YouTube and National Independent Venue Association Partner on Indie Venue Initiative
9/9/2020 by Dave Brooks
YouTube Music and the National Independent Venue Association have announced a partnership with the goal of helping to preserve independent live music venues across the United States through the Save Our Stages initiative.
NIVA was launched earlier this year to preserve and nurture the ecosystem of independent live music venues and promoters throughout the United States affected by the COVID-19 shutdown. The partnership means YouTube and NIVA will work on unique programming that will help bring live performances back into music venues safely. In addition, YouTube will help raise awareness and funding for the NIVA Emergency Relief Fund, created to support America’s most vulnerable venues and provide short-term relief to avoid eviction or permanently shuttering.
"With the support that we have at Congress on both sides of the aisle, we are hoping for a relief package but in the interim, many venues need ff so we've created funding now and this is a way to provide financial relief so that venues don't have to close their doors," says Stephen Sternshein, co-founder / treasurer of NIVA, and managing partner of Heard Presents in Austin.
The fund is intended to work hand-in-hand with federal and local programs, assisting with the most immediate needs facing the country's independent venues and promoters and making it more likely that they will be able to reopen, fully, when it's safe.
"YouTube is a place where artists and fans around the world come to connect and build community. With traditional concerts on hold, never has there been a more important time to support the live music industry through our partnership with NIVA. We’re committed to doing our part in saving independent venues and continuing to bring artists and fans together through music,"says Robert Kyncl, YouTube chief business officer.
Sternshein says the announcement is just the beginning. Learn more by following NIVA’s Official YouTube Channel for more details and official announcements coming soon.