The Sound of Music Policy
Better Live
Research coordinator, researcher, 2023-2026
“Better Live” is a large-scale Creative Europe funded project aiming to address greenhouse gas emissions from live touring. To address this challenge, “Better Live” brings together 11 European partners from the jazz and improvised music community to experiment with sustainable concert models and low-carbon tours. The project focuses on developing data analysis tools, offering professional training, and implementing innovative solutions such as sustainable concerts and low-carbon touring.
My role in the project is to coordinate research activities that fall into two tracks:
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Experimentation with co-programmed tours, including measuring and calculating their carbon footprint per tour stop, collecting data on audience mobility and developing ways to benchmark with past practice. This leads to making practice and policy recommendations.
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Research about the opportunities and challenges of applying the Better Live approach more broadly. This includes an actor perspective analysis that will focus on mapping the various strategic considerations the live music actors need to take into account when shaping their approach to any “low carbon strategy”. These might relate to economic, social, cultural, or political dimensions. And a regulative analysis that will map local, national and relevant European policies that can have a significant effect on live music practices in a region or a country.
The project will produce at least two draft papers and a final report with practice and policy recommendations. For the experimentation, my main role is to coordinate the conceptual work that is underlying data collection and later analysis. I have a team of experts to rely on, including Gwendolenn Sharp / The Green Room, Richard Philip / Julie’s Bicycle, and others. The research part is led by Daniel Nordgård (University of Agder and CreaTeME Center for Excellence) and I’m contributing to research on the policy and regulative analysis dimension as well as coordinating the whole process.
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