Tanya Tucker at Exit/In, 8/22/2019
It’s been an extraordinarily difficult summer for Nashville’s live-music ecosystem, with the live entertainment economy shut down almost entirely since March. But today, independent music venues are celebrating some good news. On Tuesday, Metro Council approved a resolution drafted by the COVID-19 Financial Oversight Committee to release $2 million in grant funds to help venues survive through the next two months.
Independent venues with Nashville-based ownership are eligible to apply, provided that they are used primarily for hosting live music and require a ticket or cover charge for entry at least half the time they’re open to the public. Qualifying businesses’ gross yearly revenues can’t exceed $5 million, and additional services like food and beverage sales must be ancillary. Venues can ask for two months’ worth of rent or mortgage payments and other non-payroll expenses, up to $100,000. The funds will come from the $121 million pool of money Nashville has been allocated from the federal CARES Act, and will be administered via small-business loan and grant firm Pathway Lending.
“We wish we would have had enough money to give all of the larger nonprofits and others money in this resolution,” Councilmember Jennifer Gamble, one of the nine members of the COVID-19 Financial Oversight Committee, said during the meeting. “But because we are dealing with so little funding, and we have not scratched the surface of all that we need to address in our city, we are starting with allocating this $2 million for live music venues that play a big part in the economy in our city.”
Gamble explained that the process outlined in the resolution — which was introduced at the committee’s Monday meeting and swiftly added to the Council’s agenda — can get funds in the hands of businesses within about two weeks. Moving as quickly as possible is important, as venues have had almost no income since March, and reserve funds are diminishing fast.
In early June, the National Independent Venue Association raised the alarm, indicating that 90 percent of 2,000 member venues surveyed would close permanently if just a few more months went by without significant financial help. Music Venue Alliance Nashville is a local organization consisting of 15 independent venues who are also NIVA members. They petitioned the COVID-19 Financial Oversight Committee in August, sharing alarming estimations of their situation (first reported by Tennessee Lookout) revealing that 14 of the 15 venues would have to close for good if no help came before the early November.
The two months’ worth of funds offered by the Council doesn’t come close to getting the venues all the way through the pandemic. It does not help either the self-employed workers these businesses have been unable to hire or the full-time staff they've had to lay off. Nonetheless, it’s a welcome relief.
"It’s two months — we asked for six, and we need, probably, 12,” says Exit/In owner Chris Cobb, a charter member of both NIVA and Music Venue Alliance Nashville. “But it feels good. It's a whole hell of a lot better than nothing, and we could have very easily got nothing. There are so many people so affected by the circumstance, and CARES was not set up to help us all through much more than a few months of the pandemic.
“So, ultimately there's just not enough money. This thing has gone on so much longer than Congress thought it would when CARES was passed. It's just a terrible situation for those people who are serving our city and our state and trying to figure out how to best allocate these funds, because ultimately they don't have enough funds to do what they need and want to do.”
Though Congress has yet to move forward with an updated comprehensive relief package, bills have been circulating — in particular the Save our Stages Act and RESTART Act in the Senate — that could greatly benefit venues. Cobb is proud of what MVAN has accomplished in just a few weeks, but knows there's a lot more work to do.
“We want to build on this win … take this straight to the State of Tennessee for a quick round of additional assistance specified towards our industry, and roll that all the way up to Capitol Hill,” Cobb says. “I have been moving forward for the last few months, knowing that we're going to have to piecemeal this together. Music Venue Alliance Nashville was formed to ensure that no more independent venues here closed permanently. And we know that it's going to take multiple actions, multiple successes, to ensure that we reach our goal.”
