NIVA ’25 Day 2: Indie Live Music Community Looks Forward
NIVA ’25 Day 2 was filled with actionable insights, community building and meaningful discussions about the future of independent live music. The annual convention of the National Independent Venue Association continues in Milwaukee through Wednesday.
The NIVA ’25 conference kicked off Monday with a sobering State Of Live report that confirmed the economic struggles of independent US venues caused by rising costs and increased competition. Most notably it showed that 64% of the surveyed stages were not profitable last year. [Full Hypebot Coverage Here]
Also announced Monday, Audrey Fix Schaefer was named as NIVA’s Board President. Schaefer, who is the Communications Director for I.M.P. in Washington, D.C., previously served as NIVA’s Vice President and Communications Director.
On Tuesday, the conference was in full swing.
NIVA ’25 Day 2 Highlights
Tribute To Dave Shapiro
The conference paused on Monday to pay tribute to Dave Shapiro of STG
On May 23rd, the industry lost Shapiro, Kendall Fortner (STG), Emma Huke (STG), Daniel Williams (The Devil Wears Prada), Dominic Damian (software engineer), and Celina Kenyon (photographer) in a tragic plane crash. NITO also shared a video message from STG co-founder/partner, Tim Borror, and a short presentation to honor Dave led NITO’s Stormy Shepard and Wayne Forte.
To commemorate Dave’s life and accomplishments, NITO introduced the annual “Spirit of Independence” Award which will be awarded for the first time at NIVA 2026.
Jimmy Jam
Producer, five-time Grammy Award winner, and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Jimmy Jam keynoted the conference. The icon drew on his decades-long industry experience to explore the vital role of independent venues in artist development and fan connection.
Moderated by Jon Blistein of Rolling Stone, this session offered attendees actionable insights on navigating touring in today’s live music ecosystem.
One Night Live: A New Model For Touring
This panel, sponsored by the Live Music Society, explored a new collaborative touring model dubbed One Night Live.
Playing smaller venues is a crucial stepping-stone for emerging artists. But small venues are struggling financially as the same time that artist are also dealing with rising costs.
The panel, made up of One Night Live tour collaborators, looked at their recent tour which saw venue owners, artist incubators, and industry advocates coming together to create new opportunities for launching early-career artists.
It’s a model that all agreed worked well during the inaugural tour this spring. To build on the momentum, Executive Director Cat Henry announced that the Live Music Society has dedicated $100,000 to continue and expand the project.
Turn the Tables: Make the Ticket Resale Market Work For You
The secondary ticket market has become a battleground where scalpers and predatory resellers often exploit fans and inflate prices. This panel explored how the paradigm could shift if the live event industry could take control of resale.
Panelists Jamie Loeb of Nederlander and David Weingarde of Colorado’s Z2 Entertainment are already experimenting with ways to make the existing resale ticket system work for them as promoters. One strategy both have tried is to use platforms live Elevate and AXS tickets Music Clubs to distribute primary tickets on secondary resale sites like StubHub.
“Not only does its make tickets available in more places for more fans,” said Loeb, “but because our tickets are priced less than the scalpers, they are forced to lower their prices.”
Another panelist, Jason Webb of TIXL, works to combat scalping by offering a fan friendly platform that caps the price and fees of tickets resold on its platform.
Moderator John Dunn of AXS came under fire from several in the audience who questioned why AXS was both a primary ticketing company and a resale platform that includes non-AXS tickets. “How can I educate my fans that primary ticketers are good and secondary ticketers like StubHub and Vivid are bad when AXS is both,” asked one venue operator.
Prism, NITO and Hive Party
A special shout out to Prism, NITO and Hive on their packed late night party at the beautiful Pabst Theatre.
Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, a Berklee College Of Music professor and founder of the Skyline Artists Agency
