“How Touring Musicians Can Run A Business From The Road” plus 1 more

How Touring Musicians Can Run A Business From The Road

Posted: 16 Oct 2019 02:29 PM PDT

Over the last few decades musicians have had to become more savvy regarding the business aspects of the creative endeavours that they’ve dedicated their lives to. Whether it’s due to the myriad examples of how unsuspecting creatives have been taken advantage of, or the industry shifts that have affected how revenue is made, musicians are taking the development of their business skills almost as seriously as their musical chops. While this adds a certain complexity to musician’s lives, this is also incredibly empowering.

However, it’s becoming increasingly clear to musicians that it isn’t always enough to keep track of the flow of money from different projects. For many, in order to ensure that their musical ambitions are sustainable, they must treat their career as if it were a small business. This can mean hiring staff, working with accountants, connecting with marketing experts. Often it is necessary to set up secondary revenue streams, such as merchandising and licensing.

One of the primary components of a musician’s successful business is touring, but how can you ensure that your business continues to function — and thrive — when you’re not always physically present to ensure everything gets done correctly? We are living in a time when many businesses operate with remote staff, and there is greater access to tools that make these practices possible. But how do they fit into the touring lifestyle?

Creating a Remote Workspace

As a touring musician, you’re generally not going to have access to luxuries such as a great deal of private space, so you’ll need to think creatively about your working environment. It isn’t always going to be enough for you to manage the flow of your tour finances from the banking app on your phone, while sitting in a noisy green room. It’s in your best interests to take into account the daily tasks of your business and plan ahead accordingly.

For the most part, hotel rooms and AirBnB accommodations in the contemporary marketplace will come with complimentary internet access — but as this is one of the basic requirements to run your business remotely, it may also be in your best interest to consider a comprehensive data plan, if only for emergencies. If the reality of your tour environment requires that you’re sharing accommodations with other musicians, or even that you’re roughing it in your transport, scope out quiet spaces such as local cafes and even remote co-working areas.

Time on the road can be chaotic, and without some forward thinking, you may find yourself trying to take advantage of small snatches of time. Running a successful business will often require you to analyze data to make smart entrepreneurial decisions, speak to members of staff back home, and problem solve — all of which will benefit from you finding a peaceful space in which to operate at your best.

Managing Your Team

Small businesses can succeed or fail based on the quality of the people that are on the team. As a touring musician, this won’t just extend to the people you happen to be on-stage with; as your business grows, it is vital to ensure that the people you entrust to operate your affairs in your absence are up to the task. From those handling web sales of your merchandise, to those arranging the logistical elements of your next project; you need partners who understand how to function while you’re not physically with them to call all the shots.

You probably know your goals and what’s important to you in your career, but it’s just as important for your employees to know these too. Even as early as the process of actually hiring your staff, make an effort to ensure that their values reflect your own. In everything they do on behalf of your business, they are a projection of you to the world — so don’t be shy about making it clear what your business ambitions are, and set clear boundaries.

There are also tools available that help to make working remotely more practical. Set up reliable cloud storage so that new documents can be shared and accessed by employees wherever they happen to be, and utilize project management apps such as Slack that have messaging functions to connect you to all of your employees, even if they don’t all operate from the same space. Where possible, have face-to-face contact via Skype in order to maintain a supportive visibility throughout your travels — your employees will appreciate it.

Marketing and Social Media

Social media marketing is an important aspect of any business. While we’re not all comfortable or particularly skilled in its use, the brand you are building really does need to be supported by some level of expertise. Particularly since musicians’ marketing is often directly targeted at their audiences, ensuring that your marketing and media is handled correctly while you’re travelling is vital.

You may prefer to handle your social media yourself while you are on tour, but you should always ensure a member of your team has access to the accounts in order to post and moderate when you’re not able to. Often, social media can act as a form of product support, with your audience posting to make complaints about aspects of the tour and ticketing, merchandise, etc., and you won’t always personally have access to this information or be able to reply at a time that is useful to your customer. Touring is a huge undertaking, and it’s important to remember that you have limits while away from the office; make sure your troops are rallied into positions that make them most useful to you.

Your time on tour is also an opportunity to help fund the next one — encourage your audiences to engage with your social media, and let them know about any crowdfunding campaigns that you have coming up. Connect with local media outlets, tag them in your social media, and set up meet-ups with audiences that create great promotion opportunities. This may seem like an additional squeeze on your available time, but planning ahead effectively and delegating tasks to your staff, will help to ease this.

Using a small business model to shape your career as a musician is not selling out. Rather, you are taking control of how your talent is used, allowing you to achieve your ambitions. Any good business benefits from thorough preparation, and when planning your time on the road, it is important to take into account how this will affect the day-to-day running of your business. Use your hard-earned creativity, along with some planning prowess, and you can make your endeavours a success wherever you happen to be in the world.

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5 Cutting Edge Music Startups Up For First Ever Music Innovation Prize By Web Summit

Posted: 16 Oct 2019 05:17 AM PDT

Will the 2019 Web Summit discover music industry’s next big thing? Five up-and-coming tech startups will compete for the first Music Innovations Prize at the 2019 Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal. This is the first time the competition is held by the Web Summit as part of the conference’s MusicNotes stage program.

The lineup for the first ever Music Innovation Prize by the Web Summit consists of a SaaS solution for musicians Show4me that puts fans first and offers a unique blend of tools for zero-loss music monetization, live event gadget for better music experience from Peex, voice-to-MIDI set to help create music with voice from Vochlea, smart speaker 0W1 audio, and 3D audio software for sound effect generation Sound Particles.

MusicNotes brings together artists, labels, marketers, global brands, investors, and industry icons to discuss how the ways tech is contributing to the evolution and improvement of the music industry.

Who are the contestants?

Peex: wearable device to enhance live event experience. The transmitter delivers clear performance sound to the listener’s ears during a live show. Compatible with noise-cancelling headphones, but can be used on its own to allow in the crowd cheering and music from the venue. Controlled via the listener’s smartphone. Users can adjust the sound volume for vocals, guitar, keys, bass, drums, etc.

Show4me Music Interaction Network: an all-in-one music-oriented ecosystem for musicians, music lovers and industry professionals. Show4me offers a mix of tools that allow setting up an uninterrupted music business cycle and consolidating all music activities in a single space: concert crowdfunding for launching gigs and shows, ticket selling, music album pre-sale campaigns, music sales, fan subscription and direct-to-fan interaction. Through regular interaction with fans, artists can start a dialogue in order to gauge the demand for their music and shows prior to organizing a show or recording an album.

Sound Particles: 3D audio software for sound design. The software allows sound designers to generate complex sounds for video games, cinematic and animated works. It offers CGI integration, real-time rendering, binaural monitoring, VR client app and Windows support.

Vochlea: real-time vocal recognition MIDI controller Dubler Studio Kit. User uses voice to create music in real time, e.g. hum a melody or a synth pattern, beatbox to trigger a virtual drumkit, manipulate effects and filter with a “hmmm”, “laaaa”, “oohhh” sounds. The kit contains Dubler software and a microphone.

0W1 audio: a portable smart speaker D5 by 0W1 audio. Controlled with a hand sweep. Recognizes mood. Access to online streaming services and web radios bypassing a smartphone.

Startups’ representatives to speak at the event: from 0W1 audio – Phil Briot, Co-founder; from Peex – Patrick Vosgimorukian, CEO; from Show4me – Karén Chiftalaryan, Founder and CEO; from Sound Particles – Nuno Fonseca, Founder and CEO; from Vochlea – George Wright, CEO.

The competition will start at 12:35PM at the Music Notes stage of the Web Summit at the Altice Arena.

“We are thrilled to be a part of this year’s Web Summit,” says Show4me CEO Karén Chiftalaryan. “We look forward to presenting our innovative developments that will help musicians to obtain new and advanced opportunities for boosting their music careers. I’m glad that this year’s Web Summit decided to host this competition as the music industry really needs fresh blood and significant improvements,” he adds.

Chiftalaryan will also speak at Web Summit’s Growth Stage on November 6, 2019. He will share insights on making a startup attractive for investors, having locked $13.4M in investments for Show4me.

Show4me experienced hypergrowth over the last year, launching their upgraded self-sufficient network in April of 2019. Over 7,000 musicians and music industry experts are already using the service. With its innovative set of tools, Show4me addresses a slew of budding and up-and-coming professional musicians’ pains:

challenges of ‘getting discovered’,

struggle to find financial backing to get started,

going beyond the Internet-famous stage and converting likes into real monetary rewards without giving away a large portion of the fans’ contributions,

the challenge of juggling multiple online platforms to keep the fans engaged,

inability to put on more shows without risking own money or involving third parties to sponsor them.

Show4me is designed to meet the needs of musicians and music professionals at all levels, from setting up the first gig to scaling the established artists’ careers. The network aims to transform the way all music industry players coexist and cooperate with each other, and give artists more freedom to create music on their own terms.

This sets an online stage for a dialogue between artists and fans, and enables both to give and get unique music experiences as well as post updates, music, exchange photos and videos from live events, sell albums, EPs and merch, come up with exclusive rewards for dedicated fans, as well as crowdfund future album releases.

Catch Show4me At The 2019 Web Summit

Nov. 6, 2019 10:45 AM. Growth Summit

Is Your Startup Really Fundable? The Hexagon Theory Of Fundraising
Speaker: Show4me Founder and CEO Karen Chiftalaryan

Nov. 7, 2019 12:30 PM. MusicNotes

Show4me Competing For Music Innovation Prize
Show4me will compete for the MusicNotes’ first ever Music Innovation Prize with 4 other cutting-edge music industry startups.
Speaker: Show4me Founder and CEO Karen Chiftalaryan

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