Marc Geiger, who was a longtime music executive for WME is hoping to save concert venues that are struggling economically due to the impact from COVID. The pandemic forced venues to cancel all planned events, which ceased any income. And small, independent venues are the ones struggling the most to recover.
Geiger, who co-founded Lollapalooza and facilitated many of WME’s notable artist signings, wants to give a hand to all these struggling venues. This business venture stems out of his own personal enjoyment of going to a club and seeing an incredible band. Therefore, he’s creating a company called SaveLive to invest in dozens of clubs around the country. He will be buying at least 51% of equity to help them expand into regional forces once live music events return.
SaveLive has $75 million in available capital so far from initial investment round. Additionally, Geiger is already negotiating with a number of venues around the world. Geiger states that he hopes “to be a long-term backer, helper, grower of these businesses, and enjoy the wins.”
Some critics are skeptical of SaveLife and whether the funding undermines the independence of these venues. However Geiger insists that his venue deals would be partnerships and that he doesn’t seek to flip assets.