Los Angeles Music Scene: Crashed Save Our Stages Website Might Re-Launch Within Days

As I've discussed, the Save Our Stages (or should I be specific and say the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant) application process was supposed to start April 8th. The site crashed and has remained shutdown since that point in time.

Variety (Apr 20) reports that Congress isn't all that pleased with the Small Business Administration:

On Monday, dozens of senators and congresspeople — including the “Save Our Stages” act’s coauthors, Senators Amy Klobuchar and John Cornyn — sent a letter to the head of the Small Business Administration, Isabella Guzman, calling on the organization to fix the portal and emphasizing the urgency of the need: “With each passing day, more independent businesses are forced to shutter permanently or file for bankruptcy. Landlords and banks are no longer permitting deferrals and are pressing for immediate payment of past due accounts; businesses are receiving eviction notices; mom-and-pop businesses are being forced to sell. The Administration’s announcement is critical to these businesses as they work to meet existing debt obligations during these unprecedented times.”

Are senators and congresspeople using hyperbole or are independent venues getting unusual pressure from landlords and banks to start paying up? I could see landlords being caught in the middle with banks demanding loan payments while venues aren't able to pay rent that would be used to pay the banks. Yet, everyone should know at this point that there is funding out there. Wouldn't a landlord or bank just want to wait so that they can get a significant chunk of their lost rent or loan payments back? Just seems to make sense to me.

As I've mentioned in a prior post, there are some conflicting reports about the requirements for getting grants. I think one point of potential confusion is in regards to the 90% loss of revenue rule -- those are the venues that get first claim on the funds. I've read that this is a 90% loss of full calendar year 2020 revenue versus 2019 and I've also read that it is a 90% loss of 2020 revenue starting in March versus the comparable period in 2019. If the 90% loss of revenue starts in March, then I would bet that 90% plus of all venues are eligible to make first claims on the funds. Of course, that open of a criteria basically makes the criteria useless. The fact that grant eligibility issues aren't resolved yet should be concerning since the website was supposed to open up on April 8th and is currently supposed to open back up in days. The letter to the SBA pushes strongly for clarification with this strongly worded sentence.   

We also respectfully request you continue outreach to potential applicants and finalize guidance that will inform applicants of the precise requirements for eligibility and grant amount.

The LA Times (Apr 21) as a California and Los Angeles spin.:

“I was joking a couple of days later that it felt like a horror film where everyone’s running to the door, getting picked off one by one,” said Kora Peterson, the concert director at the independent folk venue McCabe’s in Santa Monica. “It was salvation we were so desperately hoping for, and it just got pulled out from under us.”

To be honest, I've never been to McCabe's in Santa Monica. I'll need to head over to that venue someday once venues start to open up.  

Also, should we assume that Save Our Stages doesn't have enough funding to really save that many music venues?

. . . Last week, state Senate Democratic leaders released a budget plan, “Build Back Boldly,” that would create its own grant program for independent cultural venues. While it didn’t set a specific amount allotted for aid, NIVA California — along with the California Arts Advocates and the California Assn. of Museums — are seeking $1 billion in grants to be disbursed over the next four years. Maryland, Oregon, Illinois and Colorado have already announced similar aid packages.

It looks like California wants to add additional funding. I would say that this funding could easily dry up should California run into future budget constraints.