Save Our Stages Act Proposed to Aid Independent Music Venues

*Update, Aug. 4: Nashville member venues of NIVA call for a day of action to contact representatives about Save Our Stages and RESTART. Read on for more information about the bills and reaching out to members of Congress.

Though small music venues are key to growing and sustaining a vibrant music scene, running them is a daunting task under the best circumstances. During COVID-19, it’s virtually impossible. 

Cities like Nashville are struggling to either gain or enforce the public’s compliance with health guidelines in response to the pandemic. That’s made it even more difficult for venues to cope with the present situation — being closed to the public, with the possibility of opening at limited capacity based on public-health metrics that are constantly in flux — or to plan for the future. The National Independent Venue Association launched in April, uniting hundreds of venue owners (including many in Nashville) in lobbying Congress for federal aid. 

Newly proposed legislation aims to answer that call. On July 22, U.S. senators Amy Klobuchar and John Cornyn introduced the Save Our Stages Act. Per a release, the bill would appropriate $10 billion for a Small Business Administration grant program open to independent music venues, concert promoters and talent buyers. 

“Based on my understanding of the legislation, this would save us,” says Exit/In owner Chris Cobb. “It’s the only piece of legislation that I’ve seen that would get us 100 percent through. That’s my idea of ‘100 percent through,’ which is [having COVID-19 under control] sometime next summer. It seems as though Senate leadership is not willing to budge on the idea that this thing’s going to be over in 2020. It’s not going to be over for live music in 2020, unfortunately.”

Venues would be able to apply for an amount totaling 45 percent of their operating costs in 2019 or $12 million, whichever is less. Cobb notes that roughly half of his costs in a year with a full show calendar come from paying artists their share of ticket sales. With no shows, he doesn’t have that expense. That the proposal specifies grants and not loans is significant, as is the flexibility in ways the money can be used.

“Being saddled with more debt is not a great situation when you just can’t project future revenues,” Cobb says. “The other thing I think with this legislation is that there are so many fewer restrictions on how you can spend it, what expenses are eligible.”

Recipients would be able to cover things like rent and utilities, as well as costs of PPE and other expenditures to comply with local health guidelines once they are able to reopen. The costs of payroll and benefits for staffers are covered. So is pay for people who work for venues on a contract basis — from bartenders to sound crew to the folks who work the door — who make up a substantial portion of the live entertainment economy. (There’s not a provision specifically for performers, but many musicians also work at venues.) Cobb estimates that roughly 80 percent of people who work for Exit/In are contractors. There are safeguards to prevent large corporate entities from taking advantage of the program, and there's an opportunity to apply for supplemental grants if conditions force venues to remain closed.

In related news, the RESTART Act, a broader relief bill introduced in May by senators Michael Bennet and Todd Young, has been gaining steam. Among its 36 cosponsors are Tennessee’s Marsha Blackburn and Lamar Alexander. A corresponding bill in the House currently has support from 45 representatives, including Jim Cooper. RESTART would essentially expand the Paycheck Protection Program that consists of SBA loans — not a trouble-free solution but a welcome one. There’s an array of tax credit legislation that venue owners generally support, outlined in a recent NIVA fact sheet.

By and large, the array of relief bills on the table have received bipartisan support. But Save Our Stages, RESTART and other legislation will still require a great deal more buy-in if they’re going to become law. The NIVA website offers a page that makes it very easy to send an email to your representatives. While you can simply fill in the form and send an auto-generated message, you can customize it or write your own as well.