A new two-year investigation, presented in the REMEL (Race Equality in Music Event Licensing) report, finds that Black and south Asian music events in London face disproportionate licensing barriers compared with white events. The report links those barriers to higher chances of cancellations and restrictions, estimating that the London music scene loses between £127 million and £141 million each year due to events being displaced or prevented from taking place.
Multiple outlets cite the report’s use of data and testimonies gathered from a range of contributors. While the overall findings focus on inequality—such as some genres being labelled “high risk” without clear supporting evidence—the estimated total impact varies across coverage. NME and Billboard emphasize the call to move from recommendations to action and describe the report as a landmark effort developed over roughly two years, while The Guardian frames the issue as a cost to London’s wider live music sector.
The differing angles center on the scale of financial harm and the urgency of addressing licensing practice, but all reports describe a pattern of racial bias in how licensing decisions affect live music events in the capital.
