We love you / DURHAM / our music community, love being here and know that you value us outside of coming to shows and drinking our drinks. There is a longer letter below, but to get to the point: We need your support to keep going! Read on to learn specifics and understand why this is one avenue we’re pursuing. We’d like to ask you to join our Patreon at as little or as much as you can give. While we have a free option in order to not leave anyone out of this community, we’d be so grateful for a donation of $5-$40 a month. We believe that live music and small clubs and drag shows and karaoke and dance parties are a big part of what makes this city pulse. We have survived a lot, and with great thanks to you all, and here are some stories of us. AND we plan to keep surviving. Can you help us?
Simple Facts:
- The Pinhook is a thriving music venue and queer dance party space in downtown durham
- Thriving refers to the culture of creativity and general support and care in our amazing queer and allied community
- The Pinhook has not profited in almost five years and is / has always been a labor of love
- We have not given our employees a raise in over three years.
- Many venues are turning to crowdfunding and grants to keep the lights on
- This is becoming unsustainable for many of us – but rather than throw in towel we turn to you and our city / state / fellow venue owners for support
- We have 17K instagram followers and 14K people on our email list. If less than 10% of people on instagram signed up to donate just $5 a month for one year we would close our financial gap and be able to squirrel a little money away so that we can replace a cooler or monitor every now and then
Did you “used to come to The Pinhook” and do you still value our place in this community?
- Post Covid Lockdown, NIVA (the national independent music association) has noted that small music venue (300 cap and lower) attendance has significantly and consistently decreased.
- Several other amazing clubs and places have recently opened up and we love them. AND – it has made it harder to throw uniquely cool events b/c there’s so much cool stuff going on. We’re working on it and with these places – but since 2024 some clutch events have been slower than usual! Its Friday in Durham y’all.
- Hundreds of small venues have either been bought by ticketmaster or shuttered since 2020. For a decent list go here.
- In North Carolina, despite the sector’s clear economic impact, only 29% of independent stages identified themselves as profitable in 2024, underscoring the urgent need for solutions to ensure their survival and sustainability. We are not one of them this year.
Why should you support us?
- We are a queer owned and operated music and art venue. We aren’t here to just sling drinks, but that’s how we make most of our money. With your support we’ll be able to:
- Sustain what we’ve been doing in a more competitive market as a legacy business in Downtown Durham (can you believe its been 17 years?)
- Offer artists a low cost place to polish their act before graduating to bigger stages
- Keep offering a HIVE MIND space for free for artists to connect on Wednesdays from 12pm-4pm. Please drop in. We are here to facilitate the music and arts scene and culture in Durham.
- There are more – why do you think? <3
What other benefits come with joining our patreon besides the little hug feeling you get every time you see what we’re up to downtown?
- Patrons will be kept updated more in depth on how we’re doing with our weekly digests
- Get access to limited merch runs and older discontinued merch
- Be able to enter special ticket giveaways
- Get access to older live streams and new live streams
- Get weekly playlists of music that is coming through
- Get discounted space rentals
- Get presales for certain events
- Communicate through the
- Get a downloadable copy of the pinhook coloring book of the year
- + More fun stuff we come up with – you got suggestions
Here are some articles for you so that you can see more research on club closings across the word.
Highlights:
“Each of the 51 reports details the impact of independent stages, which includes contributions to GDP, job creation, wages, tax revenues, and tourism. The reports also bring attention to the financial struggles facing the independent entertainment community, as 64% of independent stages nationwide reported unprofitability in 2024. Across the country, state reports reveal similar concerns, including Florida, with 65% of independent stages reporting unprofitability; in California, 69%; in Ohio, 80%; and in New York, 81%… Driving these challenges are rising inflation, which has increased costs for staffing, rent, utilities, insurance, and artists’ expenses; anti-competitive practices from Live Nation-Ticketmaster, which limit market access and squeeze margins; and predatory ticket resale, which diverts fan spending away from venues and artists. Together, these pressures mean that even as independent stages deliver billions in economic output and cultural value, many are unable to remain profitable.” – NIVA
“If you are a larger venue, you’re probably doing quite well post-pandemic,” he said. “But if you were a smaller venue, you are seeing business, and you’re keeping your head above water, but you’re also seeing that many of the things that larger organizations have at their disposal, which is economies of scale, is becoming harder.” – CNBC
“At Portland, Ore-based Mississippi Productions, the picture is less sanguine. The home of five independent venues including the 1,000-seat Revolution Hall—a tour stop for the likes of Todd Rundgren and Boz Scaggs—and the 350-seat Mississippi Studios and Polaris Hall continues to weather overall revenue at 60%-70% percent of what it was in 2019, “which is really difficult when our expenses, in many cases, have as much as doubled,” says owner Jim Brunberg.”
“We don’t have corporate backstops, we have limited resources,” said Frank, a founding member of NIVA and former board president. “Most folks are, you know, owner, operator, floor sweeper, booker, marketer, light bulb changer, everything.” – FORBES
If you have a subscription to MEDIUM check this article out: Punks not dead but our music clubs are dying.