As of October 19, 2026, nearly 70 US venues have signed Raise the Bar, Music Ally reports, and 66 of them, in 23 states and Washington, D.C., appear on the campaign's directory map by our count. Raise the Bar is the United Musicians and Allied Workers (UMAW) pledge of no merch cuts, no pay-to-play, no door polling and written, transparent contracts. It launched July 8 with 21, so the list has roughly tripled.
That count is the news. Hypebot also reported nearly 70 sign-ups on October 19, and Music Ally pointed to an online petition urging more venues to join. The four standards are the same ones UMAW set out in July.
Who has signed?
The launch list leaned on the Northeast, from St. Vitus in Brooklyn to Club Passim in Cambridge and Johnny Brenda's in Philadelphia. The directory now reaches Saturn in Birmingham, Holy Diver in New Orleans, The Crocodile in Seattle and The Lincoln Cheyenne in Wyoming. California has the most entries with 10, followed by New York with 9.
Cervantes' Masterpiece Ballroom in Denver dropped its 20 percent merch rate after artists spoke out, and Space Ballroom and College Street Music Hall in Connecticut issued a joint statement that artists would keep all of their merch money, Pitchfork reported in 2023. All three are on the new list. “We feel they deserve this money and are proud to be a part of this movement,” Cervantes marketing director Diana Azab told Pitchfork at the time.
What does each standard ban?
UMAW's campaign page says the standards “are well within the reach of all venues, large and small.”
| Standard | What UMAW wants gone | What it still allows |
|---|---|---|
| No merch cuts | Venues taking 10% to more than 30% of a band's merch sales, per UMAW | A venue seller, only if the artist opts in |
| No pay-to-play | Fees to perform or apply, or forced ticket buys | A house nut from the gross, never a balance owed |
| No door polling | Asking fans at the door which band they came to see, then adjusting each band's pay to match | Deals agreed when the show is booked |
| Contract transparency | Unclear terms and surprise deductions | Written guarantees, splits, itemized expenses, payment timing |
Door polling may be the least familiar of the four: on a three-band bill, the door tally of who each fan names can decide how the night's money is split.
Why a merch cut can wipe out a band's night
For small acts, merch often makes a tour work: Tiffany Day paid off a self-funded tour's debt with merch sales. The UK's Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) says on its campaign page: “Often, that revenue represents the difference between a gig breaking even or losing money.”
Ari Herstand worked through the numbers in a 2023 Variety column. He wrote that a mid-size club band might sell $10,000 of merch in a night, so a 20 percent cut costs them $2,000, which comes to $100,000 over a 50-date tour. At a 30 percent cut, he added, a band making about 30 percent profit on a shirt loses money on every sale. Karly Hartzman, singer of the band Wednesday, told Pitchfork it was “pretty despicable” for Oakland's Fox Theater to take “$300 from an opening band.”
A merch cut doesn't come out of profit. It comes out of the gas money.
Not every venue agrees. Pitchfork reported that Chicago's Salt Shed takes 10 percent for supplying sellers and handling merch shipments, with an opt-out for artists who meet its requirements. And Pitchfork reported that NIVA, the National Independent Venue Association, takes “no position” on deals between artists and venues.
Why are fair-deal lists spreading?
Raise the Bar follows an earlier list. The FAC launched its UK 100% Venues directory of commission-free rooms in January 2022, and its page says over 700 venues have signed. In November 2022 the FAC teamed up with UMAW and the rapper Cadence Weapon on a North American version. In August 2023, Academy Music Group cut its commission at UK O2 Academy venues to 15%, and in May 2024 Parliament's Culture, Media and Sport Committee called on the industry to follow the campaign.
UMAW's launch statement said “large corporate venues, like those owned by the Live Nation monopoly” had made these practices “too common across the industry.” That is the union's view. In 2023, Pitchfork reported that a Live Nation program called On the Road Again dropped merch fees for artists playing its 77 participating North American clubs.
Nothing in the pledge is enforceable. What it gives agents and self-booked bands is a map: when club-level touring runs on thin margins, a published list of rooms where the merch money stays with the band is a reason to route a tour through those rooms first.