‘All You Need is… Project Management’: supporting Liverpool’s music scene

A man with glasses smiles while using his laptop, reflecting a positive and focused work environment.

With a rich heritage including The Beatles and a thriving live music scene that saw the city host Eurovision 2024, Liverpool remains a cultural powerhouse.

Kevin McManus is Head of UNESCO City of Music for Liverpool. It has been his job since 2018 to maintain the city’s position in the UNESCO network, working alongside other Music Cities and Creative Cities, while also managing a £2m music sector development programme for the Liverpool City Region.

He describes the programme he oversees – working with the Liverpool City Region Music Board – as an intervention into the music sector to support its growth and sustainability. Its overall objectives are to increase the GVA of the music sector, grow jobs and improve the skills and inclusivity of the workforce.

A programme to grow jobs

The programme splits into three strands. The first is around upskilling.

“Whatever your background,” McManus says, “we’ve been trying to find ways to make sure we provide opportunities to get the skills you need to get jobs in the music industry, because people think that the only jobs are singing, playing guitar or DJing. That’s a tiny proportion. For every person on stage, there’s 12 people working off stage. That’s where the jobs are – there’s a real shortage in sound and light rigging, which are highly skilled jobs.”

The second area of the programme is supporting musicians to make the most of their talent, so connecting them more broadly into the industry and giving them the right skills to deal with the business side of things.

The third part is about supporting “the music ecology”. By this, McManus means working with the music venues and any other business connected to the industry and trying to help them grow.

Rebuilding the music scene post-pandemic

The programme received its funding just before the COVID-19 pandemic, so the focus of its first year was on financially supporting 50 businesses via a £150,000 fund.

“Afterwards, it’s been trying to help support businesses through what’s been a really difficult time for the music sector, particularly live music,” says McManus.

He explains that while post-pandemic there was an initial rush for people to get back and enjoy the communal experience of live music or going to a club, more recently, the cost of living crisis has meant people are choosing to go to fewer gigs. Or if they do have money, they might go to a big-ticket festival like Glastonbury, but then no more after that.

“The bigger shows are doing well; the smaller venues and street venues are really struggling, because people’s behaviours have changed,” he says.

This is a worrying trend. “The music industry is vital to Liverpool. Eurovision bizarrely helped changed people’s minds when they saw what it could do,” he says. “People saw what music could achieve. I think it really changed the mindset of some senior officials and politicians about what it can do for the city economically.”

The next Nashville?

McManus wants to get the message across to a broad audience that Liverpool is about much more than The Beatles (valuable though that heritage is – note the popularity of ‘Hey Jude’ at Euro 2024, sung in support of England’s Jude Bellingham).

“We’ve got amazing things happening and The Beatles were a long time ago now,” he says, explaining that there are bids for growing the city’s music tech development. His vision is for Liverpool to be regarded as a music hub like Nashville, Tennessee.

While he describes himself as “an accidental project manager”, McManus explains there are project professionals in the events teams for things like Eurovision or other big music events, such as a recent celebration on the pier head with Cunard marking the launch of a new ship.

Like any project professional, he needs to manage budgets and meet deadlines and project milestones.

What project professionals in music need

For any project manager wanting to find a career in the music industry, McManus argues the key to success is great people skills.

“Being able to work with people, manage teams, not panic when you’re dealing with a crisis – and dealing with musicians who sometimes are not the easiest people to deal with… When things go wrong, it’s having a clear plan and being able to adjust it,” he says with a laugh. “And not letting yourself get carried away with the successes.”

It’s key that people can trust you. As he says to the young musicians he supports, “don’t be an idiot… you might think you’re the first band to write something funny on the wall or steal the main band’s beer, but it’s been done a million times before by people far smarter than you.” Wise words indeed.