Together, let’s support our local music scenes and create a fair, inclusive and sustainable live music sector!
Who Are We?
Live DMA is a European network of national live music associations, created in 2012. Our members represent live music venues, clubs, and festivals in their respective countries, and through them, we support a community of over 3,000 live music places across 16 countries.
Although we do not organize concerts ourselves, we are deeply committed to strengthening the European live music sector. We achieve this by:
- Advocating for the sector to European policymakers and promoting its recognition at both national and European levels.
- Connecting live music professionals to foster a thriving and supportive community.
- Creating practical resources to help our members, as well as the venues, clubs, and festivals they represent, achieve their goals.
- Serving as a hub where live music professionals can exchange best practices, collaborate on projects, and work towards a more inclusive, sustainable, and equitable live music scene.
At Live DMA, we act as the voice of the live music sector, bridging the gap between local realities and European institutions. By sharing and translating the challenges faced by venues, clubs, and festivals, we advocate for an adaptation of the regulations and more fundings for the sector.
Our mission extends beyond representation. We collaborate with our members to make the live music sector more transparent and accessible, facilitating meaningful exchanges and releasing valuable knowledge.
Together, we are building a vibrant and sustainable future for live music scenes in Europe!
Our Values
Live DMA’s Governance
Live DMA is registered as French association (loi 1901) and, as it is written in the association’s statutes, it is a bottom-up organization with a horizontal governance. Every two years, Live DMA members elect a board that will represent them within the organization and will help the staff in strategic decisions. We push our members to pay a particular attention to the gender and age balance of the board as well as geographic representation. The board is currently composed of:
Elda Gómez
ACCES (Spain)
Co-President
Federico Rasetti
KeepOn Live (Italy)
Co-President
Marc Steens
Clubcircuit (Belgium)
Treasurer
Silvia Kask
Music Estonia Live (Estonia)
Secretary
Rana Bassil
PETZI (Switzerland)
Hilma Kekkonen
Svensk Live (Sweden)
DId You Know…?
Live DMA European Ecosystem
Live DMA is working closely with other European cultural networks and initiatives to help shape Europe’s cultural policy. Our goal is to ensure that live music—along with culture and the arts more broadly—is integrated into the long-term vision of the European project.
EU projects by Live DMA
Live DMA has actively contributed to numerous EU-funded projects, demonstrating the strength of collaboration across borders and our commitment to supporting and empowering the live music sector in Europe.
This archive showcases the collective efforts and successes achieved through cooperation with like-minded organizations dedicated to the cultural and creative industries.
Live Style Europe (since 2017)
Creative Europe – Funding for European Cultural Networks
Live Style Europe (LSE) is Live DMA’s capacity-building programme, funded by the European Commission’s Creative Europe program through three multi-annual projects since 2017. As our main funding source, it supports the majority of our activities, with the current phase, LSE 3 (2025-2028), underway.
LSE empowers regional and national live music associations, venues, clubs, and festivals by providing skills and tools to navigate the evolving live music sector. Through peer-to-peer learning, European-level exchanges, and collaborative actions, LSE strengthens the live music sector and enhances the visibility of live music initiatives across Europe.
Other projects
EXCENTRIC (2025-2028)
Funded by Horizon Europe Programme
EXCENTRIC supports the digital transition of Europe’s Cultural and Creative Sectors and Industries (CCSI) by developing Collaborative Data Practices through six pilot projects across live music, festivals, theatre, and museums, equipping organizations with smart data tools for programming, pricing, resource management, and audience engagement while fostering data literacy, sustainable innovation, and policy recommendations for long-term digital transformation.
Live DMA contributes to EXCENTRIC by supporting digital collaboration strategies, policy recommendations, sustainability efforts, and dissemination activities.
LIVEMX (2023-2026)
Funded by Music Moves Europe Programme
LIVEMX supports a more diverse and sustainable European music sector by providing targeted funding to enhance skills, resources, and adaptability, focusing on music export, live music venues, and digital circulation and engagement.
Live DMA was part of the consortium managing the LIVEMX redistribution scheme, specifically focusing on matters related to live music venues.
REVELLAND (2023-2025)
Funded by Creative Europe Cooperation Projects (medium scale)
Revelland is a collaborative European initiative uniting artists, disability experts, and event organizers to explore creative, inclusive ways to make live music performances more immersive and accessible for people with disabilities, without separating them from the audience.
Live DMA was active in the project as dissemination partner.
MME AWARDS (SINCE 2019)
Funded by the Music Moves Europe Programme of the EU
The Music Moves Europe Talent Awards (2019 – 2021), also known as the MME Award since 2021, is an annual prize recognizing the success of ten emerging artists or groups who reached audiences outside their own countries with their first internationally released album in the past year. Live DMA contributes to the professional nomination process of artists and is actively involved in the educational programmes designed for them.
STAMP (2016-2018)
Funded by Erasmus
Live DMA participated in the STAMP project, an Erasmus-funded initiative that collaborated with 11 organizations to develop vocational training tools and training models in entrepreneurship, festival management, audience development, social inclusion, and international cooperation, aiming to enhance employability and entrepreneurship in the music sector, particularly in Central, Eastern, and South-Eastern Europe.
LIGHTHOUSES (2013-2015)
Funded by the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU (now, ERASMUS+)
Lighthouses is a professional training programme led by seven organizations, including Live DMA, aiming to enhance professional skills in the creative sector through European collaboration and knowledge exchange; it brought together venue and festival professionals from five countries in six seminars covering topics such as artistic programming, audience engagement, communication, and sector development, fostering professional exchanges and strengthening the live music sector.
MUSICATION (2011-2013)
Funded by the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU (now, ERASMUS+)
From 2011 to 2013, Live DMA coordinated Musication, an Erasmus project uniting five European music organizations to explore the evolving roles of live music venue professionals, particularly in education and social engagement, resulting in research, job descriptions, and a final conference to establish a common pedagogical framework for these professions.
