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It has never been easy for small or independent music venues to turn a profit. Now, with inflated operating costs, some owners are struggling to keep ticket prices affordable for audiences and take possibilities on lesser-known artists.
The past 12 months has seen music fans roaring back to large stadiums to see sold-out shows for icons reminiscent of Beyoncé or Taylor Swift, at the same time as consumers cut down on spending for leisure activities. But many smaller, independent venues have yet to see business return to pre-pandemic levels, according to Stephen Parker, executive director of the National Independent Venue Association.
“In the event you are a bigger venue, you are probably doing quite well post-pandemic,” he said. “But in case you were a smaller venue, you’re seeing business, and also you’re keeping your head above water, but you are also seeing that lots of the things that larger organizations have at their disposal, which is economies of scale, is becoming harder.”
NIVA was founded in 2020 as a method to lobby for presidency relief while venues struggled to stay open through Covid lockdowns. It was a driving force behind $16 billion in federal aid to the industry and now focuses its efforts on other issues reminiscent of price gouging within the resell market.
The newest challenge facing NIVA’s network of independent venues, Parker said, is protecting margins within the face of upper costs.
First Avenue Productions, which operates several venues around Minnesota’s Twin Cities, has seen operating costs increase nearly 30% since before the Covid-19 pandemic, with all the pieces from beer to ice to insurance becoming pricier, according to owner Dayna Frank.
“We do not have corporate backstops, we’ve limited resources,” said Frank, a founding member of NIVA and former board president. “Most folk are, you already know, owner, operator, floor sweeper, booker, marketer, light bulb changer, all the pieces.”
No bourbon, no scotch, no beer
Paul Rizzo, owner of Recent York City’s historic club The Bitter End, said that while food and “every other cost” has increased, he has seen consumers spending less generally.
A part of that could be a broad pullback as American tighten their wallets, he said. But it surely also suits a trend cited by some venue owners of younger generations of music fans drinking lower than their older counterparts.
Some owners suggested the legalization of marijuana in lots of markets could also be eating into bar sales — a good portion of revenue for music venues.
For Alisha Edmonson and Joe Lapan, co-owners of Songbyrd Music House, a 250 people capability venue in Washington, D.C., it’s an ongoing challenge to price concessions in an environment where raw costs are rising and consumers are spending less.
Lapan said many fans expect higher-priced drinks at larger venues and stadiums but do not have the identical expectations at small venues.
“There’s this concept that you just’re going to a small venue and it ought to be like your small local bar, but that is not the economics of a venue,” Edmonson said. “We’re providing this extra service that we’ve to discover a way to pay for.”
Fighting for the correct to party
All of it contributes to what NIVA Board President Andre Perry describes as a “very difficult balancing act” to run a successful small venue.
Owners must work out how to market different acts every night, resolve whether to take risks on newer performers, in addition to continually adapt to their community because the economic landscape inevitably changes, said Perry, who has worked in live music for 20 years and now serves because the director of the Hancher Auditorium, a performing arts theater on the University of Iowa.
Unlike some small businesses, venue owners will not be selling the identical thing day-after-day, Perry said.
“You take a cultural practice and pushing it into the marketplace, and I believe there’s some tension there. Doesn’t suggest it’s bad or that it’s broken, it’s just, we got to really work hard to make it sustainable for all of the people involved.”
Many house owners of small venues are within the business for the love of music and community, not necessarily to make lots of money, said Cat Henry, executive director of the Live Music Society.
Henry’s organization serves venues of under 300 capability by providing grants to start latest programs or take possibilities on newer artists that will not necessarily draw crowds.
“I hope that on the state level, on the private foundation level, it would be recognized that this shouldn’t be necessarily a industrial model, that there are supports that need to be put in place to ensure that something that could be a huge a part of American culture,” Henry said.
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