Ticketmaster Donates 60K to Assist Music Venues Trust, Support Grassroots Venues
Ticketmaster has donated over £60,000 ($75,000) to Music Venue Trust (MVT), the UK charity which represents hundreds of grassroots music venues (GMVs).
The donation is a part of a practice Ticketmaster’s UK branch has been conducting for two years. It is an option offered to fans to make a donation when buying tickets. This way, the ticketing company states it helped raise £60K in 2024 through its annual MVT upsell where it matches every pound donated by fans on its site.
“This brings our upsell total to £150K in just two years,” Andrew Parsons, Managing Director at Ticketmaster UK, said in a statement.
“This initiative is a big deal to us, and this year we’ve teamed up with some iconic spaces including Epic Studios, Hackney Church, Alfies, The Piano Bar, Soul Mama, and Y Plas nightclub, and we look forward to supporting them and other grassroots music venues long into the future.”
According to MVT, venues in the U.K. are closing at a rate of two per week or stopping performances due to soaring expenses.
“The sobering reality that only 11 of the 34 grassroots music venues that Oasis played on their first tour still exist today,” MVT said in a statement on social media.
Mark Davyd, CEO, Music Venue Trust, said they were very grateful to Ticketmaster and its customers for their support at a time when that type of initiative was very much needed.
“Their recognition that Grassroots Music Venues are struggling badly just to keep the lights on without these types of donations and their efforts to do something about it is extremely welcome!” Davyd concluded.
The funds go directly into MVT’s Pipeline Investment Fund, which was established in 2022 with the aim to support UK based grassroots music venues, artists and promoters.
MVT accounts that several other companies and organizations have run initiatives and made donations to the Pipeline Investment Fund since its launch, which has to date raised and allocated over £5m.
Back in November, the UK government announced it was instructing the live music industry to initiate a voluntary levy on all stadium and arena tickets to help support grassroots venues.
Chris Bryant, Minister for Creative Industries, Arts and Tourism, stated they want to see a voluntary levy on arena and stadium tickets come into effect as soon as possible for concerts in 2025.
“To meet this timeline,” he added, “we want to see tangible progress across the music industry by the first quarter of 2025. We urge the live music industry, and in particular the biggest commercial players who will have the biggest impact on the success of an industry-led levy, to focus on driving swift progress.”
Bryant also said that they would welcome the leadership shown by artists such as Coldplay, Sam Fender and Katy Perry in donating a proportion of their upcoming tour revenues to support the grassroots sector.
The O2, Fred Perry, Strings & Things Ltd., Fightback Lager, Manchester Academy, Ether Tickets, Gigtix, and TicketPort are listed among the companies who support MVT’s work with regular donations.
