It is impossible to really describe the danger to the survival of live music venues right now. If your friends don't understand the danger—no judging, the notion of live music disappearing seems so outlandish I can understand people not taking it seriously—share this excellent article by Slate's Jordan Weissmann with them for a larger picture of the issue.
If we don't do something now, this time next year we will have no independent venues left, with only corporate owned entities that could financially survive the pandemic still standing.
If this is all tl;dr to you or someone you know, then this quote near the end of Weissmann's piece might help promote action—it wouldn't take much for congress to save an entire industry that hasn't been fiscally irresponsible for decades.*
The Save Our Stages Act is not expensive; the total cost is $10 billion. It’s not clear if anybody in Congress even opposes it. The problem is that, as of now, Congress appears to have reached a point where it will either pass one gargantuan aid package or nothing at all. At the moment, the prospects for a grand bargain on relief spending are looking increasingly dim. Last week, I asked Schumer’s office if they thought there was any chance that Save Our Stages could get a floor vote on its own; they told me to ask Cornyn’s office. When I asked Cornyn’s, I got silence.
*I mean in comparison to something like the airline or oil industries. I've certainly known plenty of financially irresponsible club owners, but they never regularly asked for government bailouts to counter their personal stupidity.
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