Live Nation has established the Women Nation Fund to invest in female-led live music businesses.
The early-stage investment fund will identify, fund and grow the pool of female-led festivals, events and promotion companies available on a worldwide basis. Entrant businesses must be female-founded and oriented around concert promotion, festivals or live venue management.
Businesses selected by the fund will be given access to Live Nation resources such as strategic advisory, industry contacts and mentorship across lines of business and functional areas.
President and CEO, Michael Rapino said: “As the leader in live entertainment, we want to meaningfully address this issue, change the dynamic and widen the playing field. The Women Nation Fund is a first step towards empowering new entrepreneurs and creating more opportunity for women in this sector of the live music business.”
The Women Nation evaluating team is comprised of Live Nation female executives with diverse domain expertise including Anna Sjolund (co-MD/head promoter, Live Nation Sweden), Amy Corbin (promoter, C3), Virginia Davis (founder, G Major Management), Amy Howe (COO, Ticketmaster), Lesley Olenik (VP, touring), Maura Gibson (president, Frontgate Ticketing), Kelly Chappel (VP, touring) and Carrie Davis (chief communications officer).
“Women are underrepresented across the entertainment ecosystem, but we see this particularly in the music industry,” said Dr Stacy Smith, founder and director of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative at the University Of Southern California. “One crucial way to kick-start the effort towards gender parity is to fund female entrepreneurs. I applaud Live Nation for their leadership and for committing its resources in a way that can affect real change.”
