Brit Beat: Next Week’s Brit Awards Aim for ‘New and Young Audiences’; New AEG Boss Steve Homer’s Hopes for Live Music’s Recovery

Mark Sutherland
·12 min read

The Grammys may have been postponed until April, but the U.K. equivalent – the Brit Awards – will take place next week as planned at the O2 Arena in London.

However, the event will not quite be fully restored to its traditional set-up, with no industry tables on the arena floor (execs will instead be in hospitality boxes, like last year’s COVID-restricted event, while fans and artists will be seated on the floor) and no aftershow party.

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The event also has a new look, with a fresh host (comedian Mo Gilligan), set designer (Glastonbury favorites Block9), and several new categories (including the artist of the year gong, four new genre awards and the inaugural Songwriter of the Year prize), all brought in by the Brits committee’s new chair, Polydor Records co-president Tom March.

March tells Variety that it was a close call as to whether the awards could take place amid the omicron surge around Christmas.

“There were definitely conversations about whether we should or shouldn’t,” he says. “But the artists, the fans, the industry, everyone wanted the show to go ahead.”

March says he made changes to the event after extensive research with the BRITs audience.

“The things that were coming out [from the focus groups] were things that I’d already thought I’d like to shake up, change and evolve,” he says. “I wanted the BRITs to feel really open; for the fans to have a say and for every single platform possible to really embrace it and run with it.”

So, as well as the live telecast on ITV, the awards have partnered with TikTok on fan voting for the new genre awards; with YouTube for the global livestream; and with Serenade for the event’s first NFT drop. Other partnerships with gaming companies are understood to be imminent. And while he wants the “TV show to do as well as possible because ITV are a brilliant partner,” March says television ratings – which have been falling for awards shows across the board – are no longer the only key metric.

“My aim is to drive new and young audiences into the Brits,” March declares. “It’s the overall eyeballs on, and conversation around, the show that’s most important; keeping the brand young, progressive and moving forward, and keeping the relevance of the Brits.”

The decision to axe separate awards for female solo artist and male solo artist drew some criticism from the likes of Piers Morgan and Queen’s Brian May, but March maintains it was the right thing to do.

“We knew not everyone would agree,” he says. “People are entitled to their opinion but, ultimately, I know we created more opportunity.”

He notes that the new awards allow for a wider range of nominees, while this year’s nominations feature the most female artists in the last 10 years of the ceremony.

“Clearly as an industry we’ve got a long way to go,” he says. “But I’m very happy that so many great artists have the opportunity to be recognized for their work.”

With the Brits chairmanship due to rotate to Warner Music next year, March – who, with fellow co-president Ben Mortimer, has transformed Universal’s Polydor into a U.K. label powerhouse – may only get one shot at helming the British industry’s flagship event. But he’s hoping the line-up – which includes Ed Sheeran, Doja Cat and Little Simz – will help him make his mark.

“I’ve studied and watched what other people have done over the years, so to have a chance to do this is a huge, huge honor,” he says. “I’m also delighted to only do one year as it does require a lot of work! But I hope there’s 13-year-old kids watching it on whatever device, getting as excited as I was at that age.”

In those days, the likes of Blur, Pulp and Oasis never failed to deliver a controversial Brits moment or two. So will former Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher, who will launch his comeback live on the show, behave himself this time around?

“Well, you know,” laughs March. “I kind of hope he doesn’t!”

Tune in on Feb. 8 to see what happens…

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The Brits will showcase many of last year’s British music successes, after a year which saw U.K. artists provide eight of the year’s top 10 selling albums.

While figures from the BPI showed overall music consumption only grew by 2.5% – a significantly slower rate of increase than last year – stats from the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) indicated the retail value of music sales and streams rose by 8.7% year-on-year to £1.677 billion ($2.275 bn).

ERA’s figures also showed that physical music sales increased in value for the first time in 20 years, up 7.3% as buyers shifted from CD to vinyl.

Drew Hill, MD of leading U.K. physical distributor Proper Music, says that is a “significant” moment.

“For years we’ve talked about physical and digital as if they were competitors, as if it was a binary choice,” he tells Variety. “When people find something they really love on streaming, that’s when they’ll want to buy something physical. People understand that buying something from an artist’s D2C store is putting money in their pocket, while there still is a question mark with the public of, ‘Is that the same if I’m streaming?’”

Vinyl sales soared by 11%, despite widespread issues with pressing and delivery. Hill describes those problems as “incredibly frustrating” but says industry-wide moves are under way to increase capacity.

“Making records is a dirty business,” says Hill. “And it’s not quite as easy to scale up as everyone would like. But all of the pressing plants are scaling up, and we are starting to see lead times coming down.”

CD sales continued to fall, a slide that could be accelerate if leading supermarket Tesco – the U.K. equivalent of Walmart – pulls out of selling the product, something multiple sources tell Variety will happen this year. But Hill remains optimistic about the physical side of the business, especially after Proper was acquired by Swiss music fintech company Utopia in a deal this month.

“They’ve got such big ambitions,” says Hill, who is staying in his role under the new owners. “We’ve now got more resources than we could ever have dreamed of. We’ll keep doing what we’ve always done, but on a bigger scale.”

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One great British institution that looks set for a much rougher ride is the BBC.

The venerable public service broadcaster is currently funded by the purchase of a £159 TV License by anyone who watches BBC programs on any platform. But the Government’s Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, Nadine Dorries, recently announced plans to freeze the license fee for two years and eventually replace it with another method of funding.

Details of that have not yet been released, but may see the corporation shift to a Netflix-style subscription system. That concerns many in the music industry, who fear a move to a more commercial operation could threaten the BBC’s unique music radio services, such as Radio 1 and Radio 6 Music, which give valuable exposure to new and alternative artists.

The industry has successfully campaigned to protect BBC services before, as with 2015’s #LetItBeeb campaign and the 2010 push to Save 6 Music. There’s little sign yet of such lobbying this time around, although Variety understands it will be discussed at the next UK Music board meeting.

But the moves have already been heavily criticized by the Musicians’ Union, with General Secretary Horace Trubridge describing Dorries’ announcement as bearing “all the hallmarks of a plan that hadn’t been properly thought-through, and had been rushed out to grab some headlines away from [Prime Minister] Boris Johnson’s problems.”

“It would have consequences, not just for our members, but for music lovers generally,” Trubridge tells Variety. “It’s a concern because the BBC plays a much more diverse range of music than commercial radio does, and it also gives opportunities to new music to break through. We all benefit from that.”

The situation is complicated by the fact that Dorries’ department will consider possible ‘Fix Streaming’ reforms that could arrive later this year, meaning many trade bodies might be reluctant to rock the boat over other issues. The BBC is also locked in negotiations with U.K. collection societies over a new blanket license for music use in programs.

“But the MU won’t be holding back in what we’ve got to say,” declares Trubridge, who will stand down as General Secretary at the end of March. “Championing and protecting the BBC is our priority.”

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In the meantime, it’s business as usual at the BBC’s most popular radio station. Adult contemporary station BBC Radio 2 has more than 14 million weekly listeners and is making a renewed commitment to live music now that most restrictions on U.K. gigs have been lifted.

Earlier today, the station launched its ‘Piano Room Month’, which will see the Ken Bruce show host 20 daily sessions from the BBC’s Maida Vale studios, featuring the BBC Concert Orchestra accompanying a stellar line-up of stars, including Ed Sheeran, Craig David, Tears for Fears and Anne-Marie.

“The idea is to create a month of live music content across the station to really hammer home the fact that live music is coming back,” Radio 2/6 Music head of music Jeff Smith tells Variety. “It’s a great way to celebrate the vast range of artists that we play on Radio 2, from the established artists to some of the newer ones.”

Due to the pandemic restricting travel, the ‘Piano Room Month’ line-up is almost exclusively British, but Smith says the station will actively seek to feature U.S. artists in its other 2022 live initiatives. These include support for the Country to Country music festival, its ‘In Concert’ program and its mini-festival Radio 2 Live. Variety can reveal that the latter, traditionally held in Hyde Park, will be staged outside London for the first time this year.

Such large-scale projects could only really be put together by the BBC, but Smith says the possible threat to the license fee is no distraction.

“That debate will be part of the next Charter renewal process and will be led by others,” he says. “In the meantime, I’ll get on with doing the day job, which includes Radio 2 broadcasting 260 hours of live music and 16,000 different songs each year. It’s clear what makes us distinct in the market.”

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The U.K. music biz has taken the ‘New year, new you’ concept seriously this year, with a number of surprise personnel changes across the industry.

Capitol co-president Nick Raphael has left the label after nine highly successful years and is understood to be looking for a new challenge, with fellow co-president Jo Charrington now in sole charge. And Crispin Hunt has stepped down as chair of the Ivors Academy to make way for a successor.

Most surprising of all, AEG Presents co-CEO Toby Leighton-Pope has left after five years to “pursue other interests.” Then move blindsided many in the biz, but Steve Homer, now sole CEO of the promoter, says his long-term colleague – the pair previously worked together at Live Nation – simply wanted to take a break.

“He just wanted to sit and think about what his next step was,” Homer tells Variety. “But he didn’t want to do that from within the company, so he decided to step outside. It’s still a shock.”

Leighton-Pope’s exit coincides with AEG Presents’ move to new offices in South London and the full-scale return of live music.

“It’s being seen as a new start,” says Homer, who has restructured the business to give himself more capacity and redistribute Leighton-Pope’s duties. “The general vibe within the office is very positive. I’ve been really impressed with the teamwork and the resilience of the staff within the office.”

Homer says that AEG avoided making mass redundancies during the pandemic and that, while some salaries were cut initially, everyone had returned to full pay by the middle of 2021.

Now, after 18 months without shows, Homer says the market has the opposite problem, with potentially too many rescheduled gigs crammed into 2022.

“We all know there are a number of people in this market that go [to concerts] on a really regular basis, but most of the population goes to between one and three shows a year,” he says. “So, if they still have three tickets on their fridge still waiting to be used, are they going to buy another tour?”

A cocktail of other problems – staff shortages, Brexit, the botched government insurance scheme and U.S. artists’ reluctance to tour until mainland Europe is fully open – mean that, despite recovering ticket sales, Homer expects it to take at least until 2024 before live music returns to pre-COVID levels of business, especially if international artists decide to avoid Europe in the winter months, when cases could spike.

“It’s all a matter of building confidence back in,” he says. “We have to get back to some sort of level playing field, and playing out a festival season uninterrupted would be a brilliant benchmark.

“It’s a longer recovery path than just this year. There are still some shows moving into 2023 and we’ve got to get through an annual cycle with no drama before it can really settle back down.”

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