Music Venue Trust

As well as being a sponsor of our Venues Day 2024 event, Ticketmaster UK has launched its annual MVT charity upsell, running throughout the month of October. Fans purchasing tickets on Ticketmaster’s platform will have the option to donate directly to MVT, and so protecting and sustaining grassroots music venues across the UK. This is the second year of the charity upsell, which raised £90,000 last year. Ticketmaster will match all donations made during the month, aiming to surpass last year’s total.

As covered by BBC recently, many UK towns and cities have seen a drastic reduction in live music because bands and singers are playing half as many gigs on tour as they did in the 1990s. As our new figures show, artists are now averaging shorter tours. This means less communities with live music, less chances to meet new people, share experiences, or develop careers across the music industry. People are having to unfairly travel longer distances to get that fix, if they're able to. It's a crisis of access, as much as a crisis of economics. That's why it's important that venues are protected, that artists careers are protected, and the communities around them are for future generations. This isn't easy, but we never said it would be.

Recorded during Issey Cross’ trek across The O2 in London, to raise awareness for Grassroots Music Venues and the Music Venue Trust Artist Pledge - joining nearly 1,000 artists who have now signed - showing their collective commitment to protecting the live music pipeline for future generations. If you're a band, artist or musician, at any size or genre, then please sign our Artist Pledge here, if you've not done so - or pass onto bands or organisations that you work with: https://lnkd.in/eSXNR9WA

Setting off at 10am tomorrow, our brilliant Venue Support Team Manager Sophie will be joining friends and allies at Warner Music Group in a monumental two-day, 140-mile bike ride from London to Amsterdam to raise vital funds for MVT. Please visit her funding page at https://bit.ly/SophieMVT, donate if you can, or click share to help more people get behind this amazing feat.

You have until 3pm on 17 October to bid on this signed Fender Player Stratocaster HSS Electric Guitar at https://bit.ly/BonhamsMVT, donated by Fender, with proceeds going to MVT. It's signed by David Gilmour, Johnny Marr, Ed O'Brien, Nile Rodgers, Sophie Lloyd, James Bay, Jools Holland, Carlos O'Connell of Fontaines D.C., Phil Manzanera, Nathan Connolly and Johnny McDaid of Snow Patrol; so will easily be an envious conversation piece hung on your wall.

Because no one begins their career headlining Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage or shouting "Good Evening, Wembley" to 90,000 fans, we are campaigning for an industry-led financial contribution from arena and stadium tickets to support the vital grassroots music venues that feed the live music ecosystem, helping create the next generation of icons. This is already done in other countries, and bands like Coldplay have stepped up to the call by donating 10% of the band's proceeds on their upcoming UK arena shows to the Music Venue Trust. Whoever says this can't be done is simply wrong.

Steve Lamacq with the winners of this year’s Outstanding Contribution to Grassroots Music Award 2024… YOU!!! All of you in the grassroots music venue community. Thank you for everything you do, for every fight you have, and every win we chalk up. Thank you to everybody that came to Venues Day 2024, and for being part of the biggest movement in the live music sector. 📸 by Georgia Penny

Congratulations to Shed Seven who have become only the 19th band in British charts history to score 2 x #1 albums in the same year. A huge thanks to the Shed Seven fans as well for ordering the special DEMOS EDITION of "Liquid Gold" with profits from that version going to the Music Venue Trust to ensure the next Shed Seven have a grassroots music venue to start their journey.

Music Venue Trust strongly believes in the power of Community Shares as a mechanism to give local communities more influence on the things that matter to them. Alongside the work of Music Venue Properties, we are delighted to see Community Share offers emerging to enable grassroots music venues to develop their facilities and engage more closely with their communities. Our friends at The Forum, Darlington have launched a Community Share offer to enable major capital investment and unlock grant funding to improve their facilities to their community. We've bought a share to support the scheme, and you can to! Just visit their website at https://lnkd.in/ePEYUbqz and read their share offer to see what difference your investment could make.

Chris Sherrington, Policy & Strategy Support at MVT, will be at Generator Live in Newcastle this Friday 4 October, alongside member venues including The Cluny and Future Yard. The event features panels, interactive sessions, and insightful talks tailored specifically for artists and creatives aspiring to enter and sustain their career in the music business. Come and say hello!