The State of Live

NIVA has retained TEConomy Partners to survey the live entertainment sector and complete a national economic impact and situation analysis for the industry. Specifics regarding the collection and use of sensitive information includes:

• Survey contact and overview information (Section 2, including respondent’s name, email address, location info, and capacity) will be provided to NIVA for coordination of survey outreach among NIVA’s industry partners.

• Access to ALL OTHER survey response data, including requested financial information, will be limited to only those TEConomy employees formally engaged in the project.

• TEConomy may contact you by email to clarify a survey response if necessary, and to send you a link to the final report as a thank you for your assistance and cooperation.

• NIVA's officers, board, staff, membership, committees, or other third parties will have NO ACCESS to any organization-level financial information at any time.

• The information collected in this survey will be maintained securely and confidentially by TEConomy and will only be reported in the AGGREGATE at a sub-state, state, and national level as part of a publicly released report and state profiles.

• No organization-level financial information will be released publicly, and all publicly released aggregate analysis and research will not disclose any specific organizational information.

• By completing this survey, you consent to the use of your responses for research purposes as outlined above. All survey data will be deleted following the completion of this analysis.

If you have additional questions about confidentiality, please reach out to Martin Grueber, Principal and Research Director of TEConomy Partners, at grueberm@teconomypartners.com.

Or, if you'd prefer to talk with someone at NIVA, please reach out to our team at advocacy@nivassoc.org.

The State of Live Survey should be completed by:

• Venues

• Performing Arts Centers

• Theaters

• Promoters & Presenters (with and without venues)

• Festivals

• Comedy Clubs

• University Presenters and Venues

For further questions about survey audience, please email advocacy@nivassoc.org.

1. Survey Completion Time:

• The survey should take approximately 35 minutes to complete. However, this time may vary if you need to gather documents or if you manage, own or operate multiple venues, PACs, or festivals.

• Certain financial revenue and cost percentage questions within the survey are not required. However, we would greatly appreciate if you could complete them to better tell our sector's story.

2. Key Documents to Have Ready:

• Income Statement – For revenue and expense details.

• Payroll Report – Total payroll costs, including benefits.

• Ticketing Report – Sales data from your ticketing platform (e.g., number of tickets sold, revenue).

• Expense Report – Operational costs like rent, artist fees, insurance, etc.

• Revenue Breakdown – Income from ticket sales, food, alcohol, merchandise, sponsorships, and donations.

• Attendee Data – Total attendees, including out-of-state ticket sales (if available).

3. People to Confer with:

• CFO/Finance Manager – For income statements, payroll, and expenses.

• Ticketing Manager/Company – For ticket sales data.

• HR/Payroll Admin – For employee counts and payroll details.

• Operations Manager – For expense breakdowns.

• Event Coordinator/Talent Buyer – For event and programming data.

4. Operations: 

• Be ready to provide names, locations, seating capacity, and market geography for each venue/festival you manage, own, or promote.

5. Government/Tax Info:

• Gather any details on taxes (e.g., ticket or goods taxes benefiting arts) and government subsidies you receive.

6.  Estimated Data:

• Where exact data isn’t available, provide best estimates to keep things moving.

7.  Save Your Progress:

• ONCE YOU START THE SURVEY, YOUR WORK WILL BE SAVED. You can return to the survey later if needed. Just use the same link to continue.

8.  Multiple Organizations: 

IF YOU BOOK, OPERATE, OR OWN MULTIPLE VENUES, PLEASE READ THIS:

If you have more than one venue or festival underneath your organization’s umbrella, you have two options to complete the survey:

1. Each individual venue/festival that is a part of your organization or that you promote shows in can complete an individual survey. Please coordinate within your organization to ensure there is a lead at each venue/festival that will complete the survey: OR

2. Each venue/festival’s data can be combined into organization wide numbers and reported on a single survey. IMPORTANT NOTE: Please be sure to include each the name, location, and capacity for each venue and/or festival where you own, book, operate, or promote shows.

Download PDF Version of Checklist