The National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) has issued an announcement criticising Live Nation’s new marketing campaign to financially help touring artists.
As a part of Live Nation’s ‘On The Road Again’ initiative, it was introduced the leisure firm would drop merch cuts at all the venues it operates within the US. The marketing campaign, which began final month (September 26) additionally revealed touring artists would obtain a stipend of $1500 (£1,233) to assist with gas and journey. The web site doesn’t state how lengthy the programme will run for, specifying solely ‘the following few months’.
In a new assertion, NIVA have criticised the marketing campaign, saying it is going to “divert artists from unbiased venues” in favour of Live Nation-operated venues. NME have reached out to Live Nation for remark.
“Temporary measures might seem to assist artists within the brief run however really can squeeze out unbiased venues which offer the lifeblood of many artists on skinny margins,” the assertion started. “Independent venues and promoters are investing in and elevating up-and-coming artists each day, and NIVA is supporting these efforts nationally. The initiative introduced yesterday might appear to be a transfer to observe the lead of some unbiased venues. It is just not that.
NIVA additionally famous Live Nation is a “publicly-traded conglomerate” with “immeasurable assets” making it doable to “divert artists from unbiased venues and additional consolidate management over the dwell leisure sector.” This, they stated, threatens “the vitality of small and medium-sized venues below 3000 capability, lots of which nonetheless wrestle to maintain their doorways open.
The assertion continued: “Independent phases, the place the vast majority of artists, musicians, and comedians begin their careers, are small companies and nonprofits. They are frequently dealing with rising prices, elevated misleading ticketing practices within the resale market, and ongoing challenges following the worldwide pandemic. Our phases are essential to the dwell leisure ecosystem and native economies, they usually should survive.
“The economics of touring should drastically enhance for artists and unbiased venues. There needs to be a greater method. NIVA will proceed to help artists and empower unbiased venues as we collectively discover it.”
In the UK, the battle to cease merch cuts from venues continues. Last 12 months, the Featured Artists Coalition campaigned to permit artists to revenue 100 per cent from merch gross sales, which was considerably backed by The Charlatans‘ Tim Burgess.
The FAC additionally runs a listing of venues that don’t take a reduce of artists’ merch income, which venues can signal as much as by filling out a type.
