Planet Fans has formed a new partnership with the Music Venue Trust for an initiative designed to bolster grassroots music venues across the UK.
Planet Fans runs membership programmes for venues and artists to better connect them with their live audiences. Through the partnership with the Music Venue Trust, Planet Fans will develop both free and paid offerings to enable grassroots music venues to more simply identify, reward and grow audiences to unlock new income streams.
The strategic partnership with MVT will focus on developing and rolling out membership programmes specifically tailored to support grassroots music venues. By combining resources and expertise, Planet Fans aim to raise £150,000 for grassroots venues and £15,000 for MVT in 2024.
Planet Fans is nominated at the Music Week Awards 2024 in the Music Consumer Innovation category.
Over the last six months, Planet Fans has worked closely with MVT to shape the offering. The direct-to-fan platform is already working with more venues across the UK, including Sneaky Pete's in Edinburgh, The Social in London, and Mama Roux's in Birmingham.
With their own custom-branded digital wallet pass and membership platform, Planet Fans will provide venues with tools and services to better understand what attendees want from attending live shows.
The digital wallet pass can be used by fans to unlock rewards such as early access to tickets or fast track entry, as well as discounts and offers in the venue. By creating a better experience, the Planet Fans initiative aims to encourage gig-goers to attend more often, stay longer and support their favourite venue.
It follows the recent MVT 2023 report revealing that 38% of grassroots music venues reported financial losses last year.
Chris Sherrington, policy & strategy support at Music Venue Trust, said: “We are really happy to be joining forces with Planet Fans in a collaboration that will offer so much to the UK’s grassroots music venues and the millions of amazing music fans who support these venues each year. It highlights the critical role that these spaces play in the cultural fabric of our nation and it is obvious the Planet Fans team understands this with the design of their great offering. We look forward to working with them on this partnership which will amplify support and help drive meaningful change.”??
Gareth Johnson at TVG Hospitality added: “Planet Fans have helped us to add a digital option to our long-standing membership offering at The Social, providing new ways of connecting with our growing audience fit for the modern era. It's brilliant to have been able to extend the membership this way and reward our most staunch fans through the pass!”
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