Marc Geiger’s SaveLive Unveils First Venue and Promoter Partners

variety.com:

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorSaveLive, the platform launched in 2020 by former WME music execs Marc Geiger and John Fogelman to “bail out” concert venues that were struggling during the pandemic, has announced its first round of partners, some 20 mid-size venues across the country, many in the South.The company has also completed its first round of financing, raising $135 million dollars to invest into the independent live music community.

Investors include Breyer Capital, Deep Field Asset Management, Raptor Group, and Shamrock Capital.At the time of the company’s launch in October of 2020, Geiger, who was a cofounder of the Lollapalooza festival, said the plan was to invest in small clubs and build an indie touring network by acquiring a 51% ownership stake in the venues in question. “One of my favorite things in the world is to go to a club, be treated well and see an incredible band,” he said at the time. “So I thought, ‘OK, I’m going to raise a bunch of money and I’m going to backstop all these clubs.

I’m going to be a bailout solution for them, and I’m going to call the company SaveLive.”In Tuesday’s announcement, Geiger says: “When John and I started this mission in late 2020, the live business was feeling pretty hopeless as the pandemic was hitting the sector head on.

All I did during this time was listen to music and obsess on ideas on how to help the independent live industry. It was clear streaming services plus the pandemic changed the concert industry for good and web 3.0 is going to change it even more.