National Independent Association Announces Key Partnerships During Niva ‘26 “State Of Live” Opening Session
NIVA Launches New Live Independent Initiatives, Including the NIVA–Bandsintown Live Pulse Survey and Live Independent Month, Certified Programs with ROSTR, Mastertour and DoStuff
NIVA ‘26 Keynote Concludes with Special U.S. v Live Nation Antitrust Panel
NIVA Executive Director, Stephen Parker at the Opening Session: State of Live (PC: Darin Kamnetz)
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey at the Opening Session: State of Live (PC: Darin Kamnetz)
MINNEAPOLIS (June 8, 2026) - Today, during the State of Live opening session of NIVA ‘26, the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) announced several new and impactful partnerships and industry initiatives aimed at expanding resources and strengthening support for the independent live entertainment sector.
“The NIVA Conference has become the epicenter of where live music comes together and where connections are made,” said Stephen Parker, NIVA Executive Director. “Through important partnership programs, we are working to strengthen and connect the independent live entertainment ecosystem and make independent venues, promoters, and festivals more visible and easier to discover.”
As part of NIVA and Bandsintown’s ongoing partnership, and following the success of the Live Independent Badge Program, which has resulted in roughly 2.8 million RSVPs to indie shows nationwide, NIVA is launching the Live Pulse Survey. The monthly initiative will provide one of the industry’s first consistent nationwide snapshots of how independent live entertainment businesses are performing. By filling out an anonymous survey, participating venues, promoters, and festivals will contribute to an open dataset that tracks industry trends. Results will offer industry leaders, journalists, and policymakers greater insight into the challenges and opportunities facing the independent live entertainment sector.
Initial findings from the first edition of The Live Pulse, conducted from June 1st to 6th, offer a valuable new benchmark for understanding the state of independent live entertainment. While respondents reported shifts in ticket-buying behavior and identified ticket sales, artist fees, staffing, and operating costs as key business considerations, the sector remains notably optimistic. Respondents reported an average optimism score of nearly seven out of ten, reflecting the adaptability and determination that continue to define independent live entertainment.
In addition, NIVA, Bandsintown, and the National Independent Venue Foundation (NIVF) announced Live Independent Month and Live Independent Day, a nationwide celebration scheduled for 2027. For an entire month, independent venues, festivals, and promoters will open their doors and offer exclusive behind-the-scenes experiences, green room access, and conversations with venue operators and owners. The month-long campaign is designed to put independent live entertainment center stage, giving audiences a closer look at the venues, businesses, and individuals that help shape the industry.
In a major push for consumer visibility, NIVA announced an expansion of its Certified Live Independent program through a new partnership with ROSTR. The collaboration will enable artist teams to route tours directly to independent venues with a single click. ROSTR Venues will offer the largest venue directory in the world. Bookers, agents, tour managers, promoters, and managers will now be able to filter venues by capacity, type, setting, genre, and previous artists, plot them on a map, and explore detailed profiles of each venue.
MasterTour and DoStuff will now feature the Certified Live Independent seal on their platforms as well, expanding visibility for independent venues across the tools used by artist teams and fans alike. Through MasterTour, touring professionals will be able to identify Certified Live Independent venues while planning and managing tours, helping elevate independently owned rooms earlier in the booking process.
DoStuff will incorporate the Certified Live Independent seal across its local event discovery platforms and launch a monthly editorial spotlight series highlighting independent venues, festivals, and promoters. The initiative will showcase the businesses, operators, and communities behind independent live entertainment while helping fans discover and support local independent stages.
NIVA also introduced a new offering within NIVA Savings. Members can now access discounted, Live Independent-branded wristbands with their logo, providing another visible touchpoint that helps connect audiences with the independent venues, more affordably.
The opening session also highlighted significant developments affecting the broader live entertainment marketplace. Parker pointed to growing momentum around competition and antitrust enforcement following the federal jury verdict against Live Nation and Ticketmaster earlier this year.
“Independent venues, promoters, and festivals have spent decades operating in a marketplace shaped by extraordinary concentration,” Parker said. “For the first time in a generation, there is a real opportunity to build a live entertainment ecosystem where artists have choices, fans have choices, venues have choices, and independent promoters get a fair shot.”
The opening session concluded with a panel composed of former U.S. Department of Justice antitrust leaders Roger Alford and David Dahlquist, and Wall Street Journal antitrust reporter Dave Michaels, examining the implications of the landmark Live Nation-Ticketmaster verdict and the future of competition in live entertainment.
ABOUT NIVA
The National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) is the national trade association representing thousands of independent live entertainment venues, festivals, promoters, and more. NIVA works to preserve and nurture the ecosystem of live entertainment. NIVA empowers members and their teams with member benefits, advocacy on the state, local, and federal levels, an annual industry-leading conference, and more.
NIVA led the Save Our Stages campaign, culminating in landmark legislation in 2020 that established the $16.25 billion Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program, the largest arts investment in U.S. history.
NIVA is committed to equity in its support of independent stages. It seeks to create and encourage opportunities for venues, promoters, and festivals owned, operated, and staffed by people of color, women, non-binary, LGBTQ+, veterans, and people with disabilities.
CONTACT
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