With an increased budget and 5 new venues, Liveurope will play an essential role for the live music sector’s ongoing recovery post-covid. Since 2014, over 25 artists from Slovenia have benefited from of the initiative’s support. Among them: zalagasper, Širom, freekind and Pantaloons.

Scaling up a successful model

Established in 2014 with funding from the European Union, Liveurope supports top music venues across the continent to book more promising European artists. Through a highly efficient and progressive bonus mechanism, the platform distributes grants to its members in proportion to the amount of young European artists they book. On average, this model has helped the venues book 63% more emerging European non-national acts than before joining the platform (see key figures below).

“Liveurope has changed our programming approaches and gave our audiences access to new acts they might not have discovered otherwise” – Matjaz Mancek, head of music at Kino Siska (SI)

In 2022, Liveurope enters a new phase with an annual budget increase of 40% (from €500,000 in 2021 to €700,000 in 2024) and the inclusion of 5 new venues (from 15 to 20 full members). With a total grant of €2.1m for three years, the platform aims to play an active role in the ongoing recovery of the live music sector post-pandemic. 

“After these difficult years for our sector, we’re proud to continue growing our European collaboration and support more venues to boost their European programming. Through this, we hope to help them present more European music diversity to their audiences” adds Elise Phamgia, Liveurope’s coordinator 

“Liveurope is a key partner in our shared efforts to give emerging artists the opportunity to go on stage, and to meet and develop their audiences across Europe” – Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth

Liveurope is also introducing new priorities and activities to further strengthen its impact on the sector and the promotion of European diversity. The platform will actively engage on urgent societal topics such as ecology and gender balance, fostering cross-border discussions among the members and coming up with concrete tools to tackle them. The upcoming editions of the flagship Liveurope rotating festival will be enhanced with the inclusion of training and coaching sessions to further support artists in the development of their careers. 

Liveurope in key figures

• +2900 concerts with new European talent supported in 7 years, including now established names such as Christine and the Queens (FR), Rosalía (ES) and MØ (DK)
• 63% increase in the number of emerging European non-national artists booked per venue on average pre-covid
• 66% increase in the number of artists nationalities booked by the venues in total 
• 30% increase in the circulation of non-English repertoire
• 40% annual budget increase (from €500,000 in 2021 to €700,000 in 2024)
• 54% increase in the number of full members since 2014 (from 13 to 20)

See Liveurope’s 7 year report: https://impact.liveurope.eu/