BRIT Trust Diaries: Dr Jo Twist looks ahead to the BRITs' celebration of a 'brilliant year in music'

In this edition of the BRIT Trust Diaries, BPI CEO Dr Jo Twist OBE, and BRIT Trust trustee, looks ahead to this week’s BRIT Awards. Established talent and rising stars will be on stage, reflecting the vibrant breadth and depth of British music. But the celebration of UK talent arrives at a time of key challenges for the industry, which, according to the BPI, reinforces the need for more creative arts education; greater support for recorded music; and safeguarding of copyright…

This Saturday will see the 45th running of The BRIT Awards with Mastercard. Taking place at The O2 arena, and hosted by Jack Whitehall, it will be broadcast exclusively on ITV1 and ITVX. If you aren’t able to be there in person, I invite you to share in a memorable night from the comfort of your home.

As ever, this year’s event will hold a mirror to another brilliant year in music, one, which I am delighted to say, that saw women top the Official Singles Chart for nearly two thirds of those 12 months and where they also claimed half of the year’s Top 20 albums for the first time. Building on a similar trend in 2023, it hopefully provides an indication that that we may be beginning to see a levelling of opportunities for all artists, whatever their background, though, of course, this must happen consistently, and we know too that more work is needed. But it is encouraging, and gives us hope that a corner has or is being turned.

The year is also reflected in our diverse nominees, with Charli XCX leading the way with five nods, including in the blue riband categories of Artist Of The Year – where the 10 nominations have been shared equally between women and men – and in the Mastercard Album of the Year, for Brat, where women hold three out of the five places. 

It will be a moment for established artists and new stars to shine: BRITs Rising Star Myles Smith, who is also in the running in three other categories; last year’s Rising Star recipients, The Last Dinner Party; and Lola Young, who is just the latest in a long line of BRIT School alumni to grace The BRIT Awards. All three acts will be making their live BRITs debuts, and we wish them a wonderful night, as we do all the nominees, performers, guests and fans.

This is all very positive and rightly so for the biggest night in British music, and there is a huge amount of achievement to recognise and celebrate, including not just the artists behind the mic, but the wider industry talent who’ve helped to make British music the success it is. 

However, The BRITs alone may not always give the full picture, and if you look back at last year’s Official Charts, international artists had their strongest showing in many years, not least Sabrina Carpenter, who occupied the singles top spot for 21 of its 52 weeks, and who we can enjoy performing and receiving her BRIT Global Success Award on Saturday. 

In the IFPI global charts recently announced, there were no British artists in any of the Top 10 rundowns other than in the vinyl category. Instead there was dominance by US artists, who are enjoying a period of ascendancy, while South Korean acts continue to do well, thanks in part to their government’s significant annual investment. This is the first time we’ve seen such an outcome in the IFPI charts, and speaks to just how competitive the global music economy now is, with new markets surging and more artists succeeding thanks to streaming. British music’s global share has fallen from nearly 17% in 2015 – admittedly the year of Adele’s all-conquering 25 album – to under 10% now.

Music businesses need to be encouraged and enabled in doing what they exist for and do best – to nurture talent and realise its creative, commercial and cultural potential

- Dr Jo Twist

There is no cause for alarm or panic, particularly as we also know that success in music can take longer and be cyclical, and we can be reassured too by the fact that in the five years between 2018 and 2023, UK record companies invested well over £2 billion in A&R and global marketing to support British talent. But the warning signs are clearly there, and we cannot afford to be complacent. It points to a number of priorities that must be addressed if British artists are to continue their proud international record.  

Firstly, if talent is a key ingredient for success, then record companies are the engine for growth at the heart of the music ecosystem. They play an essential role, and yet it’s one that I feel is undervalued by some in our industry and certainly by policymakers. Music businesses need to be encouraged and enabled in doing what they exist for and do best – to nurture talent and realise its creative, commercial and cultural potential, in the process creating and promoting new music for all of us to enjoy. But they need a more supportive policy and business environment – one that has been sadly lacking in recent years.  

And now all parts of our industry and across the creative sectors face an existential threat from the government’s plans to diminish the UK’s gold-standard copyright to give global big tech access to train their generative AI models on all music (and other creative content) – past, present and future – for free and without permission, unless there is an opt-out – or a ‘rights reservation’ as the government spins it, for every single bit of content that has ever existed. Just think how burdensome, costly and impractical that would be, especially for independent artists or new talent just starting  out.  You will have seen from the recent reaction of some of our greatest music voices – Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Elton John, Kate Bush, and Sir Brian May, among many others - just how concerned our music community is. If the government’s misguided plans are enacted, the global challenge facing British artists and their record companies will be much, much greater.

Finally, and this naturally leads me to the BRIT Trust and the vital role it plays in our industry as the official charity of The BRIT Awards in drawing on the power of music to improve lives. 

Since its inception, it has distributed more than £30 million in grants, much of that funded by The BRITs and the MITS, to hundreds of progressive causes around the UK that promote education and wellbeing. We know well its main beneficiaries – the BRIT School and Nordoff and Robbins, but there are many others, ELAM, Music Support, and Key4Life are just a few, and following the latest round of funding announced in December, joined by the likes of UD, WeJam Foundation, and the Music Works, among others.  

If we are going to put British music back on the front-foot globally, there is clearly also an imperative to focus on music and creative arts education. As Tony Wadsworth CBE, chair of the BRIT Trust, so eloquently pointed out in last month’s BRIT Trust Diary, the high cost of living is getting harder to break into the creative industries, but given its impact on economic  growth and its promotion of wellbeing, it is more important than ever that the decline in state funding of creative arts education is reversed. Only this way can the UK retain its ability to nurture and enable the young, diverse creative talent that is key to future growth. I share in Tony’s hope that the government will make good on its commitment to restore creative arts education to the core of the curriculum, and of course there must be continued support for important places of learning – the BRIT School, which in January was labelled “Outstanding” by Ofsted, and ELAM, of course, but around the country places like BIMM, LIPA, and many other dedicated schools and colleges. 

So let’s savour this year’s BRIT Awards with Mastercard, but also use this special moment, that celebrates new talent and honours outstanding achievement in music, to redouble all our collective efforts and commitment as an industry to human artistry in all its forms and to the continued success of British music on the world stage.  

Learn more about the BRIT Awards here and the BRIT Trust here.