12 Aug This SoCal Startup Is Eliminating Risk In The Concert Booking World
Original Article: Forbes
Author: Hugh McIntyre (Twitter, Instagram)
Revenue from purchases of music dwindles year after year, and the cash earned by racking up plays on streaming sites doesn’t quite add up for most contributing the music those sites run on, so in order to make a living, more artists are focusing their attention on playing live more often. This is true for every size performer, from the most popular names on the planet to those that are just starting out. For an industry that is so important to musicians, the music industry in general, and fans everywhere, the process of setting up concerts is still, for the most part, rather messy and inefficient.
When it comes to smaller acts, they are typically forced to either rent out a live music space, potentially losing money if they aren’t able to sell enough tickets, or a venue needs to take a big risk on an untested band, who may or may not be able to bring enough people—or anyone for that matter—in the door. Playing concerts is the only revenue stream that thousands of young acts have, and yet many of them have an incredibly difficult time getting their start and convincing booking managers to trust them.
Southern California startup FanFlex is looking to change all of this by putting “the right size act, and crowd, into the right size venue,” according to co-founder Erik Nelson. The platform, which is just over a year old, aims to decrease risks for every party involved, while also increasing cash flows for venues and bands at the same time. Participating venues can log into FanFlex and enter upcoming dates that don’t have any talent booked yet, and those in charge of the entertainment can dictate what genre they feel would be best, how many acts they want, and so on. From there, bands and artists can put a hold on a date when they are free or when they will be touring through a certain city. Once selected, the musicians begin “selling” tickets, though there’s a catch: these “flex tickets” aren’t confirmed until the artist hits a certain number.
The company operates as a mixture of OpenTable and Kickstarter for the live music industry, where venues set a minimum number of tickets that must be sold for a band to officially be booked. If the band selected can’t convince enough people to enter their credit card info and promise to attend within a certain time period (also defined by the venue), the location then has the right to go about booking talent as they normally would, having lost nothing in the process. If the act exceeds its goal and the venue’s capacity and there is still enough time before the event is set to take place, FanFlex will suggest other, larger spaces that are also free that same night in an effort to sell as many passes as possible.
So far, 40 venues in the Southern California area have signed up with FanFlex, as have around 300 artists. In the past year, which has largely been about testing the water and seeing what works and what doesn’t, 600 “flex tickets” have been sold, with only an astoundingly-low three people declining to pay to attend after committing to do so. According to case studies done by the company, most people don’t care what venue an artist is playing at, though they are concerned with what general area they’ll have to head to. For example, if a band said they were coming to Los Angeles, it matters more to fans whether they head to the Valley or North Hollywood than the actual venue. This is good news for artists, since it helps them be more flexible when it comes to booking.
Right now, FanFlex is focusing primarily on what Nelson called “nontraditional” venues, a category that includes bars, restaurants, and the like. These establishments typically use music to set the mood or add a few extra bucks, and often the tickets sold aren’t a major revenue stream for the venue, though that money is still important for the artists. Now that the company has a solid foothold in SoCal, next up is a push into more traditional clubs and music halls, and then the startup plans on expanding into other musical cities, such as San Francisco, Austin, and Nashville, to name just a few.
It’s incredible that after decades, much of the concert booking industry is still based on educated guesses and favors, which leads to empty spaces, lost money, and a hesitancy to take chances on out-of-towners or those that are just at the beginning of their musical careers. FanFlex helps alleviate risk, which should help those making the decisions feel less nervous about being a part of musicians earning some much-needed extra cash.