NIVA and Bandsintown partner to support ‘Live Independent’ venues

The National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) and leading live music discovery platform Bandsintown have partnered to launch Live Independent.

This ongoing initiative is designed to bring more attention to America’s independent venues, promoters, and festivals and to underscore their importance in music discovery and artist development.

“before you rock the stadium, you have to rock your local clubs first”

“These independent venues are so important because without them, you wouldn’t have your Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Taylor Swift. You wouldn’t have these artists because we all had to start somewhere,” said Tarriona “Tank” Ball from Tank and the Bangas. “We had to build from something. And these places are integral to the building of an actual artist. Without them we have no artists, we have no future music makers. We have no future Prince or those people that really rock the stadium. Because before you rock the stadium, you have to rock your local clubs first.”

Live Independent is designed to enhance the sustainability of independent live entertainment, while celebrating the unique spirit that defines these cultural hubs, their importance to their communities, artists and the industry.

Live Independent Benefits

In addition to an ongoing marketing campaign. Live Independent certification offers benefits to stages, artists, and fans including:

• The Seal: Certified venues and events receive physical posters, stickers, and decals of the “Live Independent” seal to display, along with virtual seals and assets for websites, marketing, and social media. Partnerships with ticketing companies also enable the “Live Independent” seal to be displayed on event tickets, further elevating visibility and credibility.
• LiveIndependent.com: The program will include a dedicated website serving as a hub of information, emphasizing the importance of supporting certified “Live Independent” venues and events. Fans can use the site’s search feature to verify if their favorite venue is certified and find shows at certified stages. Stages can even apply to become certified themselves.
• Bandsintown Partnership: As the world’s leading concert discovery platform with 90 million registered live music fans and a distribution network including Spotify, Google, Apple, Shazam and Bing, Bandsintown is committed to educating fans about what “Live Independent” means and promoting independent venues through dedicated placements on the Bandsintown app and Bandsintown.com. Every NIVA-member independent venue will have the “Live Independent” seal on their Bandsintown venue page, and a map of “Live Independent” certified venues will be featured on Bandsintown’s homepage to help fans locate and support these independent entities across the country.

“the final strongholds of authenticity, where the heart of live performance beats strongest”

“Bandsintown’s ethos is independent at the core, serving artists since day 1 of their journey” says Bandsintown co-founder and managing partner Fabrice Sergent. “Independent venues shed light on those artists early in their career and we’re proud to work alongside NIVA to help them find the audience they deserve.”

“This certification is a testament to the power of independent stages as sanctuaries for human connection. In an era dominated by publicly-traded live entertainment conglomerates, these venues and festivals are the final strongholds of authenticity, where the heart of live performance beats strongest,” said Stephen Parker, Executive Director of NIVA. “When fans and artists choose independent stages, they’re investing in the soul of their community. Live Independent is our collective promise—to the artists, to the fans, and to the communities that cherish these spaces—that the spirit of independent venues will not only endure but will continue to flourish.”

Bruce Houghton