Brexit: The impact on dance music so far

In my experience, British clubbers have a relatively narrow set of concerns: am I going to start coming up in the queue (again)? Is security going to check inside my shoes? Will shivering in the smoking area while a bouncer-slash-Stormtrooper screams at me to smoke faster ever actually worth it? (It’s not.) But what UK clubbers rarely consider is how the dance music industry will be affected by Britain leaving the European Union.

“It’s already happening!” laughs Pete Monk from Westend DJ, a leading equipment retailer. I’ve called their London headquarters to find out how much equipment prices have risen since June, and Monk’s candour surprises me. “Pioneer’s prices in particular,” Monk goes on, “have had a massive hike. Some of them are eye-wateringly different.” He cites the Pioneer XDJ RX, beloved of bedroom DJs everywhere, up from £1149 to £1315.

The reason prices have gone up so sharply is because of what’s happened to exchange rates since June’s vote. Deciding to leave the EU caused the pound to slump faster than a foam hand at an EDM festival: At one point, the exchange rate for pounds to Euros was 1:1, compared to 1:1.35 a year previously. And experts have warned that we can expect more volatility as government negotiations to leave the EU continue.

“The price increases are directly related to the exchange rate,” Monk confirms. “Anything imported to the UK will be at least 15 per cent more expensive.” I ask about the impact on consumers. “I think people will just readjust their levels of what they can afford,” he replies. “We may see them moving away from the high end stuff. Something that’s just come out, like the Roland DJ808 for example, will come out at the higher price, whereas a synth that’s been available for a couple of years might still be knocking around at the same price.”

As Britain imports the majority of its DJ equipment, any variation in exchange rates will hit the pockets of professional and bedroom DJs everywhere. And if that didn’t sting enough, Apple’s MacBook Pro — the DJ laptop of choice — has risen in price, with some models up £300, from £1,599 to £1,899. Sadly, as equipment costs spike upwards, only aspiring DJs with the deepest pockets will be able to shoulder the cost.

No one has ever got into collecting vinyl for economic reasons. Like smoking or a weekend coke habit, it’s a pastime easily acquired, ruinously expensive, and difficult to shake. “I’d say prices have gone up by at least 10 per cent,” says Neil Gibbons of London-based vinyl pressers Key Production. He warns that material costs — imported from Europe and pressed in the UK — may further increase over time. Richard Dron of vinyl pressers Mobineko is more forthcoming.

“It’s important to understand that almost all vinyl suppliers in the UK are brokers,” he explains, “with stock coming from plants in France, Germany and the Czech Republic.” Mobineko’s own vinyl supply comes from Taiwan and France. “It doesn’t take a financial genius to realise that the first hit is going to be from exchange rates,” Dron explains brightly, before warning that many smaller players may go out of business. “There’s a fair amount of competition in vinyl pressing right now, so nobody wants to be the first to increase prices. But the more than 20 per cent drop in the pound versus the Euro in such a short period of time means most brokers won’t be able to bear that long term. I feel bad for the majority of vinyl companies relying purely on UK sales and buying in Euros — these must be worrying times.”

Dron is more concerned about the logistics of leaving the EU than exchange rates, however. “The main issue for us is that we have always used the UK as a sales and tax base for buying and selling within Europe,” he says. “Since Europe is such a huge and important market for us we will have to find a new home within the EEC so that we don't have to deal with import/export duties and business customers can continue buying with VAT zero rated.” This, compounded by the global fad for vinyl, and crippling shortage of working pressing equipment, means that prices will go up, and many smaller labels will face very long waiting lists to press limited-quanitity runs.

Increased vinyl costs also eat into the profitability of home-grown record labels. “Vinyl’s been getting steadily less profitable in the six years we’ve been running the label,” says Tom Lea of Local Action. “Costs were going up before Brexit and the demand was going down. Most UK labels are having their records pressed in Europe, so the weakened pound obviously made it even more expensive.” Lea tells me they’ve tried to become less reliant on vinyl to counteract this (particularly given the lengthy delays involved in receiving vinyl orders from European factories), and they’ve been trialling different formats, such as USB necklaces, as a way of producing physical merch that’s not so expensive to produce.

British clubbers are uniquely comfortable hopping on planes bound for foreign party capitals, and we’re a travel-happy bunch: observe the explosion in European dance music festivals in the last five years. But unless the pound sorts out its recurring case of coke dick (just like it looks like it’s going to stay up, it droops again), British dance music lovers may find their foreign festival habits too expensive to sustain.

“The exchange rate drop affected us quite badly this year,” concedes Dave Harvey of Croatian-based, British-run festival Love International. “Everything costs more! Hopefully things will stabilise.” Harvey explains they decided to swallow the increased costs for 2017 rather than passing on the burden to festival goers.

Visas are also a concern. “Clarity will definitely be needed around visas and travel in Europe,” Harvey goes on, “and we’re hoping for a rational outcome politically to recover from this nationwide moment of madness! That said, after great feedback from friends around the world about last year's Love International, we feel pretty confident that we will see a lot of those same faces and new ones too at this year’s edition.”

The visa issue is also troubling UK promoters reliant on international talent for their programming. “Right now the visa situation is unclear because the final Brexit plans have not been made public,” says Simon Denby of party brand Percolate. “If,” he speculates, “a system is introduced like we have with US artists’ work permits, this would create a lot more paperwork and incur costs in visa fees.” Barry Davies — an agent with One House Artists — is hopeful. “I’m sure the rest of Europe will aim to accommodate British artists, especially with creatives who offer so much. Some equivalent to an ESTA or temporary working visa could be introduced.”

It’s up-and-coming talent like fledging promoters and smaller-scale artists who’ll be affected most by Brexit. “We have people travelling across Europe for some shows who might not make the trip to London in future,” says Denby. “It might not affect the larger artists, but will significantly impede low-level up-and-coming talent from playing these shows because the costs will make them unworkable.”

Denby explains that talent bookings made a year in advance came through at over 20 per cent higher than they’d been working towards due to the weakness of the pound against the dollar and Euro. “This made some shows almost unsustainable,” he sighs. And while big-names in the party-business might be able to shoulder vastly increased operating costs, smaller promoters — already crippled by exorbitant rents, a shortage of affordable party spaces, and restrictive local authorities — will see their already-small profit margins eroded to nothing.

While politicians clamour about Brexit’s impact on the financial services industry, for example, they stay silent when it comes to dance music and club culture, which, given that the nighttime economy is worth £66bn to the UK, is short-sighted to say the least.

Sirin Kale is Staff Writer at Broadly and a regular contributor to Mixmag. Follow her on Twitter

Patch Keyes is a freelance illustrator and regular contributor to Mixmag. Visit his website here