Music Industry Therapist Collective Launches Pay It Forward Fund

The Music Industry Therapist Collective CIC (MITC) has launched a £272,000 (roughly $370,000) Pay It Forward Fund, an industry-financed occupational health program that provides free at-source Tour Health packages to artists and crew on small and mid-scale tours.

The initial money will support 150 touring teams over a three-year pilot period. The fund will provide qualifying small to mid-scale tours access to specialist, preventative support that might otherwise be beyond their budget.

Pay it Forward is funded by a broad spectrum of organizations from across the live entertainment industry, including AEG International, d&b audiotechnik, Fly By Nite, Live Nation, the insurance brokerage Lockton, The Team and Universal Pixels, as well as Radiohead's Philip Selway and Live Free 999, the charitable foundation established by Carmela Wallace, mother of the late artist Juice WRLD.

Each package includes ten Tour Check-Ins; each is a 90-minute occupational health consultation for tour and production managers with MITC Touring Welfare Officer Sascha Heeney, who supported Dua Lipa's Radical Optimism Tour team; a Healthy Touring workshop; resources to support performance, communication, and collaboration; and access to MITC's audiobook, Touring and Mental Health: The Music Industry Manual, featured in Rough Trade's Books of the Year 2023.

Tour Check-Ins are confidential conversations with qualified mental health practitioners, who understand the realities of music and touring. Available online, around the clock, and in several languages, they can be used by any member of the touring team to decompress after a difficult day. Touring professionals can think through a decision, talk about work or relationships, deal with tension within the team, reflect upon coping habits or plan what comes next. No diagnosis, referral, or previous experience of therapy is required.

Alongside providing funded access, the campaign's wider aim is to establish occupational health on tour as part of normal professional practice.

"Just as touring professionals maintain their trucks and buses, equipment and systems before they fail, the people who keep the show moving should benefit from the same foresight and planning," says Laura Newton, MITC's operations director. "You wouldn't send a rigger 50' into the air without a harness, and the same applies to health and well-being on tour. We believe this should be the norm, rather than an exception or a perk once tours reach a certain level."

The first round of applications is now open to eligible touring teams anywhere in the world for tours beginning between October and December 2026. Applications close on September 30.

MITC's leadership team will oversee the allocation of packages and conduct regular impact assessments, allowing the program to be refined and developed in response to feedback from participating teams.

Eligible artists, crew and touring teams can find out more and apply at musicindustrytherapists.com/payitforward/apply.

Organzations and individuals interested in supporting future Tour Health packages can visit musicindustrytherapists.com/payitforward/support or contact info@musicindustrytherapists.com.