As September creeps closer to October and the official arrival of fall, independent music venue owners are now reaching points of desperation while elected officials refuse to let their businesses reopen or offer any form of reimbursement. After Senate Democrats blocked a proposed $300 billion coronavirus stimulus package last week, the music community now rely on the proposed $10 billion Save Our Stages Act as the last remaining lifeboat that could possibly save an industry already on the brink of collapse as we approach the final few months of 2020.
One state that has managed to recover and greatly flatten the curve of COVID-19 infections following a deadly spring is New York, which has seen single-digit COVID-related deaths on a daily basis for some time now. Despite the data and courageous efforts by citizens across New York to do their part in flattening the curve throughout the summer, Governor Andrew Cuomo has not yet allowed smaller businesses including cafes, bars, and coffee shops which promote live music to return to doing so.
Husband/Wife co-owners of The 443 (formerly The Listening Room at 443) in Syracuse, NY recently penned a letter in desperation to Cuomo asking the Governor to reconsider the state’s August ruling that prohibits restaurants or venues of any size from advertising or charging a fee for live music, even if done so safely and responsibly.
The lengthy letter penned by owner Julie opens in stating,
Dear Mr. Cuomo –
I am a small business owner in Central New York. My husband and I operate an 88 seat cafe/bar that features listening room style acoustic performances. We had just celebrated our one year anniversary when COVID-19 hit.
When we closed our doors on March 15, I understood we would likely be shuttered for at least a few months. I understood we would be among the very last businesses allowed to reopen. There was a certain relief in letting go and accepting it, in understanding it was completely beyond my control. I had faith we would receive some kind of aid to help get us through, and for while we did.
After gratefully acknowledging Cuomo’s daily press conferences and leadership back during the deadly spring months, Julie quickly turned her praise to criticism.
We are classified as a restaurant, so we planned to reopen when indoor dining resumed in Phase 4. I checked with Empire State Development at the end of June to clarify the rules on live music. While we are classified as a restaurant, music is definitely our main focus. I was told it was allowed as “small scale entertainment”.
On August 18 I learned about the new SLA rules prohibiting us from advertising or charging a fee for live music. I read it, then reread it, incredulous. Prior to COVID, almost all our shows had a fee associated with them. It’s the only way the business model works financially in a small room and it’s important to us that everyone is paid fairly. With drastically reduced capacity, cover charges and tickets are more important than ever. We thought more venues charging for live music was one of the few bright spots in this whole mess…it’s healthy for our music scene to put a financial value back into the experience. And obviously, tickets are the best way to control a crowd.
We closed our doors again, wasting thousands of dollars we spent to reopen. Governor Cuomo, we are DROWNING. We are frantically treading water to keep our noses above the surface until (hopefully) some federal aid comes through. You looked at us, and instead of throwing us a life preserver you handed us a cinder block and told us to keep treading water.
Julie continued,
“Live Entertainment” is far more than Broadway and far more than “high-density arenas”…and literally nobody is suggesting we open those things right now.
It is small rooms like mine that don’t even come near the 50 person gathering limit. It is wineries and breweries who have acres of wide-open space to spread out their guests. It is the venues who cut their capacity down to almost nothing and are doing a hybrid of a small live performance + paid live stream. It is the rooms that moved all their events to their parking lot or back yard. It’s different for everyone, but tickets and advertising are fundamentally necessary whether we are trying to fill 20 seats, 200 seats, or 2000.
And yes, live entertainment is also crowded rooms and mosh pits and huge amphitheaters packed full of people. We aren’t asking for that. Nobody is asking for that. We are asking you to allow hundreds of small businesses across New York State to be allowed to reopen and run their venues with all reasonable precautions in place.
Read the entire letter here.
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