A campaign to improve artist treatment at music venues in the US has been launched.

Raise The Bar is a joint effort between United Musicians and Allied Workers (UMAW) and comes with four demands in a bid to establish “baseline standards” across the country: no merch cuts, no pay to play, no door polling, and greater contract transparency.

Organisers have created a directory of venues that have already signed up to Raise the Bar, including The Lab (San Francisco, CA), Club Passim (Cambridge, MA), The Pinhook (Durham, NC), and Johnny Brenda’s (Philadelphia, PA). They are encouraging all venues to follow suit.

You can also sign the artist petition or use their email template to encourage local venues to sign up here.

“Large corporate venues, like those owned by the Live Nation monopoly, have made these practices too common across the country,” UMAW said in a statement. “UMAW wants to celebrate those venues that are already doing the right thing, and we hope that pushes other venues to also commit to our basic standards.”

The UK’s Music Venue Trust (MVT) recently launched a new initiative to fund equipment upgrades at UK grassroots venues, called RAISE THE STANDARD and supported by LIVE Trust.

53% of UK grassroots music venues made no profit in 2025, an earlier report from MVT revealed.