The Live Music Industry Podcast – Détails, épisodes et analyse

In this episode, we chat with Fabrice Sergent, co-founder and CEO of Bandsintown which has grown to become one of the largest most impressive platforms in all of Live Music. In the pod, Fabrice reveals the origin story, showcasing the company's impressive growth. Emphasizing the importance of supporting local musicians and venues, Fabrice discusses how this fosters diversity and vibrancy in the music industry. Wrapping up, he explores the role of AI and shares his visionary outlook on the future of live music.

Fabrice Sergent is the co-founder and Managing Partner of Bandsintown. With over 88 million registered fans and partnerships with Spotify, Apple, Shazam, Google, and more, Bandsintown has 1.5 billion monthly active users and delivers more than 5 billion personalized concert recommendations annually. In addition to helping 600K registered artists and 65K venues, festivals, and promoters share concerts with the world, Bandsintown Promoter, and the new automated marketing solution Bandsintown PRO empower them to bypass algorithms, build their audience, and sell more tickets.

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Meet the Podcast Host/CEO of Prism - ⁠Matt Ford⁠

Bandsintown

Timestamps

(01:45) Concert discovery platform

(06:35) Different from streaming apps

(09:45) Bandsintown artist platform

(14:15) Venue and promoter platform

(15:45) Integrations and partnerships

(17:30) The origin story

(20:10) Bandsintown acquisition history

(22:55) Business growth trajectory

(25:00) Fabrice’s entrepreneurial history

(27:00) Live music market equilibrium

(33:15) Market diversity and vibrancy

(35:25) Supporting local venues and acts

(36:45) Increased concert attendance

(39:15) Leaning in even more  to AI

(43:10) Vision for the future of the industry

In this episode, we sit down with Paul Bradley, founder and CEO of Eventric, to explore the company's journey from inception to industry leader. Discover the origin story behind Eventric and their flagship product, Master Tour, designed to streamline tour management. Paul shares the fundraising challenges they faced, recounts an [almost] acquisition, and dives into their turbulent journey through covid. Paul also provides insights into the company's current initiatives and his visionary outlook for the future of the live music industry. Tune in to learn about the resilience and innovation driving Eventric's success.

What is Eventric?

With a deep understanding of tour management, Eventric has developed Master Tour, an innovative software that simplifies logistics for bands and artists. Master Tour focuses on making the complexities of touring more manageable, allowing artists to concentrate on their music. 

(01:50) The Eventric origin story
(09:20) What is Master Tour?
(11:05) Shifting to modern technology
(12:25) Fundraising challenges
(16:40) Master Tour [almost] acquired
(25:50) Surviving the COVID pandemic
(32:00) Current times at Master Tour
(34:30) Post-COVID mental health services
(40:00) New product features coming
(43:30) Pricing the product
(50:45) Incorporating AI
(55:25) Shifts in the industry
(60:00) Vision for the future of the industry
(67:05) Tech in the live music industry

He’s a President, CEO, and an all around-fascinating human being – Ty Sutton is what’s known in the industry and by Prism’s casting directors as a ‘Triple Threat.’

Get a backstage look at what goes into leading Dayton Live, the primary host and presenter of the Performing Arts in the region, and running 5 incredible venues, including the historic 150 year old Victoria Theater, and the Benjamin & Marian Schuster Performing Arts Center.

Ty shares his incredible story and career that have taken him across 5 different states, working for the Olympics, and eventually finding himself in Dayton, Ohio, at the helm of one of the most significant and efficiently run operations in the entire country. Take your seat for this intriguing lesson on PAC economics, the keys to Ty’s success, the breakdown of donor basses, and everything in between.

(00:50) What is Dayton Live 

(01:20) Ty’s journey into the industry, law school? Singer? 

(04:00) University gig (07:00) Working for the olympics 

(09:50) Booking an enormous resort 

(18:30) The value of seeing great leadership in action 

(22:00) Pacs outside of SF / using technology to stay organized 

(26:00) Ty’s first gig running the show (31:00) Lessons and failings of a new venue operator  

(35:00) PACs in Oil country, Midland Texas (39:00) How to 10x your goals 

(46:50) Building Dayton Live 

(48:46) The economics of Dayton Live and PACS in-general.  

(54:00) Breakdown of donor base (58:20) The value of booking your own shows 

(01:01:22) Technology as a key to running a great business 

(01:09:30) The big question, what is the future of the Performing Arts Industry

In this podcast we explore Hilary's founding story, and how she's helping bring mental health services to The Live Music Industry.

(00:00) - Mission, vision & story of Backline - creating better support networks for the industry

(06:11) - FREE mental health services, and how they work

(08:09) - Struggles in the live music industry / why service this industry?

(11:22) - Who is Backline helping? Artists, industry, agents, family members…

(14:00) - Men reaching out for help, event planning is one of the most stressful jobs

(15:40) - Demographics of bands receiving help

(18:30) - What’s it like to safe lives?

(20:00) - REACH OUT when you need help

(22:00) - Friday the 13th - when the music industry shut down - collective trauma

(29:40) - How to get help, and who help is for

(35:00) - Resources for everyone (not just hitting rock bottom)

(42:50) - How does Backline keep operating

(46:50) - Industry leaders that are a part of Backline

(55:30) - Get Backline in your green room!

Matt helped start Pabst Theatre Group with Gary Witt over 18 years ago. PTG owns, operates and books incredible venues across Milwaukee, including The Pabst Theatre, The Riverside Theatre, and The Fiserv Forum.

In this episode, Matt 1 and Matt 2 shine a spotlight on a wide range of topics: theater life in the 1800's, consolidation across the industry, potential legislation around All-In ticketing, and so much  more. Matt Beringer shares some incredible advice about how he's modernizing and building an extraordinary operation through the use of technology.

Jason was an Agent at Paradigm & Monterey Peninsula Artists before founding Goldengate Talent Agency. Jason represents an intentionally intimate roster of his favorite artists including Big Gigantic, Ripe, The Floozies, Mobley and more.

www.goldengateagency.com

Timestamps:

(00:20) starting Goldman after Paradigm, during the pandemic

(04:10) drive in concerts and how we made it through

(06:00) back in the pit without masks

(10:30) concerts inside of the digital world post covid

(14:53) Inflation

(17:00) The post roaring 20’s live music industry

(23:00) Economics of the industry with everyone on tour at once, supply chain

(27:00) Tick Toc is not a silver bullet for marketing

(31:20) Bo Burnham’s strategy to success

(38:00) “There’s no better indication of a music fan than a ticket buyer”

(40:00) A Key to Bill Strings success and their great team

(43:32) Big roster vs small roster agents

(47:30) Family/work/life balance

(53:00) Kup’s experience with Prism

In this episode, we are joined by JR, the visionary CEO and co-founder of Prekindle and Space Colonel Management. We delve into the recently dropped antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation by the DOJ and explore JR's inspiring journey in co-founding Prekindle. Discover how his company stands out by refusing to lock clients into contracts, their seamless integration with Prism, and JR's remarkable approach to maintaining authenticity in business. Additionally, we discuss the transformative potential of AI in the music industry and what the future holds. Tune in for an enlightening conversation that blends entrepreneurial insights with the cutting edge of technology.

After signing with Atlantic Records as a singer-songwriter and touring for years, J.R. quickly went the entrepreneurial route and helped start Prekindle where he’s currently CEO. Prekindle is an event ticketing and marketing platform started in Texas which now hosts 50,000 events a year across the US - including concerts, festivals, food & drink events, classes, attractions and everything in between. Denson has also built a career as an artist manager, having first discovered Charley Crockett and helped him to build a global touring and recording business. J.R. went on to cofound Space Colonel which now manages 14 music clients in the Country/Americana/Folk space including Shooter Jennings, Jason Boland and The Stragglers, Benjamin Tod, Lost Dog Street Band, The Lone Bellow, Kat Hasty, Beau Bedford. Via Space Colonel, J.R. also runs a publishing joint venture with Warner Chappell where they represent a growing roster of songwriters. His original mission to bring communities together through events and music has turned into a career that now spans 15+ years - over that time, J.R. has played a part in 10 million attendee experiences and counting. 

(00:25) - DOJ suing Live Nation & Ticketmaster
(05:10) - Government intervention in businesses
(08:10) - Monopolistic practices
(11:45) - The Prekindle origin story
(14:50) - Prekindle’s growth trajectory
(16:30) - Prekindle’s model differentiation
(19:20) - How Prekindle competes
(21:25) - Prekindle’s bootstrapped operation
(25:10) - Space Kernel origin story
(28:15) - Discovering Charley Crockett
(29:50) - SaveLive Prekindle partnership
(35:20) - Prekindle’s biggest challenge
(37:45) - Unique approach to business
(41:00) - Seamless Prism+Prekindle integration
(44:05) - Incorporating AI into business
(46:15) - Vision for the future

I had a fascinating conversation with Mark Williamson, the co-founder and CEO of ROSTR, Inc - a tech startup building tools for artists and music industry professionals. During our chat I learned about his wild decade-long ride at Spotify, its growth and success, and how it led to the inception of ROSTR. We dove into the origins of ROSTR, the value the product is providing to the music industry, the challenges faced while building the business, what tactics the team took to gain traction, and where ROSTR is headed next. No conversation would be complete without a discussion around the role of AI in the music industry, how ROSTR plans to incorporate it into the business, and what impact we foresee AI having on the industry & the world as a whole.

ROSTR is a music industry directory and data platform that helps artists and music industry professionals build their network, discover artists and save time. The site tracks relationships, signings, artist data, tours, festivals and more; it's like having an all-knowing assistant. In 2023, ROSTR launched Jobs by ROSTR - a music industry job board that doesn't suck. Jobs by ROSTR is already one of the leading places to find jobs and hire talent in the music industry, with 500+ employers, 1k+ job postings and 35k+ applications so far. 

Please share this with anyone that might be interested in the topics, links below to subscribe and stay in the loop with the podcast and Prism:

Subscribe

www.prism.fm/podcast/

More on Prism

www.prism.fm

Follow us on Instagram (@prismfm)

www.instagram.com/prismfm

Meet the Podcast Host/CEO of Prism

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mford3

ROSTR

https://hq.rostr.cc/

(00:50) - What is ROSTR?

(02:50) - Experience at Spotify

(05:20) - The ROSTR idea is born

(13:05) - Spotify becomes industry leader

(21:55) - Why Spotify and not others?

(25:35) - Spotify moving into live music/ticketing

(38:45) - Building ROSTR

(45:30) - Overcoming resistance and objections

(49:10) - Where does the data come from? 

(51:25) - How ROSTRs growth took off

(64:35) - Extracting value and creating a sustainable business model

(78:45) - Role of AI in the the business and industry

(92:25) - Building software to improve the industry

(96:05) - Optimistic outlook on the future

(99:20) - Music industry job directory in ROSTR

The independent live music industry can rest soundly at night knowing it has NIVA and incredible leaders behind it like Dayna and Stephen fighting with will, resources, and creativity. My mind was blown to learn about the complexity of the problem in ticketing and that NIVA is back taking the fight to Congress and making progress. This was truly a special conversation that shined a light on important issues, such as the complexity and scale of tech in the secondary, progress on getting bills passed to levy fines on so much fraud that is happening every day, and Steve Balmer’s take on technology playing a role in solving the problem. We rounded the podcast out on a sweet and inspiring note about the Future of NIVA, leadership, and what inspires us all so deeply about keeping live music alive and independent. Please share this with anyone that might be interested in the topics, links below to subscribe and stay in the loop with the podcast and Prism: Subscribe www.prism.fm/podcast/ More on Prism www.prism.fm Follow us on Instagram (@prismfm) www.instagram.com/prismfm Meet the Podcast Host/CEO of Prism https://www.linkedin.com/in/mford3 National Independent Venue Association www.nivassoc.org (00:44): What is Fix The Ticks? (03:30): Ticket scalping high tech and Espionage:) (05:40): Spec tickets & fraud (10:00): Making this mess illegal, rallying congress, 15k fines per ticket (22:29): Steve Balmer, anti scalping tech, and dynamic ticketing (26:17): Progress and wins (34:00): Stephen Parker’s story (38:40): Dayna Frank’s story / sneaking into First Ave shows as a kid (43:20): The Why behind live music & leadership (50:10): NIVA con (53:30): The Future

I had a brilliant conversation with Andrew (Senior Talent Agent Rocky Road Touring) that spanned his perspective on booking shows internationally, macroeconomics, the advantages boutique independent agencies have on larger corporations, and more.

Please share this with anyone that might be interested in the topics, links below to subscribe and stay in the loop with the podcast and Prism:

Subscribe

www.prism.fm/podcast/

More on Prism

www.prism.fm

Follow us on Instagram (@prismfm)

www.instagram.com/prismfm

Meet the Podcast Host/CEO of Prism

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mford3

Rocky Road Touring

www.rockyroadtouring.com

(01:48) - Growing and scaling Rocky Road Touring

(06:50) - Booking shows internationally 

(08:50 ) - Live Music in China, Israel and Russia

(13:36) - Roger Waters asking bands to Boycott Israel

(17:00) - Russia, Eastern Europe and Ukraine 

(29:11 ) - Shows in South America, FIAT Currencies & Bitcoin

(34:49) - Booking shows in bitcoin, Macroeconomics of currency exchange 

(45:05) - The advantage of boutique and independent agencies

(54:13) - Strong-manning the perspective of working with bigger agencies 

(58:35) - Can boutique agencies cultivate the same level of relationships 

(01:05:00) - Powering an agency with technology

(01:13:00) - The beauty and joy of a true Mom and Pop Shop

(01:19:07) - Hopes for the future of the music industry