14 years of advocating for the leisure-time music sector
Barbara Eifler reflects on Making Music's advocacy achievements during her 14 year tenure as CEO - from introducing the term 'leisure-time' and supporting music libraries, to influencing Martyn's Law, providing Creative tax relief services and other successes and challenges she has encountered along the way.
As I am getting ready to leave Making Music, here are a few thoughts on advocacy for members over my time here.
Leisure-time music
‘Leisure-time’ was a term I introduced, replacing various ways of referring to our sector, from ‘amateur’ to ‘non-professional’, ‘voluntary’ to ‘community’. Finding the right word, I always felt, was important:
Not ‘amateur’ – because that is genre-specific to classical orchestras; have you ever heard of an ‘amateur ukulele group’? Quite.
Not ‘non-professional’ – because who would want to define their entire activity and that of tens of thousands of others through a negative? Plus, many trained professionals are part of member groups, even if not to earn their living – nonetheless, it feels wrong that they should be labelled ‘non-professional’. And the conductor or choir leader are usually professionals.
Not ‘voluntary’ – because if there is ‘voluntary’ music, is there ‘involuntary’ music? Only rude noises come to mind, sorry. And not ‘community’ – because as the young cohort in my brass band said forcefully when consulted on using that word in a name change: ‘That sounds like we’re rubbish.’
So ‘leisure-time’, whilst having an American twang to it, for which apologies, does describe our activity: we are undertaking it as a hobby, alongside our life and work commitments.
And why is finding the right word important?
When I joined Making Music, I saw that too many of our sector felt obliged to define themselves in relation to the professionals, to say ‘we’re as good as you are at playing or singing the notes, honestly’. Whilst that is absolutely true of a good many leisure-time ensembles, it seemed to me to be beside the point. I believe music groups are a different beast to professional ensembles. You are about lots of things that together define you: yes the music (though often different music to that presented by professionals), but also social connection, rootedness in your communities, well-being and care for your participants, learning, agency in directing your own activity, and more.
I therefore hope that I leave you, after 14 years of repeating this to anyone who listens, with more confidence that you are your own sector, that you are a sector that matters, to people, to society, and that leisure-time music, an activity appreciated and supported by hundreds of thousands of people throughout the UK, exists not as a shadow of something else but in its own right and on its own merit. Stand up, be proud and be counted!
Music libraries (sheet music from public libraries)
These were a challenge when I arrived at Making Music and remain one 14 years on – though some achievements are worth shouting about.
I worked closely with Nottingham when they consulted on reimagining their music library, with the result that they commissioned still the only reservation and booking software specific to music libraries: allowing users to reserve multiple copies in advance, pay for their booking, and manage the entire process online. And music librarians have ready access to data and online systems to manage their library, meaning they can focus on answering musical questions, rather than shuffling filing cards.
Since implementation in Nottingham (which at that time also merged with Leicester music library), the system is now also used in Hertfordshire and Surrey. Can it be rolled out more widely? Who will support its future maintenance and development? Those are questions I have recently been working on, including as trustee of the Music Libraries Trust.
There were also a number of more or less high-profile campaigns in various locations:
Bristol: eventually the council gave the collection to the music hub which house it in their building where it is run by volunteers (who are now worrying about how sustainable that is/they are). Successful because so many of you got involved.
Norfolk, where a dynamic ‘Friends of’ group was founded and has supported the council, when hire income doesn’t quite cover the running costs, through an annual fundraising campaign, with the added benefit of thus spreading the word on the library far and wide. Again, local group power!
Westminster (twice), Bournemouth, Dorset, Somerset, Buckinghamshire, Manchester, Yorkshire, Stockport, Ealing, Harrow, Trafford were all engaged with in different ways on behalf of members over the years, but the biggest campaign was in Surrey, where the county was minded to split up and disperse the third largest collection of materials in England (after Yorkshire and Somerset). Again, with strong involvement from the community, including turning up at council meetings, eventually we helped found a charity, the New Surrey Performing Arts Library (NewSPAL), which took on the collection from the council.
And music library work is still worth doing, as not everything is/can be digitised or is useful in digital format, and won't be for a while yet. The challenge so far has been trying to find solutions to fit a local area’s circumstances; but national (England – the other nations have their own systems) answers, I have discovered, have even higher hurdles to overcome…
Read the Music Libraries Vision
Music education
Music education for under-18s has been a quietly running thread through your communications with us – many of you concerned that the opportunities you had as children are now not available to the next generation. At Making Music, we have therefore been supporting and engaging with campaigns run by organisations with expertise in this field, such as Music Mark, ISM, Music Education Council, and the Scottish #ChangeTheTune campaign.
However, we realised nobody was giving attention to adult music learning which becomes more important the less opportunity there is for under-18s: if you didn’t get the chance to learn an instrument or to read music at school, how can musical participation opportunities still be opened up to you in adult life? Therefore in 2019 we convened an industry round table which resulted in our Adult Music Learning Manifesto.
The manifesto identified 8 different types of adult music learners; looked at what provision for adult music learners there is currently, and how it needs to differ from that for under-18s; captured what adult music learners’ specific challenges are; and explored how some of those barriers could be tackled.
Just recently, Professor Daisy Fancourt’s book Art Cure vindicates why this is an important topic (and the recent membership survey confirmed that you would like Making Music to continue working on this). 5 a day fruit and vegetables are fine, but you need your daily dose of the arts to make sure you’re really thriving, at all ages, according to Prof. Fancourt.
Covid – aarrgghh
That was a busy time for us at Making Music, as we interpreted and re-interpreted the constantly changing guidance emerging from government; ultimately persuading the government in August 2020 that amateurs, as well as professional musicians, should be allowed to get back to rehearsing and performing – with a risk assessment I then spent my holiday that year (such as it was) writing. And the following year, when choirs had been held back from reconvening although other groups could meet again, we orchestrated a campaign which, through your vigorous support, brought a ministerial change of heart swiftly.
Covid was also a time when we focussed strongly on another aspect of advocacy: celebrating our members’ activity. I still love the 12 Virtual Concerts we programmed in 2020/1 and which showcase the variety, the breadth, the imagination, the uniqueness of you all more beautifully than any words can. Revisit them on our YouTube channel occasionally for a shot in the arm!
PRS, copyright, royalties
The recent membership survey shows this remains one of the topics on which you most appreciate our guidance and support. In 2019, PRS put forward proposals to increase the classical live rate by 50%. Making Music worked with others to provide evidence to PRS how detrimental this would be and many of you also responded to the consultations. Eventually, post-Covid, PRS offered to charge amateur groups at a 50% discount compared to the professionals. Hoorah!
Protect Duty/Martyn’s Law
Our work around this shows how long some of these campaigns can take before a result is seen: we first responded to a consultation and encouraged you to do so back in 2021, and the final version of the legislation eventually received Royal Assent in 2025; we’re still waiting for the statutory guidance….
This was a classic example of us spotting something that may negatively impact our members and working out how we could influence the proposed bill to avoid unintended consequences. We prepared documents alongside the several consultations to help you understand what the questions were about; we convened a Community Spaces Forum with building owners and managers of the kind of spaces you use; we attended Home Office workshops, and more. The final bill is a real improvement on the first draft – a great example of us all working together to ensure the conditions are right for you to be able to thrive with your activity; it was the number of responses from community groups (i.e. you) to the first Home Office consultation which obliged them to go back and revisit some of the bill’s provisions.
This Martyn’s Law work has morphed into the wider – proactive, rather than reactive - #MakeSpaceForMusic campaign which my colleagues will continue to take forward to advocate not just for your regular meeting spaces but for affordable accessible and suitable performance spaces, too, which you highlight in the recent member survey as an even bigger concern.
Creative tax reliefs: tax relief for choirs
As a result of us regularly connecting across the sector, when the Association of British Orchestras lobbied successfully for Orchestra Tax Relief, their Chief Executive Mark Pemberton, well aware of Making Music and the groups it represents, ensured the word ‘amateur’ appeared in the legislation.
But we realised once the bill was passed that the HMRC claims process would be immensely complicated and daunting for volunteer-run groups to navigate. So we commissioned template documents members could use and introduced our Orchestra Tax Relief service. Since 2017 this has recouped over £2.5m for member groups, enabling them to increase their production budgets by 50%, spend more on professional musicians, music in copyright, commissioning, larger venues, etc.. We are very proud of this service which is being held up as an example to other organisations by Arts Council England and praised by HMRC for its regulatory compliance.
Choirs, though, have not been able to benefit and we have been campaigning on this, supported by professional choirs and organisations across the music sector, so far without success. My colleagues are as committed to this as I have been, and I have no doubt will ultimately prevail with our arguments which are so compelling.
This is another topic where you can all help make that difference: badger your MPs, write emails, every single one of you, not just the Chair of the choir…. I have been given to understand that unless a topic features in an MP’s inbox in hundreds of mails, they do not perceive it as something to take action on urgently, so please get writing!
In summary….
There are many other topics, large and small, that we have engaged with and continue to do so on your behalf, guided by our overriding belief that music groups and their activities bring joy, wellbeing, cohesion, opportunity and more to their participants and their communities.
We are reactive – spotting things that may affect you, usually inadvertently, negatively.
We are proactive – where matters need improving.
We represent – we tirelessly engage with other organisations in the music, charity and education sector where we feel this will make a difference to members, help raise their profile, build useful connections.
We celebrate – because articulating and highlighting your stories is a great way to persuade policy makers to think of you when legislating, the general public to think of you when they need something different in their lives and everyone to come flocking to your concerts.
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