£45 million Plan for Music announced by DCMS
Howard Lake | 14 July 2026 | News
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has published Turn It Up: Our Plan for Music, a long-term strategy backed by new investment and reforms for the UK’s £8 billion music industry. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy launched the plan on 13 July 2026 at the UK Music Summer Party.
Several elements draw on charitable and grant-giving mechanisms. The Music Growth Package, first announced in last year’s Creative Industries Sector Plan, receives a further £15 million from Arts Council England, taking it to £45 million over three years. It will support more than 2,000 projects and at least 40,000 artists, and for the first time will extend to mid-career artists, band managers, labels and publishers.
Funded by dormant assets
Two new dormant assets-funded schemes will be delivered by The National Lottery Community Fund. A Music in Libraries initiative, worth at least £12.5 million and co-designed with the Ed Sheeran Foundation, will fund free studio spaces and recording equipment in library services across England.
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A separate £10 million Creative Mentoring scheme will give care-experienced children and young people one-to-one mentoring from creative practitioners across music, art, film and drama.
Every Child Can
Both build on the £132.5 million Every Child Can programme announced previously, also funded through dormant assets, which extends enrichment activities, including arts and music, to every child regardless of location.
Live music
On live music, the voluntary £1 ticket contribution on stadium and arena shows over 5,000 capacity continues to channel funds to grassroots venues via the LIVE Trust, which has distributed £1.5 million so far to initiatives run by the Featured Artists Coalition, Music Venue Trust and the Association of Independent Festivals. Festival licences will move to a minimum of three years for new events and five for existing ones, and Temporary Event Notices increase from 15 to 20 a year.
Michael Dugher, former CEO of UK Music, has been appointed the government’s first Music Champion, an unremunerated year-long role to advocate for the sector. UK Music, LIVE, Arts Council England, Libraries Connected, the Ed Sheeran Foundation and the Council of Music Makers have all issued supportive statements.
Fundraisers working with music charities, venues, libraries or youth organisations might find the dormant assets-funded schemes and the widened Music Growth Package, to be delivered via the National Lottery Community Fund and Arts Council England respectively, worth tracking.
- WarChild launches music-led fundraising platform (4 November 2021)
- Royal Academy of Music receives £30 million donation (11 December 2025)
- £2.25 million emergency grassroots music venues fund launches (28 July 2020)
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.