The National IndependentVenue Association does. Independent venue is one that is not owned by a multinational or a publicly traded corporation. More often than not it means its locally owned. Lots of times its a family owned business thats been handed down from generation to generation. Two people in the communities that are hiring in their communities, that are taking care of their neighbors and opening their doors to is fundraisers. That are hired out for , special family and lifetime events. The onestaking chances on emerging artists and in rtrying to build more communitybased initiatives as well. Prior to four months ago literallyto the day , there wasnt an organization that was able to speak on behalf of these thousands and thousands of individually owned venues and promoters across the country and i think a good portion of that was because we didnt need it. Part of being independent is finding the solutions and putting them into play and everybodys so busy and overwhelmed with just running a business you dont have the support staff or the Legal Counsel or the office in a different state to be able to help take careof some of these things that hethese massive corporations have the ability to do. Tell us how the coronavirus is impacting these venues. I see from some of your statistics and i want our audience to see this that according to your organization 90 percent of independent venues reports that they will close permanently in a few months without federal funding. Witheres an estimated 9 billion lost in ticket sales if the venues stay close through 2020 and that live events for our artists out there, live events by three quarters of alltheir artist income. So whats the coronavirus doing for our venues . Independent venues were the first to close and we will be the last totally reopened and i know everything you said sounds very alarmist and the reality is the Business Model just wasnt taken into en siconsideration in the funding programs that were put into place so because we have been closed by Government Order and because weve been omitted from the programs that currently exist, it leaves us with no option. The whole purpose and whole idea behind being independent is this is your primary economic driver and you dont have ancillary businesses that are able to generate income so when you take away businesses ability to earn an income you take away their ability to take care of their staff. To pay the artist and to do all the other things that we bring to the community, but all of the existing costs, the rent, the utility,the payroll, the insurance,etc. , that doesnt go away. So we are dealt with a massive problem with no solutions and because there is no timeline for reopening, because we legitimately have no idea when that could possibly be and because of the ramp up period it takes to get operations back into business , internally as far as hiring staff and preparing the venue and externally as far as getting artists booked and routing tours and doing that on a national basis. All of those things are just complete unknowns. Uthen you factor in the stuff that were all dealing with on a daily basis is when is this going to end and you see there is no lifeline like now. There is no ability to say if i can make it another month we will be okay. If i can make it another three months we will be okay and in our reality we dont know when were going to be able to reopen much less allowed to reopen and that could easily be three months, six months, 18 months, two years. We dontknow. What we do know is we are dead last t on every single list of businesses that are going to be allowed to reopen or able to return and thats our reality. We are dead last. We have t no Financial Assistance and no guidelines from the government as how to tdo it safely and we are banding together to try to be able to create those opportunities that will allow us to be able to last through this. Let me remind our viewers they take can take part in this conversation aswell. Going to open up regional lines and that means if youre in the eastern or central time zones we want to hear from you at 2027488000. In the mountain and pacific time zones we want to hear from you at 2027488000 one and were going to open up the special line. I want to hear from venue employees and those artists that patronize those independent music venues. Whats going on with you . How have you been surviving through this pandemic . Artists, what do you planto do if this continues to go on longer . Your line is going to be 202748 8002. If you dont want to call in remember you can always text at 2027488000 three and we are always here on social media at cspanwj. I want to read a statement weve got from audrey who is a spokesperson for the local independent venues here in washington dc like the 9 30 club, the anthem, the Lincoln Theater and merriweather post pavilion. Heres a statement from her. We have absolutely no revenue that we have enormous overhead of rent, utilities, insurance and a host of taxes. Were paying insurance premiums for our employees who are on our insurance. Even the 95 percent weve been forced to furlough. We have negative revenue. Thats when you have no revenue but have to cancel or postpone 222 shows so far representing refunds of up to a quarter of 1 million tickets. Its like a vacuum cleaner bto your bank account. Is that what independent venues all around the country , is that what theyre seeing . Every single one. If you have a bad night, if you have a bad show, if theres a storm that comes through, if theres a localized disaster that happens you have some type of mechanism or Community Support or federal support thats going to help you get through it or rebuild where you just suck it up and go to a bank and you say heres my business, this is my history, can you help me out whether its a professional back or whatever the case might be. We have no timeline whatsoever. We have every single cost associated with running a business. We have no assistance from the government. We are being told we cant operate from a governmental level and theres no business that can possibly sustain restrictions like this. Itjust isnt economically feasible. It just isnt possible to be able to run a business where all you are doing is spending money. Theres no income coming in and those venues that have been able to be creative and run fundraisers which have as far as i can tell been generally exclusively to help their staff the able to weather this as well and those that have been able to sell tshirts or open up their kitchen n or try to adapt their business in some capacity, the income from that has been negligible. Its a very dire situation and because we dont have any other ancillary income options, we really are just spending money to try to exist through to the future but we owdont know when that futures coming. Its why weve been so strongly supportive of the save our stages at, of the restart act, of the encores at because that these are pieces of legislation that would help us say okay, we have some resources. Were able to o actually keep these businesses alive and then were able to hopefully make it through to the rebuilding phase. We have no rebuilding phase if we cant tget through the shutdown phase. Ill tell you im sitting on our social media feed some people wondering why they should care about independent music venues and heres some statistics on what you talk about that came from your organization. Every dollar spent on a ticket equals 12 in Economic Activity in communities and estimated direct annual Economic Impact venues bring to communitiesis nearly 10 billion. According to your organizations these venues are a major part of local economies which is why people should care. And i want to be clear its not a my town problem, its an every town problem. This is rural america, major metropolitan cities. These are busy neighborhoods. These are desolate neighborhoods and often times the venues that come in because youre talking about rather large spaces and its difficult to be able to forge open a new space in an active and expensive part of town, they are generally the types of businesses that pull business to them and the perfect example is in dc, a 9 30 club. They relocated many years ago to a part of the city that was not necessarily to economically viable for many businesses and now you go to that neighborhood and its completely, your coffee shops and other restaurants and clubs and hotels. Its certainly taken on a life of its own and thats been seen time and again all around the world. That somebody can sit here and say im going to bring a little bit of cool to the neighborhood and everyone else wants to call off of that and the statistic you quoted for every dollar spent is 12 in Economic Activity generatedis very obvious if you think about it. You go out to an event. It could be a comedy club, it could be a show. It couldbe a theater performance, whatever the case might be your paying for a parking iegarage or parking meter. Youre grabbing dinner with some friends at a highend restaurant or at a pizza parlor. Youve flown into town because of something that so important to you where you paid tolls or the city or state are getting money. All these things are money thats being generated in the neighborhood directly as a response of the independent venues and promoters that are able to operate and once you pull those independent promoters and venues out of the equation, every single other business suffers and weve seen that through our own members who are in neighborhoods where there neighboring businesses have ed called and said listen, weve t tried to reopen. We dont have any business until you reopen, what your timeline and our timeline doesnt exist. It just isnt there so its affecting not just our businesses but the entire neighborhood in the communities in which our businesses operate. Lets go to our phone line and let our audience join in this conversation and were going to start with a venue employee. This is going to be gym calling from plumber town tennessee. Good morning. Host go ahead jim. Caller im an independent vendor, i do shows and festivals and all my venues have been closed and i cant work. I noticed that the independents are shut down while the Big Box Stores are still open and operating. Id like to give my opinion of whats going on. I believe its a globalist corporate takeover to wipe out independents and replace it with corporate businesses andthats basically whats going on. Good luck fighting independence when its allbig corporate chains anywhere. Thats all i have to say. Host thats a very real risk. Guest we can sit here and talk about all the praise of what we feel our members bring to the community and its real and its accurate and its documented but the risk is even if you look at this or youre not necessarily caring about the plight or the other businesses or the artists or the employees, all those other things and certainly from a selfish level you can realize the lack of independent venues means you as a consumer have less of an opportunity and less of a choice as far as where your money is being spent, what youre being charged for tickets, which artists are able to come through town, whose booking those artists, whether the events are being booked locally or it somebody from across the continent or across the world thats booking it and all of these things into freedom of choice and cultural opportunity and local opportunity. It affects people on a local level, on an economic level l and it represents under represented communities across the board. All these things disappear independent venues and promoters and the fewer people that are making choices which in this country is largely 2 companies outside the independent sector means every Single Person is going to be affected and they might not necessarily theyre going to see it where theyre able to buy their tickets, what the fees are for those tickets, what the artists are paid, what the artists are able to charge, what kind ofmerchandise theyre able to sell. All these things get decided by fewer and fewer people as there are fewer independent venues. Host im seeing a version of this question coming up from several social media followers and they want to know and you not go to online concerts at a lower cost for a wider audience . Maybe even better not to have to drive to a particular venue, not just for you but for the artist doesnt have to travel around in a plane, etc. And can independent music venuesgo online like other businesses did . Guest a functional level and weve seen many try that and were certainly around the world were seeingpeople doing streaming events. In theory you have the ability to reach many more people and often times they are drawing more numbers and what they would normally perform for locally. But also keep in mind the saturation point there as to l as the Economic Cost be able to do that. They dont necessarily lead to longterm development. If you have a touring artist eyin their play 45 days across the country a 5000 capacity room, youre talking about 5000 50people spending 25, 55 a ticket in every single one of those sounds theyre able to make their own business and that business goes towards food vendors. It goes towards the bartenders andsecurity personnel. It goes towards the bus drivers. Like all this stuff iswhere those funds, and then as youre moving his , those funds much more limited. Youre generally not paying a market rate u price. You have the ability to reach more people but you can only reach them so many times. And what weve seen from the actual return of that is that its not sustainable to be able to help the venue through this. Most of the venues that weve seen have been offering that platform to be able to help the artists filled artists are still able to generate revenue and am of those artists have been able to donate some of that money to the venue themselves because its very important to them. Or two other operations havebeen able to support the venues. And unfortunately, as created of a sector as we feel we are and we have a lot of members that are trying a lot of Different Things , the reality is that theyre not sustainable. And at best, best its a stopgap. It is not a solution. Lets go to dori calling from baltimore maryland. Good morning. So im watching this and im thinking about you and to the question about the Economic Community which is what my primary question was im looking at this across the country and its music venues, theaters, its community theaters. All of those things. Its a billiondollar industry thats according communities. So you spoke into it but i think thats the most important thing for people to our calling in or watching this right now to understand. This is a billiondollar community is going to be decimated and is estimated right now. Thank you. Understated like, this is a massive, can billiondollar industry. Is at this point completely and totally shutter. Across the country. Lets go to michael whos calling from pipes in minnesota. Michael,good morning. Good morning gentlemen. My question is concern is the venue of the entire education level. Myson goes to school in new york city. New york city conservatory hearts. Drama arts either. Television and music they have been furloughed from school since may. We had to drive all the way upthere to pick him up and driving back to minnesota because there was no other way for them to deliver on. By and large they have not had any contact with the schools. For Financial Aid. Now seeking Financial Aid these individuals, my son and other student is a loan that go to school and now theyre not able to broadcast their future with this pandemic or whatever we want to call this notion that its almost like theyre wasting their time. Michael and this is indicative of what were trying to fight for because r. Independent venues and promoters are responsible for being able to i guess employee and welcome and give a stage to all of the students and the next generation and emerging artists and artists generally tour, that need parttime jobs so as every problem that michael describes, its the sameproblem we are describing from a business perspective and its painful. Its painful because our members, the independent promoters and vendors across the country are employing locally. Theyre working with the local schools. Theyreworking with the educational programs. With the charities, with the nonprofits area and a lot of them are deeply, deeply involved in the ei endeavors that are able to help create opportunities for another generation maybe didnt have those opportunities not so long ago. And because we dont have anything that were able to do right now, that businesses are closed it pulls away those opportunities for everyone our members are trying to help. And also say to michael , a lot of our employees and staff dont live where they livefive months ago. Because of this, because they going back home or because they were able to afford living in the city center or whatever the reason might be. So when we do have the opportunity toreopen , it really is not just a matter of unlocking the front door and singeverybody come in. Going to have to step up, train rid of their screening protocols have even necessarily been identified local councils or by federal governments and obviously were going to have to figure out how to International Artists in a way that is viable and thats a struggle when you dont have a timeline of any kind. Lets go to brendan calling from glenwood maryland brendan is a venue employee and an artist. Brendan, goodmorning. I used to work in meriwether back in the day, i often have memories of the high school and college job there. My wife is a fulltime teacher during the summer to supplement income work in meriwether but obviously that income dried up to zero. Anything we can do to get those acts passed to get money flowing would be beneficial to her and everybody else who works at every small venue across the country. Brendan, youre not alone. Independent venues either especially in the summer for the outdoor venues, amphitheaters and open spaces i love parttime work are irteachers or students and that is a fortunate opportunity for everybody involved. And i think that when people talk about venues for promoters, make your first thought is like a small Rock N Roll Club or something or a comedy club where the glass but our members, their small rock n roll gloves and comedy clubs are also massive outdoor 17,000 capacity amphitheaters. Their cityowned rooms. They are theaters that are serving their local communities. There on my individual operators. Theyre owned by small local groups read their everysingle decision you could possibly think of. Talk quickly about the crc, involved in this and what can people expect to see where is it in the legislation process. They are seated at was specifically written to help independent venues and promoters. When we launched our save our sages campaign, we use it as a opportunity for people to write to congress and tell them how important the independent venues and promoters are. Through that we generated 1. 7 million letters to congress. We had well over 1000 artists that have reached out to congress to be able to say exactly how important venues are to them. 600 of them signed on to a letter that dave groll from food fighters, lady gaga, coldplay , robert plant. Etc. , etc. So with the introduction of save our stated, what it really does it establishes a Grant Program. Not alone but a Grant Program for live venue operators, or producers, for talent representatives and its ifphysically or smaller independent nonpublicly traded, nonmultinational venues so when youre talking about all these different programs that are being argued for guright now on capitol hill i think its important tounderstand a , we had, we had no options that were suitable for our Business Model in the first round that we were completely omitted and both likely wasnt intentional its still the truth. So now were trying to be able to put this in place where should Congress Passes which obviously we are hopeful that they do. It gives us a lifeline not just for this year but also has an option to be able to kick in for some of next year as well. Which is quite likely the reality if we do not expect to be open anytime soon. Lets see if we can squeeze in one more quick color, lets from seattle washington. Can you give usa quick comment or question. X, im a parttime musician and im just wondering if were moving to a different paradigm where when we have a smaller venue , the singersongwriter and cafc kind of thing versus bigger events and if this pandemic is moving us into that kind of a paradigm. Congratulations for being a musician and only before 7 am, thats positive in itself secondly, i think what were trying to be able to reserve that option for emerging artists and for developing talents and for local talent to be able to play in rooms because if the independent sector ayis annihilated which we are on the precipice of being, then that affects the local artists and developing artists more than anyone else so our members that have the smaller rooms are going to disappear and then where are musicians going toplay . Are they going to be performing in a coffee shop that is able to put a mic in the corner . What does that mean compared to having a built show and being able to have an audience they are that specifically is for you and being able to build up a touring model and other cities and find new bands across the world. We are trying our best to be able to protect the independent sector specifically because it affects those local artists and the smaller artists and emerging artists more than anyone else. As much as i use those big massive names as highlights of whos been supporting sector, the reason they been so supportive is because they play these then use you are the ones that have come up through the ranks and a seamless support. Elton john toat the troubadour. Thats lady gaga at the dinner and. All these artists have a place to play from first and every artist at some point in their career had to go up to somebody and say i think im doing something cool , would you give me a shot and it grew from there. Would like to thank reverend moose, executive director and cofounder of this organization and bringing this issue to our attention. Reverend moose, thank you so much. That you jesse. For u. S. Senate now going into recess until 2 15 eastern to attend policy lunches. When lawmakers return they will work on judicial nominations. Live coverage of thesenate when they come back at 2 15 eastern. Next, florida senator marco tran rubio talks about the 20 20 elections with the washington post