TicketWeb, Ticketmaster’s indie ticketing platform for independent venues and promoters, has signed Night and Day Café, one of Manchester’s most famous music venues, the company revealed to IQ at Venues Day earlier this week.

The 220-cap. venue (pictured) moving over from Dice to TicketWeb follows a year of strong growth for the latter’s Backline service, a joint venture between Venues Day organiser Music Venue Trust (MVT) and TicketWeb which serves as a way for small (sub-1,500-cap.) venues and promoters to sell tickets directly to fans through their own platforms.

Launched at Venues Day 2016, there are now more than 25 new MVT venues using Backline, said TicketWeb International’s director of marketing and artist services, Jon West.

“We have a special deal with MVT members with a capacity of 500 or below,” he explained, highlighting new Backline clients including the Booking Hall in Dover and the Brook in Southampton.

grassrootsvenues.tickets, meanwhile – a website and service by TicketWeb and MVT that has “rapidly become a hub for fans wanting to learn about their local grassroots music venues” – launched in July.

“TM had its busiest day ever when Ed Sheeran’s stadium tour went on sale – but that story started on TicketWeb in grassroots venues”

“It’s great to work with iconic venues from cities with a rich music heritage, but the other important part of what we do with MVT is recognising that live music exists outside major cities,” West continued. “It’s been really cool seeing these pockets of music, these cultural hubs that are at the centre of their local communities, and it’s really important to support them.”

As an example, West referred back to Steve Lamacq’s Venues Day keynote, in which the BBC radio DJ became noticeably teary as he talked about his “old stomping ground” in Harlow, Essex, where the town’s main venue, the Square, has been closed since last December.

TicketWeb, explained West, also plays an important part in Ticketmaster’s artist services division, with Sam Isles simultaneously serving as TicketWeb MD and VP of Ticketmaster artist services.

“Grassroots venues are the breeding ground for new talent,” he said. “Ticketmaster had its busiest day ever earlier this year, when Ed Sheeran’s stadium tour went on sale – but that story started long ago on TicketWeb in grassroots venues across the country, and that’s just another reason why these stages are so important to the whole music industry”.

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The PRS for Music Foundation, a charitable foundation run by the UK’s Performing Rights Society (PRS for Music), has announced The Performance Fund, the latest iteration of its Flash Funding initiative.

In association with sound company Wigwam Acoustics and the Musicians’ Union, The Performance Fund will give touring artists the chance to win up to £10,000 worth of audio equipment (including microphones, in-ear monitors and control systems), advice and training on touring, promotional support and a £375 towards touring costs.

Wigwam’s concert touring manager, Joel Perry, says: “As has been proven time and again for Wigwam Acoustics and across the whole of the touring fraternity, hands-on development from the outset remains key to both our success and the continued success of our touring clients. The Performance Flash Fund, coupled with the vast experience of the three organisations, will provide artists with a bespoke, professional touring audio system application employed by today’s top performers.”

Applications will be accepted from today (6 April) until 23.59 on Friday 8 April via the PRS for Music Foundation’s website, where performers or management will need to submit two musical examples and a three-minute video answering basic questions about their live dates.

Once the deadline has closed an “expert industry panel” will pick four artists from a shortlist of the applicants, and the successful grantees will be announced publicly on 18 April.