MU Column: Painting a picture of the sector

One of the questions I am asked most often at the Musicians' Union is: how many music teachers are there in the UK? It seems that everyone wants to know the answer to this question, but attempts to answer it have been limited until now.

Perhaps you could start by adding together the membership figures of di˛ erent membership organisations – but these may overlap, and some teachers may not be members of any organisation. Alternatively, you could look at the numbers of schools and exam entries and try to extrapolate from these, but many teachers work outside of schools and don't engage with formal assessments. Other teachers may combine music with other careers, while others may operate through word of mouth with little online presence.

For teachers and musicians alike

It's not just music teachers who are hard to quantify; musicians of all stripes are difficult to count and identify. Many hardworking musicians may well be invisible to the mainstream music industry, doing great things in their communities without acknowledgement in sector surveys and reports. Importantly, the challenges of counting musicians and music teachers also serve to highlight what is unknown about their lives. What di˛ erent types of work make up their careers? What challenges do they face day to day? What training and development opportunities do they need? And how could the formal music industry support them better?

The Musicians' Census

For all of these reasons, Help Musicians and the Musicians' Union (MU) have a shared ambition to build a more comprehensive picture of the lives and careers of working musicians, and those wishing to develop a career, across the UK. Although there are some excellent and vital pieces of work done each year – especially UK Music's This Is Music annual economic study – none provides a complete summary of the full breadth of the musician community, including teachers, performers, composers, students, music therapists and producers.

Now, Help Musicians and the MU are working together to launch the inaugural Musicians' Census, with the aim of collating a true dataset of the total population of musicians in the UK. This is more than a survey. Working with the expertise of research partner ICM, the census will use statistical sampling techniques and methodology to ensure it paints an accurate picture.

A collaboration

The Musicians' Census is a new joint project through which we finally hope to understand the UK's diverse music community – what it looks like, what it needs and how we can improve it, making music thrive in a post-Brexit and post-pandemic world.

Gathering vital insights on demography, diversity, health and wellbeing, and the breadth of working patterns and income, the Musicians' Census will:

• Help support and organise all musicians, whatever their background and wherever they work
• Provide a picture of what life as a musician looks like
• Help improve musicians' pay, conditions, knowledge and skills
• Help the whole of the music industry to better understand and campaign for musicians
• Make sure that the MU and Help Musicians' services are useful and relevant
• Promote equality, diversity and inclusion.

The census will be repeated every three to five years to track changes in the musician population over time.

What's involved?

The Musicians' Census is a short online questionnaire that we would like every musician in the UK to complete – including those who teach or work in education in any capacity. Responses to the questionnaire will be anonymous. We hope to capture precise data on the number of musicians, as well as developing a deeper, shared understanding of what it's like to be a musician in 2023.

Top level findings will be shared with charities and bodies that support musicians to help them plan how best to represent, advocate for and support musicians in future years. Everyone who completes the census will be entered into a prize draw with a chance to win one of five £300 One4all gift cards, which can be spent in many di˛ erent retailers.

To make the census as robust as possible we need respondents – and lots of them. While a closing date has not yet been set, the census will be open for a limited time only. We would be hugely grateful if you could complete the questionnaire soon as you can.

musicianscensus.com

musiciansunion.org.uk

helpmusicians.org.uk

This Is Music annual report: ukmusic.org/research-reports/this-is-music-2022