RyanioBirdio
Well-known member
- Joined
- 1 May 2018
- Messages
- 8,763
My primary market of focus is actually the US rather than the UK - this is merely where I happen to work out of. I do however still ultimately work for a UK company and am a UK citizen since birth. Around 70% of my dealings are US-centric with approximately 20% EU, with the remaining 10% covering what would be classed as ROW (Japan and Australia mostly). Give or take - thatâs the best way I can roughly break down my day to day.So Ryan, are you involved in non EU and EU countries?
Presumably non EU countries will be the same for artists going to their countries and ttem coming here?
The simple answer is - we will be unable to âbe the same going thereâ as we were before. We were classed as an EU market and status holder for the last 40 odd years - the USA as well as any other non-EU state does not, nor has it ever for the better part of the last half a century, seen us as being separate from that, in absolutely any way, shape or form. We are just another member state of a very large club to them as far as all the logistics and regulations go. In terms of the business ins and outs we are the same to them in terms of rules and regulations as Greece, Finland or anybody else - we are just another EU cardholder. Culturally we have a lot of status and prestige if you will, but thatâs now how the law and borders work. It isnât run on oooohs and aaaahs, itâs run on cold, hard legislation, and we are about to become a third country in that regard. This year we retain âtransitionaryâ status which is why ânothing has changedâ as some people would scream at you. We havenât left yet, technically, so of course it doesnât look like anything has changed. We have vacated our seat but for the year 2020 we are still beholden to every last rule, only we have no say in making them, and all non-EU markets as a result of this transition period agree to treat us as though weâre still in the club. So for now, things are operating as usual. However, as of the end of this year, nobody knows what is happening. It will depend entirely on the trade deal that is done, if indeed there is one at all, and things will change basically overnight as a result. Itâs impossible to predict to the decimal point because itâs a blank canvas right now, but in terms of everything we know and are being told from the absolute top of the corporate ladder - and do not forget, the music industry is not a small or insignificant one what so ever, weâre worth a god damn fortune - our island is about to become a royal pain in the ass.
Whatâs been going on for some months, and is continuing to happen, is that basically every major record label (who now own virtually all of the major merchandising companies themselves, by the way) are moving territorial headquarter status to Ireland or Holland, primarily. Which means that billions in corporate tax is about to leave the UK. Sure, we will still pay tax on UK operations alone which will go to the UK government, but because HQ status is leaving for other countries we will no longer be collecting revenues from other markets, which we in turn pay into the British economy. Weâve basically just cut a great big cake down the middle, sent the other half somewhere in Europe and are going âThis is just as good as before!â It factually isnât, but nobody will notice that as from the outside our office is still where it always was, and the lights are still on. So it must be fine and nothing can have changed, right?
Touring companies in particular are about to be smashed on all this. The two powerhouses in touring logistics for the Euro market are the UK and Germany, and Germany is now getting much more of the business that we used to get as their permits and paperwork are good across 95% of the places that an act will go when they tour Europe, and will remain so moving forward. Nearly every country they will perform in is in the EU and the one or two that arenât (Switzerland and Norway usually) have LONG since established deals with every country in the world. Because we donât have any deals what so ever in place beyond the end of the year and there are zero indications of what the outcome will be, people are simply hiring the German companies as they know they can pass cleanly and easily through all the territories, as their country of origin is and will remain an EU state. The tour buses, the arctic lorries, the riggers, the drivers, the caterers - your average arena tour has well over 100 crew members and will include anywhere from 10-20 buses and trucks in total. I was actually on a tour by an American band last year that contained 21 trucks and nearly 180 crew staff, because the production was wild. And everybody involved in that was very openly and honestly saying âThis is the last time weâll be using these guys, weâll be going with the Germans moving forwardâ. So the UK can kiss goodbye to an absolute fortune in revenues. UK production riggers are actually starting to move to Germany en masse as thereâs enough work already moving over there to support them, while itâs already starting to shrink here. Next year we are looking at a huge reduction in business being given to UK based touring companies as the problems are going to be both costly and potentially hugely delayed. A touring production cannot afford uncertainty or delays in any way, so people would rather have a company that they know can effortlessly fulfil the vast majority of a tour route, rather than one that potentially canât get off the island on time, and which needs half a dozen trade deals because even if it gets into an EU state it then needs to pass into Norway, and Switzerland, and Ukraine, and so on. UK companies have no deals in place that they can point to and therefore price to - German ones are totally sorted bar the UK. And the European market as a whole is worth more collectively than the UK one is, so the Germans are winning out. Hands down.
Furthermore, UK artists as well as the labels (who have bought up most of the merch companies, donât forget) are now starting to move their corporate registered addresses to Europe. Bands that are British, who live here and are from here and all that jazz, are now moving their registrations to other countries. A band is a company, quite often multiple companies. Theyâll have one company that represents their touring, one that represents their merchandise, one that represents their royalties and publishing - whether a band is playing to 200 people or 20,000 people each night, the band members are employees of their own registered businesses. And those businesses need to ultimately be registered to a country. Well, theyâre all moving, and with it goes the tax revenue. If a bandâs touring and merchandising companies move their registered addresses to, letâs say Dublin, and they get their shirts printed either there or somewhere in Germany, the merchandise thatâs being sold on tour doesnât need the paperwork because it is EU goods. So that means infinitely less goods being produced and manufactured in the UK, which is where we currently print most of our wares, because now it isnât going to be an EU state nor will it remain regulated as one like it is during 2020. Any goods manufactured in this country canât be shipped freely around the continent, so guess what? We just wonât make them here. So thatâs costing jobs as well as an eye watering amount of tax that we no longer need to pay to the British coffers.
There really isnât enough time and space to get into it all on a forum like this, but to anybody who wants to think this amounts to nothing more than âneeding to fill out some extra formsâ:
1) Itâs so much more complex than that - the above doesnât even cover half of it. The entire British music and entertainment industry is about to get kicked in the pods, and there is NO WAY of preparing for it bar just moving as much of it back to the EU as we can.
2) We donât need to do anything, and we wonât either. Shove your forms where the sun doesnât shine. Weâre moving the operations to outside of the UK, weâre reassigning headquarter status, weâre re-registering limited company addresses, and with it we are taking billions in taxation revenues with us. All because nobody can even tell us what the hell happens next, because we threw the parachute out of the plane before jumping out after it. Not for us, thanks.
So people can say itâs as simple as they like, and they can walk past our offices and see us through the glass and go âSee? Nothing has changed! What a load of rubbish!â But weâre the ones moving the work and the revenues out of Britain and away from British based enterprises, and people like me are the ones who can factually and categorically tell whoever wants to know that it isnât the same or anywhere close to it. Then again, itâs all just scaremongering, isnât it?