In the 1930s, The Works Progress Administration did a lot of interesting things with the arts. Some of it involved prettying up overpasses and federal buildings, and some of it was much more ambitious, like the Federal Music Project ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Music_Project ), which did everything from holding free concerts to recording and studying various types of traditional american music.
But... back in the 1960s and 70s, and to a lesser extent in the 80s, access to unemployment payments in the UK were much easier than they are now. And so a lot of people used "the dole" as basic income while working on a music career.
As an informal system, it worked pretty well. The UK got a lot of tax money from of the most successful musicians, and the entire sector brought in significant international revenue.
It wouldn't work now because there's too much music being made, and too little income from most of it.
You'll still get a handful of exceptional breakout YouTube stars. But you'll get a much bigger mass of wannabes with no real prospects.
That's not necessarily bad, but it would be a first in history - instead of bread and circuses, it's going to be laptops and social media.
