost growth were local such as licensing rules.

When the discussion opened to audience questions, Labour peer Baroness Keeley revealed that the next inquiry by the House of Lords’ Digital and Communications Committee that she chaired would be looking at the issue of AI and copyright.

In response to an audience question about the slowness of the Home Office in granting some visas to acts looking to tour the UK potentially threatening major tours, Ian Murray said the process should be improving.

On the subject of tax credits, the minister said the tax breaks had completely transformed the film and high-end TV industry and suggested there was a case for looking at how tax credits could assist touring.