Industry News

Live Nation invests in female-led firms

Live Nation has set up an early-stage investment fund focused on female-led live music businesses, called the Women Nation Fund.

The fund will provide access to Live Nation’s resources and capital for underrepresented female entrepreneurs in the concert promotions, events and festival spaces.

Live Nation’s president and chief executive, 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 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.

“Women are underrepresented across the entertainment ecosystem, but we see this particularly in the music industry,” said Stacy Smith, the 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.”

Image: Live Nation