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Live Index

Research and data

Topic hub

Venues

The rooms that carry the circuit — capacity, margin, closures and replacement.

Overview

Small and mid-size venues are where most touring acts play before they reach theatres and arenas, and where a local scene is legible as an economy. Their cost base is weighted toward rent, energy, insurance and staffing, which do not fall when attendance does.

Live Index treats venue supply as an inventory problem rather than a sentiment problem. The questions are what capacity exists in a market, at which capacity bands, who controls each room, what is lost when a venue closes, and whether anything replaces it at the same size. A market can add seats and still lose the ladder that produced its headliners.

Control matters as much as ownership. A room can be owned by a city, operated by a private company, leased to a third party, booked exclusively by a promoter and ticketed by a fourth party, and each of those relationships changes who decides what plays there.

There is no national census of live music venues or their capacities. Research in this hub says so plainly and works from the records that do exist: market-level inventories, permitting and licensing records, and disclosed portfolio counts.

Research on venues