When the vice president of the European Commission called on Taylor Swift to mobilize young Europeans to vote, the irony wasn’t lost on Liveurope.

And Liveeurope is fighting back.

Liveurope, as an EU-founded organization, brings together Europe’s iconic concert venues to fight for European music diversity. The group includes 24 famous venues in 24 European countries, supporting, on average — over the past ten years — 500 concerts per year.

Calling on American Taylor Swift to encourage young Europeans to vote, noted Liveurope, only highlights the lack of European artists who could call out the younger voters.

The organization recently published an open letter (It’s time for the EU to face the (live) music, signed by the top execs of all members) to highlight the industry’s need (and their need as an organization) for EU funding. Published in several countries, the letter focuses on encouraging voting for those EU politicians who support European culture — and pinpointing certain actions among the upcoming tasks of the incoming EU commissioner in charge of culture.

The public letter opens with: “You could be forgiven for thinking that 2024 was a stellar year for live music. Figures from 2023 show revenues up by 35 percent, and the trend looks set to continue this year. Europe’s major festivals drew in big names and reported strong sales figures, most notably with the legendary electronic festival Tomorrowland reporting a return to profitability.”

On the surface, Live Events look robust in Europe for 2025. But that’s not the case, argues Liveurope. Instead, they point out:

• Middle to large venues are losing their independence, and artist lineups are becoming more homogenous.
• The consolidating power of major platforms — which control prices and dictate the inclusion of artists from their own roster — is growing.
• Fans, stuck waiting in virtual queues for hours, pay multiples of the original ticket prices as the big ticketing platforms apply high administrative and dynamic pricing which dramatically raise costs based on demand.
• Fees for the better-known bands (especially the U.S. and U.K. headliners who attract the bigger audiences) are increasing, driving down any remaining budget for the rest of the artist programming.
• Worrying reports from Germany and the UK show that grassroots venues are still closing en masse, eradicating vital funding and exposure opportunities for up-and-coming artists.

While the top end of the Live Event business has now bounced back from COVID closures, grassroots festivals and venues reporting closures and challenges crippling exposure opportunities for up-and-coming European artists. In the EU, the Creative Europe program is the fund that acts as the lifeline for Europe’s cultural sectors — and it represents less than 0.2% of the EU budget.

For live music, argues Liveurope, this support is “…crucial, enabling small to medium-sized venues to take risks on emerging talent and remain independent in the face of growing market consolidation.”

Almost 60% of Creative Europe’s funding goes towards the audiovisual sector (i.e., the European movie industry and broadcasting), leaving the remaining budget to be shared across a variety of creative strands including music, theater, visual arts and other. Liveurope is currently funded by Creative Europe and advocates incentivizing venues to diversify their programming by recruiting European artists. This helps thousands of emerging European artists from 40 countries connect with new audiences, increasing bookings of such acts in Liveurope member venues by 63%.

Promoting European artists comes with a certain amount of emotive American- and U.K.-bashing as Liveurope says, “This approach helps venues resist the dominance of Anglo-Saxon acts, encouraging them to showcase artists from other European countries.”

The truer explanation is that USA historically offers the biggest single market of consumers and therefore the biggest rewards for successful artists.. Estonian musicians, for example, can show remarkable talent and yet struggle to exist in the market limited by the country’s size. While Estonia has a population approximate to New Hampshire, New Hampshire artists like Tom Rush were able to also reach a full United States audience while Estonian language limits the local artist.

And as long as English serves as the world’s most popular interface for international communication, English-based artists will have easier access to the largest export markets. No matter which reason you prefer to explain the English-language dominance, the impact is the Extinction Event for many local artists and their venues.

The public letter from Liveurope calls for the continued funding of the venues and for Liveurope as an organization with a positive impact on artists and their venues.

Liveurope concludes: “Scaling up Creative Europe’s funding in the next EU budget would ensure that initiatives like Liveurope can continue — and even expand — to address structural challenges and foster a thriving, independent music ecosystem well into the future.”

For the ProAV business, which counts European venues as power customers for their pro kit (as well as suppliers to the Live Events industry who also exhibit at pro AV at events like ISE 2025), Liveurope’s fight for a pan-European initiative providing financial incentives for venues to book more emerging acts from other European countries seems to be a righteous cause.

A cause worth fighting for.