Whether it is nurturing local talent or providing a platform for rising British bands and artist, grassroots music venues are important both to their local community and the music community at large. Yet the UK has lost a third of its grassroots music venues in the past decade.

All too often, grassroots venues are being bought up and sold-off by developers – demolished to make way for flats and offices. Right now, there's not much music fans can do to stop it.

That's why as part of our "Own The Stage" campaign, we're backing an important change in the law for community assets like music venues. It's simple: when a community asset like a music venue is put up for sale, the community should be given right of first refusal to buy it for a fair price. Instead of being sold-off, our local assets would be community-owned and community-run.

A Community Right to Buy for music venues is just the beginning: to save our music venues, we need to truly own the stage and rethink ownership in the sector from the ground up, from local community ownership to community shares backed by music fans across the UK. Are you with us? Add your name now and back our campaign to save our music venues.