Like you, Rhianon, I'm passionate about ensuring that the next generation views the creative industries as an accessible and rewarding career choice, providing our young people in Wales with great job opportunities in a sector providing valued content, serving all audiences and that is key to supporting our future economic growth. I absolutely recognise the importance of music education to young people and the benefits to their learning, and that's why I'd like to briefly update you on what the Welsh Government is doing to support music education. 

Work has begun on our programme for government commitment to establish a national music service. We're working with our music stakeholders on a model for the national music service, the foundation of which will be strengthened by the curriculum for Wales to ensure access for all, providing enhanced music opportunities for music tuition and experience for learners. I continue to discuss with the Minister for education exactly how and when this will be rolled out and what the budget for the service will be. This Senedd, of course, will be kept updated as that progresses. 

Our vision for the national music service is to build on the support for music education provision across Wales. Currently, this is largely facilitated through our grant funding of £1.4 million per year to the Welsh Local Government Association to support local authority music services and £100,000 to support National Youth Arts Wales. We’ve also, in the last month, provided additional funding of £503,000 for a music project under the Winter of Well-being programme to support extracurricular music projects in schools. We will continue to progress our plans for music education, as I’ve said, to ensure that young people benefit from the greatest opportunities to engage and experience music activities.

Creative Wales remains fully engaged with the grass-roots music industry in Wales, and the collaborative approach embedded by Creative Wales at the start of the pandemic continues to better serve the industry in Wales with many stakeholders fully engaged in the wider policy conversations across Welsh Government, particularly in relation to the introduction of new COVID measures, such as the COVID pass. Following the fifth Senedd’s Culture, Welsh Language and Communications Committee inquiry into the live music industry in February of this year, my officials are working towards a pan-Wales sector action plan to be launched in April 2022, through which many of the priorities identified in the report will be addressed. This action plan will reflect the need for both short-term actions required to assist the sector’s recovery from the pandemic and longer term plans for a sustainable future in the global market.

Building on the recommendations of the report and working in partnership with the University of South Wales, we’ve recently commissioned a two-phase research project. The first phase, which is due for completion shortly, is plotting the full extent of music businesses, live music venues, recording studios and rehearsal spaces across Wales. This will be captured in an interactive map as a dynamic reference tool and will be hosted by the Creative Wales website. The second phase will be conducted in the new year and will address the void of specific Welsh data relating to the economic impact that the music industry has on the Welsh economy. It’s recognised that the live music industry has been one of the hardest hit throughout the pandemic, and whilst many of the businesses are now operational again, they are likely to be negatively impacted for some considerable time.

Through the first phase of the cultural recovery fund, approximately £6.6 million was invested in music venues, rehearsal spaces and recording studios, with a further £2 million being invested in freelancers from the music sector. Updated information on the additional support received by the sector through the second phase will be available when the evaluation of the fund is completed. Our support has played a vital role in keeping music businesses alive. These businesses are likely to require further funding, not only for the immediate future, but for the longer term growth and sustainability of the industry. We will design a music development fund to address this ambition.

As part of our continuing support for the sector, we have today launched our music capital fund, which will provide up to £10,000 for small capital improvements to our venues, recording studios and rehearsal spaces. These businesses are critical to ensuring the future of the music industry in Wales. Even in the face of unprecedented challenges, key areas of our work have progressed and we remain committed to expanding and strengthening our support for talent development projects, such as Beacons and the PPL Momentum fund, and it will be a fundamental part of that music action plan. We gave the Beacons project £60,000 to run its programme this year, and it's been a huge success in its work to empower the next generation of the music industry in Wales. We're currently talking to Beacons about its strategy for 2022, and we would be keen for representatives to present their work to a future meeting of the cross-party working group on music. We continue to invest in the programmes that are already making a difference to the Welsh landscape in Wales. Both the PPL Momentum fund and Horizons received financial support from Creative Wales this year to continue their excellent work in supporting Welsh artists and the promotion of these artists to Wales and around the world.

It's important that the people of Wales have access to Welsh music, but also that we are showcasing Welsh talent and the Welsh language on international platforms. The Creative Wales Spotify channel, launched in June 2020, has been an overwhelming success, with almost 700 tracks included between its launch and November 2021. And just recently, we have supported the Welsh Music Prize, a celebration and recognition of excellence in creativity in Welsh music. The Welsh Music Prize is in its final year of a three-year funding deal with Creative Wales, and from year one, the project has engaged and developed partnerships to promote and support the Welsh music industry by exchanging, collaborating and showcasing acts with a focus on inclusivity. Kelly Lee Owens was the winner of the prize this year for her album Inner Song. Kelly has recently been commissioned by FIFA to write and perform the official theme music for the 2023 Women's World Cup. The music has been inspired by choirs in Wales, and it's an excellent opportunity to showcase her amazing talent to the rest of the world. I very much hope that the Wales women's football team will be there to hear it in person.

The Welsh Government has also supported FOCUS Wales, an international multivenue showcase festival taking place in Wrexham in north Wales. FOCUS continues to play a crucial role in showcasing Welsh talent internationally. In order to mitigate risks for organisers and to encourage the industry to resume activity, we have supported both Sŵn festival in Cardiff and the Swansea Fringe festival with £5,000 each to be held in this year, albeit on a smaller scale than usual. This activity is also complemented by the bilingual AM digital project PYST, which continues to provide a unique and growing platform to showcase live music. This digital platform has been really important throughout the pandemic in providing opportunities that would otherwise have been lost due to measures implemented to reduce the spread of the virus. Creative Wales will continue with this positive response to the sector, working closely with partners both inside and outside of Government. This genuine partnership approach is embedded within the work of the Creative Wales music team, and our action plan will be reflective of this.

Dirprwy Lywydd, may I thank Members for the debate today, and for their continued support for the music service in Wales? I assure of you of the continued support of the Welsh Government for the music service in Wales.