After 7 months of delays, SBA SVOG grants are finally helping to save independent live music
After months of delays, SBA SVOG grants are starting to reach desperate indie music venues, promoters, agents. and managers struggling to recover from the pandemic.
The $16 billion US federal aid package was signed into law almost 7 months ago in December of 2021.
Funds started to trickle out a month ago, but over the last 10-14 days, the pace of awards has picked up significantly. To date, about $5 billion has been awarded to almost 7000 recipients and $3.5 billion has been disbursed.
As of Monday, 14,615 applications had been received in the 2 month period since the application portal opened and 7303 application “Decisions” have been issued.
Here is the breakdown:
- 6852 awards have been issued
- 451 Declines have been issued
- 1151 Technical Corrections have been issued
- In the que next are 1677 ready for award, 2804 for decline (many if which will be able to reapply) and 264 that need technical corrections
Bruce Houghton is Founder and Editor of Hypebot and MusicThinkTank and serves as a Senior Advisor to Bandsintown which acquired both publications in 2019. He is Founder and President of the Skyline Artists Agency and an online professor for the Berklee College Of Music.
