Top Musicians Scored $200 Million in Pandemic Taxpayer Cash: Report

Early 2021 was a prosperous time for Austin Richard Post, better known as the “Sunflower” singer Post Malone.

While many of his entertainment-industry colleagues struggled to pay rent under the pandemic-era lockdowns that decimated live music in the US, Post bought a 9,000-square-foot ski chalet in Park City, Utah, which had been listed for $11.5 million, in an all-cash transaction that February.

By May, he’d bought an industrial space in a Salt Lake City suburb that had been listed for $1.45 million. There, he opened a commercial forge to craft knives and swords, “as a hobby,” Post’s representative told the city’s planning commission.

But later that year, a corporation controlled by Post successfully applied for a $10 million grant from a taxpayer-funded federal program intended to provide “emergency assistance” to help struggling arts groups recover from the pandemic.

The program, the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant, was a lifeline for the live-entertainment business. Administered by the Small Business Administration, it doled out $14.5 billion to institutions like movie theaters, ballets, operas, talent agents, performing-arts venues, and museums. Unlike the Paycheck Protection Program, which many venues didn’t qualify for, the Shuttered Venue program was a grant, not a loan. Qualified applicants were eligible for up to $10 million with no obligation to repay it.

“SVOG was there to save us, and to carry us through,” said Meredith Lynsey Schade, who was managing an off-off-Broadway theater company when the pandemic hit.

But the Shuttered Venue program was also plagued by ineffective oversight and loopholes that allowed some of the biggest names in the music industry to get huge payouts, an Insider investigation found.

R&B artist Chris Brown got $10 million. Rapper Lil Wayne got $8.9 million. Nineties rockers The Smashing Pumpkins got $8.6 million. Nickelback — yes, Nickelback — received $2 million.

All told, Insider identified dozens of corporations and limited-liability companies controlled by high-profile musical artists that received grants through the program. A single financial-management firm in Los Angeles successfully submitted grants on behalf of 97 artists, venues, and managers, amounting to more than a quarter of a billion dollars in grant payouts, Insider’s analysis found, including more than $200 million for big-name artists alone.

Did your favorite musician get a big federal payout?

Insider identified dozens of big-name musical artists whose touring companies scored millions of dollars in federal grants during the pandemic.

^{Source: Small Business Administration}

Publicly, the bill that created the Shuttered Venues grant was marketed as supporting behind-the-scenes workers at indie venues and small stages — not arena-filling musicians.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, one of the lawmakers who sponsored what was then known as the “Save Our Stages” bill, told his constituents the money would be used for “independent live venue operators, independent movie theaters, and cultural institutions such as live performing arts organizations and museums,” according to a press release. At a star-studded ceremony in April, Schumer was honored by the Recording Academy, the group behind the Grammys, for passing the bill. A spokesperson for Schumer declined to comment.

I was so honored to be recognized at this year’s @RecordingAcad #GRAMMYsontheHill!

My love for music runs deep.

That’s why I made it my mission to pass the Save Our Stages Act, and I’ll keep up the work to support the music and performance industry. pic.twitter.com/z1OCg22RAU

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) April 27, 2023

Hundreds of musicians and other performing artists signed an open letter to Congress asking them to support “neighborhood independent venues” where many of them had gotten their starts.

Some of those same artists controlled companies that went on to receive multimillion-dollar payouts from the program, including the electronic-music superstar Steve Aoki ($9.9 million) and the “Feel It Still” crooners Portugal. The Man ($2.25 million).

The Shuttered Venue program “helped save thousands of entertainment venues and operators across the country during the COVID-19 pandemic,” an SBA spokesperson said in a statement. Nearly half the grant money went to businesses with fewer than five full-time employees, “the smallest of small businesses,” the spokesperson added.

But some of the artists’ businesses Insider analyzed would fit into that category. For instance, Aoki’s corporation, DJ Kid Millionaire Touring Inc., told the government it had just four full-time employees on its application for a $71,000 PPP loan.

A lack of controls

There is no indication that payments to big-name artists broke the law. Though the legislation was targeted at “live performing arts organization operators,” an SBA representative confirmed to Insider that artists themselves were included within its scope.

The government is still determining…