Ticket resale site becomes first to adopt levy to support grassroots music venues

A fan-to-fan ticket resale site has become the first ticketing company to introduce a levy for LIVE Trust, the funding initiative set up in January to support grassroots music venues in the UK.

Tixel has pledged to add a £1 LIVE Trust contribution at checkout for all shows at UK venues with 5,000+ capacities, with all funds raised going directly to the scheme.

The company, which has partnerships with more than 250 UK promoters, venues and artists, is also donating £20,000 to LIVE, for its wider policy and advocacy work for grassroots music.

Matt Kaplan, Tixel’s director of UK/EU, said that a thriving grassroots music sector “is vital to a sustainable, successful music industry”.

With independent venues and festivals closing or operating at a loss, “financial support is essential to surviving,” he continued.

Kaplan added: “Introducing the new LIVE Trust contribution will increase our impact as fans come to Tixel for fair, safe and honest ticket exchanges.”

Leading the way

According to statistics from LIVE, 125 grassroots music venues closed permanently in 2023. Meanwhile, the Music Venue Trust’s annual report found 43.8% of the UK’s grassroots music venues reported a loss for 2024.

Jon Collins, CEO of LIVE, said Tixel’s decision to add a levy “is leading the way in establishing long-term, sustainable funding streams for our sector”.

He added: “We hope others in the industry will follow their lead as, collectively, we can drive impactful and lasting change across the industry.” 

Earlier this month, an evidence session of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee was told there has been substantial progress in the voluntary implementation of a ticket levy scheme to support the grassroots music ecosystem.

MPs heard that 8% of ticket sales to arena and stadium-sized tours since December have included a donation towards a fund that will support the UK’s grassroots music industry.

In January, Arts Minister Chris Bryant said the government was prepared to make the levy statutory if the music industry did not implement one voluntarily.

Bryant told the committee there has been “substantial progress” with the ticket levy in the last couple of months, though he also admitted he would have “preferred us to have achieved a lot more by now”.

Community ownership

Tixel’s announcement follows the news earlier this month that Music Venue Properties has launched a second phase of its Own Our Venues project, which aims to free venues from vulnerable commercial leases by placing them into community ownership.

A successful first fundraising campaign raised £2.88 million to purchase venues including The Snug in Atherton, The Ferret in Preston, Le Pub in Newport, The Bunkhouse in Swansea and The Booking Hall in Dover.

A new community share offer aims to raise funds to secure long-term security for an additional seven venues.

These include Esquires in Bedford, The Sugarmill in Stoke-on-Trent, The Croft in Bristol, Peggy’s Skylight in Nottingham, The Lubber Fiend in Newcastle, and The Pipeline in Brighton.

Also among the venues is The Joiners in Southampton, a longstanding and renowned mainstay on the UK gig circuit.

Ricky Bates, venue operator of The Joiners, Southampton, said: “We welcome Music Venue Properties’ ownership of our building as the only real solution to securing one of the most important live music venues in the UK.

“For almost 60 years, The Joiners has been a vital part of the UK touring circuit and a creative cornerstone of Southampton, but today its future is uncertain.”