Ticketmaster to Enable and Match all Fan Donations to Music Venue Trust on Ticket Purchases

Ticketmaster will upsell donations to UK charity Music Venue Trust in its ticket purchase interface.

Last month, Live Nation launched a program called On The Road Again that offers all acts playing its shows a $1,500 travel stipend. Now, it’s shifted its focus to venues. Through its Ticketmaster platform, the multinational conglomerate will enable an option for ticket buyers to donate to UK charity Music Venue Trust (MVT) and match all contributions for a month beginning on October 17.

The initiative coincides with Venues Day, which MVT spearheaded in 2014 — the same year it the organization itself formed. Ticketmaster has sponsored the event since 2016. The new program will run annually in an effort to provide relief for venues sidelined by various challenges in recent years.

“This upsell provides a practical method for fans to support grassroots music venues, and we are incredibly grateful to the Ticketmaster team for putting it in place,” MVT Founder and CEO Mark Davyd said to IQ Mag. “Ticketmaster matching all fan donations is a powerful message for the whole industry about the support our sector needs and the will of the music community to provide it. Ticketmaster has been a long-term and committed partner of MVT, and their core support has been vital in developing us as the authentic voice of grassroots venues, artists and fans.”

“We believe that live music fans understand exactly how vital these venues are to the future of our whole music ecosystem and how much financial difficulty they are currently facing,” Davyd went on. “127 grassroots music venues have closed in the last 12 months – more than one is permanently closing every week.”

Music Venue Trust will celebrate Venues Day 2023 at The Fireworks Factory in London on October 17. As this year’s theme is “Behind the Scenes,” it will include panels and speeches intended to provide resources to those running independent venues.