Live DMA: impact assessment for the European live music network

Live DMA is a European network aimed at promoting live music, backing venues, clubs and music festivals throughout Europe, supporting professionals in the sector and participating in public policy to foster their recognition as leading cultural, social and economic players. Created in 2012, the network now has twenty members (national networks and associations) in sixteen countries, representing over 3,000 live music venues.

Since 2017, Live DMA has received the three-year Creative Europe funding dedicated to networks, to continue providing live music associations, clubs and festivals with the skills and tools to adapt to the changes taking place in the music industry. The second edition of the three-year project is called Live Style Europe II. It is currently taking place and will conclude in 2024.

BAM! Strategie Culturali is working alongside Live DMA:

• in restructuring the network’s governance in order to improve its participatory approach and increase the level of involvement of its members, while streamlining its decision-making;

in assessing the effects and results achieved by the actions undertaken over the current three-year period, to understand whether the initiative has successfully achieved its objectives.

Starting from an organisational analysis of the network and after conducting a strategic workshop together with Live DMA staff to analyse its current internal structure, identify the main beneficiaries and define the objectives of Live Style Europe II, BAM! will develop ad hoc tools, including questionnaires and focus groups, to monitor the progress of the project and the results obtained.

An interim report will present a qualitative analysis of the network structure and some suggestions for improving its governance, which will be put into practice and tested at a later stage.

Lastly, the test phase will lead to a second round of data collection and the drafting of a final report, which will set out the results of the governance development and the analysis of the effects produced by the implementation of the Live Style Europe II activities..