Taking On StubHub: The Fight Behind DC’s RESALE Act

What happens when independent venues stop just surviving and start changing the rules of the ticket market?

In this episode of the Live Music Industry Podcast, Matt Ford sits down with Audrey Fix Schaefer, Director of Communications of I.M.P. and Board President of the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA), to talk about the venues behind one of the most respected portfolios in live music. They dig into the history of the Lincoln Theatre, the community campaign that saved Merriweather Post Pavilion, and the "show business, not show friends" lessons that shaped the 9:30 Club.

They also explore how NIVA grew from a Facebook message during COVID into a lobbying force, and how that same grassroots playbook helped pass DC's RESALE Act unanimously, along with the lawsuit resale companies filed against it the day before recording.

In this episode:

• What makes IMP's venues feel like "nothing cookie cutter," from artist pools to junk-art sculptures
• How the 9:30 Club's stage on wheels keeps a 1,200-cap room intimate at any size
• Why IMP builds rooms for every stage of an artist's life cycle
• How NIVA went from scared Zoom calls to a $16 billion relief bill
• What the RESALE Act does: a 10% cap, reseller licensing and bonds, and a ban on speculative tickets
• Why defining a ticket as a license instead of property matters
• Why starting local and building coalitions beat waiting for federal action
• How enforcement and DC's Attorney General will decide whether the law has teeth

Plus, Audrey shares her hope that DC's model sets off "a flood of legislation" across the country, and eventually a federal law, so NIVA doesn't have to fight state by state.