SaveLive to Save Small Music Venues Hurt by the Pandemic

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When it launched in 2020 as a venture to bail out small music venues crushed by the pandemic, SaveLive claimed it had raised $75 million from investors like its primary backer, Beverly Hills-based investment firm Deep Field Asset Management.

Now, it appears the Los Angeles-based startup has raised a lot more dry powder than previously known—having landed a total of $134.5 million from investors, according to an amended regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday. The company secured that funding from nine different investors, it said.

SaveLive is spearheaded by music industry bigwig Marc Geiger, who co-founded the Lollapalooza alternative rock festival and formerly led talent agency William Morris Endeavor’s music division. The company was founded with the goal of purchasing majority stakes in dozens of struggling music clubs across the U.S. and helping them weather the pandemic.

When SaveLive launched, it drew praise from the likes of Nine Inch Nails frontman (and Geiger’s former WME client) Trent Reznor. “[Geiger] knows that music should be revered,” Reznor told the New York Times. “It isn’t just an asset—it is a special thing that deserves to be presented to people in a way that helps them discover the magic.”

But the venture also raised concerns among some observers, who feared that such consolidation of independent music venues would inevitably make them less independent.

SaveLive did not respond to requests for comment. Geiger co-founded the startup with his former WME colleague John Fogelman, who is listed in filings as a co-executive officer. Deep Field Asset Management’s Jordan Moelis, the son of Wall Street banker Ken Moelis, is listed as a director. Nadia Prescher, the co-founder of music industry booking and management company Madison House, joined SaveLive last year as its head of music.