How Universal Basic Income Could Rewire the UK Music Industry
The UK music industry runs on adrenaline, overdrafts and blind faith. For every headline-grabbing arena tour, there are thousands of artists grafting through zero-hour contracts, spiralling rent and the quiet humiliation of explaining, again, that yes, this is a real career. We talk endlessly about “supporting the arts” while letting musicians haemorrhage under austerity, stagnant fees and the algorithmic creep of AI. And yet, when Universal Basic Income enters the conversation, the national mood shifts from indifference to outrage in under a minute. It’s absurd. In a country that bankrolls corporate bailouts without blinking, the idea of guaranteeing ordinary people a basic financial floor is treated like heresy. If UBI were put to a referendum tomorrow, I’d wager we’d see another Brexit-shaped wound torn open by spite and tabloid myth-making. The Day Job as Creative Handbrake Imagine the UK introducing a monthly, unconditional payment to every adult, enough to cover essentials. Not luxury, not excess, just survival without panic. For musicians, that alone would be seismic. The day job wouldn’t vanish overnight, but it would stop being a chokehold. Artists could choose part-time work without terror. They could tour without calculating whether petrol money means skipping meals. They could record […]
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