Earlier this year, the announcement of Creative Scotland’s Multi-Year Funding portfolio for 2025-28 marked a major moment for Scotland’s cultural sector. Enabled by a £34m increase in culture sector investment from the Scottish Government for 2025-26, it’s allowed over 250 arts organisations to look ahead with greater confidence and stability, and it represents a vital step forward after a tough and turbulent few years.
46 music-focused organisations secured multi-year support – up from 19 in the previous Regularly Funded Organisations (RFO) network – with over 60% of them receiving it for the first time. With the Scottish Government’s uplift unlocking the largest budget Creative Scotland has ever had, the shift reflects an increased recognition of the vital role music and the arts play across communities, economies and cultural life in Scotland.
While the outcome signals significant progress, there’s been some undeniable bruises along the way, with impacts still being felt. The Multi-Year Funding decisions were originally due in October 2024 but were delayed until late January 2025 because the Scottish Government could not confirm Creative Scotland’s budget. This late confirmation delayed the entire funding process and further limited the already tight lead time organisations had to plan and deliver their work.
Creative Scotland’s budget was confirmed in December 2024, in conjunction with the Scottish Government’s draft budget announcement for 2025-26. Whilst the uplift led to more funding available, demand still far outweighed supply. With £87.5m requested and £60m available, tough choices had to be made. Creative Scotland’s decision to support all applicants who met the minimum scoring threshold – and therefore, more than double the number of organisations previously guaranteed three-year funding – meant that, in the first year of the Multi-Year Funding Programme, many awards were lower than requested. While this enabled a broader base of organisations to receive support, it also meant that in many cases, plans had to be scaled back and/or additional income had to be found elsewhere. In addition to the 251 organisations supported through Multi-Year Funding, a further 13 organisations received £3.2m to enable them to develop, with a view to them joining the Multi-Year Funding portfolio in 2026-27.
Directly following the Multi-Year Funding announcement in January, the SMIA released a statement and launched a survey to gather insights from music-focused organisations who applied. We wanted to better understand the impact of these decisions, with feedback helping us shape our targeted sector support work across 2025 and beyond.
We closed the survey at the end of May, and whilst the responses received are only a snapshot of the full picture, the findings highlight a clear and consistent message – getting to where we are now and the mass uncertainty the sector faced took a heavy toll. It placed organisations (and the individuals who work for them) under pressure operationally, emotionally and financially, and in several cases, it compromised their ability to deliver, plan and look after their teams.
Key findings from our survey include:
- 89% of respondents said the delay to decisions had a negative impact – most commonly on staffing, programme delivery and planning.
- 89% of respondents said the Multi-Year Funding process affected team wellbeing, with many referencing exhaustion, stress and burnout.
- Over half of respondents whose organisations were offered funding noted that they will now need to amend their original plans, requiring scaled-back programmes or additional income to be found.
- Fair Work was a recurring concern, with some organisations highlighting the effect of the process on job insecurity, unpaid time and unsustainable workloads.
The findings speak to a wider reality about the context and environment that Scottish music and culture has been operating in – for too long, too many across our sector have had to focus on survival rather than development.
Whilst increased cultural investment for 2025-26 marks progress, we can’t lose sight of what it’s taken to get here, what the impacts have been (and continue to be) and what’s still desperately needed. The Scottish Government has stated that it aims to increase annual culture sector investment by at least an additional £100m by 2028-29. That level of support must be delivered, and it will enable more artists, industry professionals and music businesses to reach their potential and generate a triple bottom line return for Scotland; economically, socially and culturally.
But alongside that, it’s clear we need to shift how we work. It’s essential that both ambition and resilience aren’t lost to exhaustion. We need better ways of supporting each other; aligning our efforts to maximise the impact of the increased investment, and increasing the sustainability that our sector so desperately needs.
As a cornerstone of the SMIA’s ethos, we believe in the power of collaboration; working with our members and establishing partnerships to leverage collective strengths and expertise, maximise resources, drive innovation and strengthen the foundations of Scotland’s music industry.
That’s why we’re launching the Music Organisation Development Network – a new initiative to unite music organisations across Scotland who are committed to building a stronger, fairer and more sustainable music industry, complementing and adding to our ongoing initiatives to support our now 6,000+ SMIA members.
The network will provide a structured space for collaboration, shared learning and policy influence; shaped by the challenges we share and the opportunities we can unlock together. It will bring together both publicly funded and commercial Scotland-based music organisations who would like to contribute to sector development, providing a space for leadership – collective and collaborative – built on the realities we’ve faced and focused on what comes next.
It will be open to all music organisations who want to contribute; bringing together organisational leaders to complement our wider sector development work supporting individuals, freelancers and businesses across Scotland’s music industry. Meetings will take place online on a quarterly basis, with the first scheduled for mid-September.
For organisations interested in joining the network, please email info@smia.org.uk with the subject line ‘Music Organisation Development Network’ and our team will send through further information.
Robert Kilpatrick
CEO and Creative Director
Scottish Music Industry Association (SMIA)