TRANSCRIPT
Freelance musician Rebecca Toal has played the trumpet since she was 7 years old.
She makes it look easy, but she says the life of a musician is actually precarious.
Toal, like many other artists, has to have a second job - in her case, teaching music.
"It's very difficult to get opportunities, get paid work. If it's paid work, maybe it's not enough. The anxiety also just means that performing is almost impossible some days. You just either get shaky or your breathing - which is very important for trumpet - just goes out the window or you're kind of disassociated from things."
The stress that Rebecca experiences is a note that ripples through the entire UK music industry.
Around 6000 musicians have responded to a census which has found almost a third - or 30 percent - are experiencing low mental wellbeing.
Joe Hastings is the head of support line Music Minds Matter.
He says nearly half of professional musicians earn less than 14,000 pounds a year - that is less than 27,000 Australian dollars - and one in four say they're likely to leave the industry within five years.
"We have a rich and diverse musical history. We punch way above our weight in terms of what we produce. And I think if people are considering leaving the industry, that's only going to dilute that. It's going to mean that we don't always have that strength in the creativity that exists here."
The British government says it's investing millions of pounds in initiatives to boost grassroots music and to help musicians break into international markets.
Chris Walters from the UK musicians trade union says he hopes the government realises how much music brings to the nation.
"We would ask the government to reflect on the immense value of the music industry to the UK and then consider the lives of musicians and how realistic is it that musicians can keep producing this fantastic music that the UK is well known for on such low levels of pay and such precarious lifestyles."
It's a dilemma that's not limited to the UK.
In Australia, musicians are facing similar issues.
Clive Miller is the CEO of Support Act which provides crisis relief to music workers.
"I think in the last financial year we processed around 900 crisis relief grants to a value of about $2.3 million, so that is potentially a new normal for us. And when you consider that pre-COVID we used to do about 70 grants for around about $350,000 you can see that there's a pretty significant lift there. And on the mental health front, people call in to the helpline. There's been a 46 percent increase just over the course of this year, which is actually quite significant."
Like the UK government, Australia's leaders have promised to back its music artists.
Earlier this year, Arts Minister Tony Burke announced what he called a Creative Australia strategy to give the music industry more certainty.
He says the new setup will be more responsive to musicians' needs.
"Imagine this as a scenario. Somebody has been working small bars as a musician. They've got - their streaming music is going okay. They suddenly get an opportunity where somebody has fallen off a festival lineup overseas and they have a big opportunity. But it can only be taken now. If you went to the old Australia Council it would be, well put it in an application and we'll see some peer review as to whether - and by the time you got an answer the festival had gone. The opportunity was over. Because the organisation worked very much as it was meant to within a funded world. We now have Music Australia, dedicated to understanding how is a commercial world different."
Support Act says they welcome the government's backing.
Clive Miller says they welcome the public's support too.
He's argued that since COVID, more patrons have come to realise the life of a musician is not as glamorous and lucrative as they once assumed.
"People are putting themselves out on the line all the time and being judged very publicly. So I think that everyone's come to understand that there's a lot of financial insecurity. That being away from home when you're on tour also creates problem. There are those elevated levels of psychological distress that I mentioned. And let's face it, I mean when people are on tour perhaps they're not living their best lifestyle either... So I think music is just more than the people we see on stage. It's all the people behind the scenes that help make it happen as well. But also that it's a tough gig and we need to get out there and support the artists and musicians and music workers we love, in the best way we can." ]]
