FAC Insights: No Grass Without Roots: The Crucial Role of Grassroots Youth Music Spaces in Shaping our Landscape with Youth Music
FAC Insights is a forum for us to showcase and share long form pieces looking at various parts of the music industry and the society that shapes it. Pieces take the form of videos, interviews, discussions, articles and more.
This month, we are thrilled to hear from Remi Fairweather Stride from Youth Music.
Grassroots youth music spaces – youth clubs, community recording studios, young offender institutions – are incubators for musical, personal and social growth. These community-led spaces work with young people to develop our culture at its roots, often wearing multiple hats to nurture talent. They embody a fundamental belief in young people’s potential, which requires support and investment to be fully realised. This is especially crucial for marginalised communities facing systemic barriers to access.
41% of grassroots youth music spaces are at risk of closure, a sharp rise from 25% in 2024. These closures will impact not only the young people who rely on these spaces but the entire industry. Today’s songwriters, DJs, rappers and A&Rs face being locked out before they’ve had a chance to develop their craft. Grassroots youth music spaces create opportunities where none existed in an increasingly hostile financial landscape. The threats to them are compounding: austerity, budget cuts, lack of sustained investment opportunities and funding models that prioritise economic outcomes over social impact.
Our recently launched Industry Connect report identifies major issues for young people entering the music industry, including a lack of support for innovation, no centralised strategy connecting industry, education, and government and insufficient mentoring opportunities. We’re calling for government and industry investment in a long-term music strategy that recognises the vital role of grassroots youth music spaces.
Grassroots fuels the industry – at what cost?
Despite chronic underfunding, grassroots music fuels the mainstream. Recent Mercury Prize winners English Teacher and Ezra Collective warmly credit grassroots projects like Music:Leeds and Tomorrow’s Warriors as instrumental to their journeys. Both are now up for Brit Awards in this year’s Best New Artist category.
Yet, while grassroots youth music spaces provide pathways into the industry, their values often don’t carry through. The industry still fosters unsafe conditions, including unpaid and underpaid work, which disproportionately impacts working class people. The first UK Musicians’ Census revealed musicians’ average annual income from music is £20,700, with nearly half earning under £14,000. Meanwhile, UK music contributes a record £7.6 billion to the economy. Women earn less despite higher education levels and face greater financial challenges. Positive shifts are happening, such as UK Music’s investigation into the economic impact of Black music, but systemic change is still needed, and it must be driven by robust research and sustained action.
Organic, authentic and innovative
The grassroots youth music ecosystem is in an ongoing state of crisis. It’s no surprise that fewer children and young people see themselves as musical, despite it being their favourite pastime. Our Sound of the Next Generation report found only 55% of young people identify as musical, a 9% drop since 2018.
Investing in one idea has the potential to sustain an entire ecosystem. Our NextGen Fund, launched in 2020, provides direct grants to early-stage musicians and music-adjacent creatives. 98% of recipients report the fund enabled them to make things happen on their own terms and on average, each recipient financially supported seven additional people. NextGen Fund recipient ALT BLK ERA, performers at Youth Music Awards 2023 and named one of BBC Introducing’s Ones to Watch for 2025, have just won Best Alternative Music Act at this year’s MOBO Awards.
Rap Club Productions C.I.C. began when music teacher Benjamin Turner gave a group of Year 9 students a laptop during detention. They introduced him to UK drill, sparking the creation of an after-school Rap Club. Within two years, they had performed at the Royal Albert Hall and Wembley Arena. Two years later, Benjamin became Director of Music at East London Arts & Music. Now, he focuses full-time on Rap Club (and the flagship 'Spit Game') supporting young Black creativity and managing talent, launching careers in music and film through collectives across London.
What’s at stake?
In 2023/24, we invested £9,944,177 across the UK (86% outside London), reaching over 80,000 children and young people through grassroots youth music projects. Yet, we could only fund 18% of applications, leaving a £25.5 million funding gap and an estimated 260,000 babies, children and young people without access to music-making opportunities.
We need a wider attitudinal shift in how we value grassroots youth music spaces as hubs for musical, social and workforce development, and a vital part of our cultural health. To secure the future of music, we need:
Sustained, equitable investment in community-led spaces, not just short-term grants, prioritising underserved areas such as rural areas and Northern regions
Lived experience-led resource allocation to prevent further monopolisation of creative activities and professions by the affluent and privileged
Better joined up industry and education through a national music strategy across government, industry and education, as set out in our Industry Connect report
We know that grassroots youth music spaces are critical for ensuring diverse, innovative and representative voices in the industry. Without systemic, meaningful support, these spaces will disappear – along with the future artists, innovators and culture-shapers we celebrate today.
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