President Donald Trump signed S. 195, the American Music Tourism Act, on October 9, 2026, making it Public Law 119-121. The law tells the Commerce Department's Assistant Secretary for Travel and Tourism to identify the US places and events that matter to music tourism and promote travel to them. It appropriates no money.
That last part is the story. Congress has written music, and “venues of all sizes,” into federal tourism policy for the first time. It has not handed a single venue a dollar, a tax break or a new protection. What independent rooms get is a line in a marketing brief, and what they have actually been asking Washington for sits in other bills.
What does the American Music Tourism Act actually require?
The enrolled text is short. It amends the 2022 Visit America Act in three ways. First, the Assistant Secretary must “identify locations and events in the United States that are important to music tourism” and promote domestic travel to them. Second, the same duty is added for international business and leisure travel, alongside sports events and conferences. Third, the office must report its “activities, findings, achievements, and vulnerabilities” to the Senate Commerce Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Committee within a year of enactment, then every two years.
The definition is the most useful sentence in it. Music tourism means traveling to visit “museums, studios, venues of all sizes, and other sites related to music,” or to attend a festival, a concert or another live performance. On paper, a basement club counts the same as a stadium.
The Senate passed S. 195 by unanimous consent on May 14, 2025. It then sat in the House until September 15, 2026, when it passed by voice vote. It reached the President on September 29. The sponsors were Senators Marsha Blackburn and John Hickenlooper, with Representatives Diana Harshbarger and Nanette Barragán carrying the House version.
Our new law will drive even more visitors to our outstanding venues across Colorado.Sen. John Hickenlooper, via Music Business Worldwide
Where is the money?
There is none in the bill. The Congressional Budget Office looked at it in February 2025 and estimated that carrying out its requirements would cost less than $500,000 over 2025 to 2030, with “any related spending” subject to appropriations. For scale, CBO noted the Assistant Secretary received $3.5 million in 2024 to run the entire Visit America Act.
Compare that with the last time Washington moved for venues. In 2020, NIVA's Save Our Stages campaign won independent venues federal grant money through the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program. This law carries none.
Congress named the small rooms. It did not pay them, and it did not protect them.
What did independent venues ask for?
NIVA, the National Independent Venue Association, backed the act. Its executive director, Stephen Parker, called it “a jobs bill” and said it would “give the country its first national strategy for music tourism.” NIVA's own figures say independent stages drive more than $10.62 billion a year in visitor spending, about 9.2% of US travel and tourism revenue. Its statement framed the law as “a first step.”
Read the rest of NIVA's 2026 statements and the bigger asks are elsewhere. In comments on the proposed Live Nation settlement, the association said 64 percent of US independent stages reported they were not profitable in 2025, while Live Nation reported $25.2 billion in revenue. It asked the court for a cap on how much of any headline tour Live Nation can promote, and for part of any penalty to go to state music funds. In September it urged Congress to pass the MAIN Event Ticketing Act and backed a nationwide ban on speculative ticket listings. That is the fight behind our coverage of the Live Nation settlement and the BOTS Act case against Ticketmaster.
What could it still do for small rooms?
A map matters if the small rooms are on it. If the first report to Congress, due by October 2027, lists only famous studios and festivals, the small club down the street gets nothing. If it treats independent stages the way the definition allows, a federal travel office could start pointing visitors toward the rooms where artists actually start, the same rooms squeezed by the club economics of 2026.
Australia's New South Wales went further this year and wrote venue protections into law, as we reported in NSW Puts Music Venues Into Law. Washington chose promotion. Promotion only helps a venue that stays open long enough to be promoted. The report due in 2027 is the first chance to see which rooms the government thinks count.