Improvised Music Company partners on Better Live green touring project

Improvised Music Company is proud to be a part of the Better Live European co-operation project in 2023-2026, a wide programme of research and experimentation on the potential for greener, more decentralised touring for jazz artists in Europe. Better Live involves 11 European partners and is co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.

Better Live began with the knowledge that mobility of artists and audience is the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions within the cultural sector, but touring is yet an essential part of music for artists and audiences.

Aiming to stabilise the circulation of artists in Europe while reducing our carbon footprint, Better Live will experiment with the sustainable concerts and low-carbon tours across a 4-year programme. The goals of the programme are framed around a project of connection - bringing promoters, venues, organisations and music-lovers at all levels together to develop more co-ordinated and therefore more sustainable tours.

Better Live Goals

Goal 1: Reducing the carbon footprint of live music events resulting from the mobility of artists and audiences.

Goal 2: Supporting the circulation of international artists and increasing the programming diversity across Europe.

During the next 4 years, the project will develop the data analysis tools, organize trainings for professionals and will experiment with the sustainable concerts and low-carbon tours.

Background to Better Live.

Europe is now facing one of its most profound financial, social and ecological crises. Covid-19 and Russian Invasion on Ukraine have exacerbated the already existing challenges that have threatened the unity and well-being of our community. Like all cultural sectors, the music sector needs to adapt to these existential changes in order to survive. It needs a systemic change that will lay the proper foundations towards a more sustainable, just and inclusive live music system. At the same time, the international dimension of artistic creation is a condition for the further development of our industry. Music is international in its nature and thrives through peaceful, creative and respectful cooperation across borders.

In “Better Live” we place these two exact goals at the forefront of our actions. The project a multifaceted way to initiate a fair, green and inclusive transformation and, at the same time, to further develop the live music sector to support and increase artists’ international circulation. In order to achieve these aims, the jazz sector needs new structures, awareness, competencies, and incentives.

The Project

Working with the European Music Exporters Exchange to track the carbon footprint of model touring events, Better Live will identify the carbon savings that can be made around touring music, and live-test the practicality of changing models. Sharing knowledge amongst different areas, Better Live will expand the knowledge and awareness of the jazz sector around sustainability, with a focus on training and community building.

With local partners from the smallest grassroots organisations to national bodies working together, Better Live will bring tools and supports together to make artistic circulation in Europe more sustainable, for a fair, coherent, and bottom-up decarbonization of the live music sector.

Better Live involves 9 partners from 9 different European countries working in promotion of music, along with the European Music Exporters’ Exchange as research partners, and jazzahead! Trade fair as a dissemination partner.

The 9 promoting organisations involved are:

Le Périscope, France
International Jazz Platform, Poland
Bimhuis, Netherlands
Victoria Nasjonal Jazzscene, Norway
Plataforma Jazz España, Spain
Zavod Sploh, Slovenia
The Cluster, Greece
Improvised Music Company, Ireland
GLivelab Tampere, Finland

Better Live is a project co-funded by the Europe Creative programme of the European Union, and the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund.