Variety: Last weekend’s “Save Our Stages” virtual music festival — featuring Foo Fighters, Miley Cyrus, Dave Matthews and more than 30 other artists — has raised more than $1.8 million to help preserve independent music venues. The news was announced Thursday by YouTube Music and the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA), which promoted the festival.
2 comments:
First off, let me just say that Miley’s performance of Zombies was spectacular! I died. And when I saw that it was a fundraiser on ty for save our stages I was so touched. It makes me sad that we live in a country where Trump, Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell can play politics with peoples lives and ordinary people have to step up and create these fundraisers in order to save the industry. I’m glad that this festival was organized because it looked like the HEROS act won’t be passed any time soon. I also liked the advice that was attached to the end of this article. If you have tickets for a show and it is canceled, instead of asking for a refund—ask for credit with the theater. Another way we can support local theaters is to buy gift cards as gifts to others and for ourselves so that they are receiving funds now during crisis but you can enjoy the shows once the theaters reopen.
I always view these fundraisers with skepticism. I know full well that it takes money to put on a charity event. Lots of money. Even in the virtual world there are still costs associated and the people who work the event or provide stuff for the event in most cases still want to be paid. So my question would be how much of this 1.8 million is actually going to go to the venues and not into the pockets of producers. I have worked at charity events before. There have been times that I have been paid and times that I was asked to “donate my time and talent” only to learn later that others got paid. I’ll leave that discussion for another time. The point is, while I think these benefits are great, I’m also deeply concerned about making sure that the people who need the money are getting it and that the people who don’t will ‘donate their time and talent”.
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