Derek Manns, Author at Stagehand

Microfinance for the local music industry?

Derek Manns — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 17:08:00 +0000

Last quarter was Live Nation’s best quarter ever, they are selling out stadiums at an average ticket price of $252 and meanwhile small music venues struggle to keep their doors open. It would seem that the world of arts, culture & entertainment is trending in the same direction as the rest of the world. The rich are getting richer while the little guys tread water or decline. Local musicians will tell you that performing live is the only place left where they can make money. Earnings from recorded music are insignificant with the top 10% of musicians taking home 99.4% of the streaming revenue. Even local restaurants can’t make money, Restaurants Canada recently reported that 51% of Canadian restaurants are either losing money or just breaking even. At this rate an evening out will soon consist of ordering a Happy Meal through Skip the Dishes while streaming the latest Taylor Swift concert. Awesome.

There is a growing void in local culture… the well will eventually run dry if the ecosystem for emerging artists no longer exists. Who will replace Lady Gaga and Bruce Springsteen when they are gone? Is it Tik Tok? Maybe OpenAI will generate custom content based on your favorite prompts from today’s biggest stars… I hope not but sadly it is no longer science fiction.

Supporting the little guy

Despite the valuable role that the “little guys” (small venues, emerging artists) play as a catalyst for local culture, they are very difficult for strategic funders to support and there are a few reasons for that.

Small businesses are outsiders to the traditional arts and culture ecosystem. Small venues are usually run by scrappy entrepreneurs, they are much more t-shirt and jeans vs. suit and tie. They typically don’t know how the funding system works, it is not part of their MO to look for grants much less apply for them. They are perpetually short of time and they don’t have anyone on staff (like a grant writer) that can do this work for them.

They are “For Profit” businesses. Despite the previously stated fact that most small venues are not making money, as a legal entity they are “for profit” businesses and this excludes them from the majority of public funding for arts and culture. It doesn’t matter that a coffee shop might offer the first opportunity for a young artist to get up on stage and perform, there is less political risk in supporting not-for-profit organizations. Ironically this same principle does not seem to apply to sports teams or their wealthy owners, see point above about the rich getting richer.

Efficiency required to support a large number of small businesses. Historically a disproportionate amount of arts & culture funding has gone to large organizations like the Ballet or the Opera. It is a simple fact that it is easier to administer large grants to a small number of large organizations rather than many small grants to many small organizations.

Opportunities for technology

So what has changed? What is different now that makes it possible to support a broader, more inclusive view of the cultural landscape? Simply put, technology has changed. Technology is scalable and there are countless examples of how it is now possible to support millions of users. To that end, last summer we had a chance to run a unique pilot in support of grassroots musicians and small venues. Many of you will have heard about the concept of microfinance, but normally you hear about it in the context of a developing nation. Microfinance consists of many small financial incentives often paid to individuals to allow them to start a business or to provide a service. There are a lot of small venues and emerging artists on the withering savannahs of the grassroots music scene so we wanted to see if the microfinance concept would apply here also.

Case Study

We had the small sum of $4,000 left over from a different funded program so we proposed an experiment. We would deliver “micro-grants” directly to artists to perform in small venues. The micro-grants would be $100 each and they would be paid directly to the artist, the venue would never have access to the money. The venue was free to augment artist compensation in other ways, and the venues were responsible for their own programming. If they didn’t already have a Stagehand venue profile they needed to set one up and do all programming from there. In exchange for help paying an artist to activate their space the venue would give us back some valuable data about the event. The data would be both quantitative measures like food and beverage sales, cover charges and attendance, and also qualitative measures like their overall satisfaction with various aspects of the event.

What happened?

Five venues quickly stepped up and hired 35 different artists who performed 40 times over an eight week period. These venues were mostly clustered in the Music Mile area of Calgary but also extended into the suburbs. The venues made all of their own programming decisions and payments were processed through the Stagehand platform directly to the artist after their performance. The following were the venues that participated including the % of funding that was allocated.

While the sample size was not large enough to draw definitive conclusions here is some data that may lead to other questions or further investigation:

60% of performers were male, 35% were female, 5% identified as other
The most popular artist genre that venues programmed was Singer/Songwriter, second was Folk and third was Pop.
The most lucrative time for food and beverage sales for a performance that featured live music is Sunday Brunch.
The genre that correlated to the most food and beverage sales was R&B.
Largest audience size was 98.
Venues rated the artist talent at an average of 4.6 (5 being the highest).
Artist professionalism was rated at an average of 4.7.

What else did we learn?

Beyond the raw data here is some other things that were learned during the course of the pilot:

1. Abundance of talent. There were far more talented artists willing and able to perform than there were spots available. The venues indicated a high degree of satisfaction with the artists that did perform.

2. Don’t show me the money. Venues prefer that the money be paid directly to the artists. If the money flows through the venue it creates an audit exposure and more work for them. Venues are happy to earn their money based on food and beverage sales.

3. No silver bullets but everything helps. Simply having a performer does not guarantee a full room and a profitable event. Promotion needs to be the joint responsibility of the venue and the artist and the more persistent you are with these programs the more you will train people’s habits and build a following.

4. More promotion needed. The grassroots industry as a whole would benefit from better promotion. The majority of the general public is surprised at the level of talent that is available in the local community.

5. A little means a lot. $100 does not seem like a lot of money but as one of the venue owners explained, if they are only making 10% profit on their gross revenue then for the venue to take $100 out of their earnings they would need to sell an additional $1000 of food and beverage just to break even. If you are a small venue with 50 seats this required amount of additional sales represents a significant barrier to being able to hire musicians.

6. Harness the entrepreneurial spirit. These micro-grants were small but sufficient for venues to open their doors to local artists and book and promote performances on a weekly basis. Small businesses/entrepreneurs will do a lot of work that benefits local artists if they believe it has a positive impact on their business and community. Don’t underestimate what can be achieved for relatively small but well-planned incentives.

7. Accountability by design. After an artist finished their gig they were prompted to confirm it on the platform. Confirmation notified the micro-grant payor that they could process payment for the performance which was done at the click of a button. Automation means that the administrative work like payment can be done in seconds, all transactions are recorded and reports can be generated on demand.

Conclusion

Small venues have always played an integral role in launching artists’ careers. Bob Dylan started in the cafes of Greenwich Village, Ed Sheeran was a busker on the streets of London. Building a grassroots community where artists and small venues can work together helps both artist and venue and it builds local culture and identity. It’s a win-win-win.

The venues we worked with were enthusiastic about participating in the micro-grants program; they were willing to provide meaningful data about the impact of performances in their venue in exchange for indirect assistance by way of small grants that were paid directly to the artists that performed. For the artists, demand for these types of performance opportunities was high. It was clear that there were far more talented local artists who were willing and able to perform than could be programmed in this pilot.

We are all sensitive to the rising cost of living, including tax increases, so it is important that all public investments in arts and culture are made in the most effective and transparent way possible. Historically there have been very real barriers to making investments in a fragmented and at times chaotic grassroots music scene. But technology is providing opportunities for scale and transparency that need to be explored. Micro-grants are just one way that we could be more inclusive in funding arts and culture with a view towards building more vibrant and cultural communities.

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Beyond bricks and mortar: Technology for good

Derek Manns — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 21:30:00 +0000

Written by Derek Manns, Co-founder & CEO Stagehand

Photo by Freckle Face Media Co.

Technology offers an unprecedented opportunity to build, grow and support an inclusive and diverse arts and culture ecosystem. But it won’t happen by chance, we need to be intentional about our strategy to ensure the best possible outcome. Historically, big ticket investments in local arts and culture have included building facilities that showcase our biggest and most successful organizations. But it’s 2023, we are in the midst of a digital revolution and technology presents some new opportunities that are accessible and inclusive to a much larger grassroots arts community. Technology is the elephant in the living room. Stewards of local culture need to develop proactive strategies to leverage technology so that we can maximize the good and mitigate the bad. Here is why technology is so important.

Technology is the 1000 pound gorilla. The stock market is dominated by technology giants. The “Magnificent Seven” which is made up of Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Tesla, Invidia and Meta currently makes up 29.6 percent of the S&P 500 market value! In other words 1.4% of the companies make up almost 30% of the value of the largest companies on the US Stock Exchange. You don’t need an MBA to recognize that as a pretty clear signal that technology is having a disproportionate impact on our economy and on our lives. Think about how the industrial revolution changed our world, that is happening again but this time it is a digital revolution. All industries, including arts and culture, need to consider technology in their strategic planning. A rising tide lifts all boats, right now the tide is high, it is important to have a boat in the water.

Technology is scalable. Software is scalable which means that it can grow and shrink quickly, it can provide new skills and capabilities to millions of users without the need for time intensive individual support. Shopify made it easy for anyone to sell products online now they have 2 million merchants managing 4 million online stores and that is disrupting traditional retail. Airbnb helps 4 million hosts rent spare rooms and collectively they have become a formidable competitor to the hotel industry. According to the Canadian Census and the US Bureau of Labour Statistics there are over 2.75M artists in North America and that only counts artists that spend more time at their art than any other profession. Most artists work day jobs to make ends meet so the real number of aspiring artists is much higher. Emerging artists can’t afford grant writers, managers or promoters to support them. This is the epitome of a “DIY” market where artists must rely on their own initiative to move forward in their career. The industry would benefit from an end to end digital ecosystem that augments the status quo.

Conversely, bricks and mortar are difficult to scale, buildings are expensive and if you discover too late that they are too big or too small they can be very difficult to change. To be clear this should not be an either/or decision, there are times when new physical infrastructure is vital to the ecosystem, both options have a role. Metaphorically speaking, arts decision makers have the opportunity to support both ‘Shopify’ and ‘Traditional Retail’ to ensure the maximum possible benefit to the largest possible community.

Technology is good at collecting data. An arts leader once told me that investments in local arts and culture are seen by politicians as “small budget but high political risk”. Why? Because the benefits of this type of investment are often measured qualitatively which is challenging in light of competing societal challenges. In the eyes of a decision maker how something made you feel is less important than what it made you do. Are you more likely to live, work or play downtown if you feel safe because there are bustling vibrant streets? Did a musician at the airport improve your first impression of a city, start your vacation on the right foot and make you want to come back? Did you linger longer in a neighborhood because a musician was performing and as a result you spent money for a burger and a beer on a local patio? Technology runs on 1’s and 0’s, it forces us to think in measurable ways that are reflected in data. We all want to be emotional and inspired but if we can’t justify our indulgences with quantitative data then the impact of the arts will continue to be a small but high risk line item.

Technology is accessible. According to Pew research in 2022, 95% of Canadians used the internet and 98% of people between the ages of 18-29 own smartphones. That’s an astounding level of market penetration and it provides an opportunity to reach a huge audience regardless of race, ethnicity, sexual preference or social status. In a world where the wealth gap between rich and poor continues to grow, access to technology seems almost ubiquitous regardless of how much you earn. Arts leaders have done an admirable job of advocating for DEI and the first step of being inclusive is connectivity and communication. It is difficult to support a marginalized community if you don’t know who they are or how to contact them. Technology provides the opportunity for extraordinary connectivity and reach.

It’s time for tech!

Technology represents an unprecedented opportunity for positive change. We are in the middle of a digital revolution that shows no signs of slowing. Efficiency and scalability have enabled innovative business models that could serve millions of emerging artists. When managed properly data becomes a byproduct of the technology and that data can be a tool to measure impact and justify investments. Technology has disrupted many industries like travel, journalism, hospitality and retail and you could argue that local culture and identity are also being eroded by social media, streaming and global influences. But technology can be a positive force, it can be a catalyst for local culture and identity but it won’t happen by itself, stewards of local culture need to be proactive, they need strategies that embrace technology. Carpe Diem!

In my next post I will talk about a specific example of where technology played a catalytic role for local artists, local culture and small business.

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Beyond bricks & mortar: Technology as a catalyst for local arts & culture

Derek Manns — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 20:51:00 +0000

Written by Derek Manns – Cofounder & CEO of Stagehand

Photo by Freckle Face Media Co.

Local culture is being eroded by technology. For communities to maintain their unique identity the stewards of local culture must learn how to use technology to their advantage.

Back in the late 80’s I spent a summer traveling through Europe. One of the most exciting things for me was falling asleep on a train or a boat and waking up in a completely different culture. Different languages, food, architecture, music, artwork, customs. Back then I didn’t even have a cell phone, I had a “Lets Go Europe” book and every day was an adventure exploring interesting places and hanging out with people “in real life”.

Nurturing a vibrant local culture is good for everyone. It’s great for the quality of life for those that already live in the community and it is a key point of consideration when people choose where they want to live. Companies need to attract and retain talent and that can be difficult in places where there is seemingly nothing to do after work. But downtowns are still dealing with high vacancy and safety concerns, 51% of restaurants are either losing money or just breaking even and small businesses who are programming local artists struggle to keep their doors open.

One of the biggest changes in the last generation is the impact that technology has had on our lives. The average Canadian now spends 6 hours and 35 minutes online every day. Companies like Netflix encourage us to cocoon in our homes, social media has changed how we interact and communicate and we are only just starting to see the opportunity and challenges that will come with Artificial Intelligence. Technology provides the opportunity for unlimited scale, it brings global influences to our every waking moment and that can be both good and bad.

Yet when it comes to investments in local arts and culture, tech is seldom at the forefront. The big local investments in culture tend to be bricks and mortar, new entertainment districts and theaters, surely if we build it they will come! To be fair, sometimes that is appropriate, but it is no longer the only tool in our belt. Technology provides new opportunities and possibilities. Disruptive new technology-driven business models (Uber, Airbnb, Amazon) have demonstrated that new bricks and mortar are not the only answer. Sometimes you just need to innovate and optimize things that already exist.

Virtually every community has designated leaders and advocates for local music, arts and culture. These leaders need to be thoughtful and deliberate about using technology as a catalyst for local musicians and artists who play a key role in building local culture. In this series of blogs I will explore ideas for how arts organizations can update their thinking and develop progressive new digital strategies that both protect and build our local culture.

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A Quick Look Back at 2022

Derek Manns — Fri, 13 Jan 2023 20:43:00 +0000

2022 had an arts renaissance. Or at least it felt that way to us at Stagehand. It was a year of collaboration with arts champions. It was also a year where we won a national award for our work with Music Mile!

We kicked it off working with Calgary Arts Development and their Chinook Blast Winter festival. There was music in the Core Shopping Centre, on C-Train platforms and scattered throughout Downtown Calgary.

We partnered with CMLC and the East Village to help them program Hygge Hutt in C-Square. Despite the winter challenges we managed to have artists performing from January to the end of March. CMLC also ran a music program during the summer at the East Village Headquarters. Every Saturday afternoon, there were musical artists to entertain the people strolling the river walk.

Stagehand worked with the Calgary Downtown Association to activate Lot 6 in the west end with music on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays throughout the summer, as well as along the Stephen Avenue Pedestrian Mall.

7th Avenue was alive with more than the C-Train for our Autumn Activations. There was live music at City Hall, the 6th Street train station, in the courtyard at Brookfield Place, as well as at South Bow Park.

One of our most exciting partnerships was with the City of Calgary. We brought forward the idea of activating Calgary’s downtown during weekday lunch hours by utilizing local musicians to fill office towers, food courts and the +15 walkway with music. “DowntownVibe” began Phase 1 in the spring. The City was encouraged by the results so we ran Phase 2 from September until the end of the year which included 153 performances, with 60 artists at 42 different locations! Property managers were happy to have easy access to the many talented musicians that inhabit our city. Tenants and the public surveyed were thrilled to have live music showing up in unexpected places as part of their day.

Stagehand began a relationship with the Calgary Public Library during the darkest days of the pandemic. They were keen to be a part of “The Music Mile” and so with our help, we connected the two organizations. Musicians began performing both inside and outside the Central Library. We continued working with them this year and expanded to the Memorial Park Library twice a week.

Our relationship with the Music Mile Society garnered us a national award from the Business/Arts organization. Stagehand founder Derek Manns and Music Mile President Rob Skeet flew to Toronto to accept the award. We received the Community Impact Award for partnering with Music Mile to use technology to help musicians earn money during the pandemic. We find ourselves in pretty good company bringing home this award; the previous winner was Netflix!

2022 was an eventful and busy year for Stagehand. We built solid new partnerships and strengthened existing ones. Data infrastructure may not be sexy (depends who you ask), but connecting artists and businesses certainly is.

We hope this art renaissance is here to stay. We plan to continue to create more opportunities for artists in both traditional and non traditional spaces while bringing culture to all walks of life.

By the numbers

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Bringing culture and vitality to downtown Calgary

Derek Manns — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 15:39:00 +0000

DowntownVibe, a joint project of Stagehand and the City of Calgary, is an ongoing lunch hour music fest featuring talented local musicians performing in unconventional downtown spaces.

Pre-pandemic, Stagehand worked with the Calgary and Edmonton Airports to host over 3000 live performances in a single year. A staggering number, the YYC VP at the time bragged that the airport had become the largest live music venue in the city! The airports discovered that working with local musicians brings a glimpse of local culture, humanity and energy into a space that can be seen as stressful.

The goal of DowntownVibe is to bring more vitality back to a downtown core battered by the pandemic and a downturn in oil before that. What better way to energize your day than to experience the talent of local and often little known artists.

Kudos to folks at the City like Thom Mahler, Jennifer Thompson and Ben Brackett for supporting this local initiative. Kudos to the property managers like Manulife, Morguard, Brookfield, Colliers and Aspen (and more joining every day) for embracing this opportunity. Kudos to the libraries for bringing music into their hushed spaces.

Find upcoming performances at downtownvibe.ca. Performances are welcome spaces: Drop in, stay for a song or a whole set. As the temperature drops and the days grow shorter, it’s an easy way to bring a little extra light and warmth into your day.

Stagehand is a Calgary-based tech company that connects artists with venues. If you are a property manager and would like to get involved, send a note to info@stagehand.app. If you are an artist go to stagehand.app, set up a free profile and apply to be part of the action.

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Clicks and Bricks

Derek Manns — Mon, 07 Jun 2021 14:57:00 +0000

Written by Derek Manns and Dan Duguay

“Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking of them”. Alfred Whitehead.

It can be called infrastructure…

Most people recognize the value of the arts, they make the world more beautiful and interesting and they are one of the fundamental building blocks for culture. But the arts is a challenging industry and the pandemic has only made things worse.

Traditionally when a municipality wants to support the arts they spend money on bricks and mortar. We build performance halls, galleries and museums, we might even create an “entertainment district” with hopes of engaging the public.

Spending money on physical infrastructure tends to be the most obvious thing to do, but there is an argument for a different, or maybe a parallel approach. Consider this quote from futurist and author Tom Goodwin, “Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content. Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory. And Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate. Something interesting is happening.” In the same way that there will always be a need for hotels, there will always be a need for theatres and cultural centres, but it is fascinating how Airbnb organized latent and under-utilized accommodation capacity seemingly out of thin air. The key word here is “organized”, Airbnb aggregated an army of hosts and provided process and consistency that made it easy for anyone with a spare room to behave like and compete with hotels. In case you missed it, Airbnb went public last year and their current valuation is over $90B, apparently somebody thinks it’s a good idea!

The same can be done with the arts. Culture doesn’t just happen in theatres, it happens in small clubs, community centres, coffee shops, microbreweries, city streets, airports, +15’s and parks. All of the above are to the arts what spare rooms are to Airbnb. What the arts lack is consistent infrastructure. Ask any musician about the countless times they have filled out yet another form that provides the same information in a slightly different format to apply for festivals, programs or grants. Or ask the owner of a microbrewery who has tried to bring music into the tap room on Friday nights. There is no way to easily access the local inventory of talent unless you are already well connected in the live music industry. Alternatively you could hire a booker, but for a casual music venue that model seldom works.

What if we redirected a bigger portion of the millions of dollars that goes into bricks and mortar and really got serious about enabling the digital infrastructure that makes it easy for non-traditional venues to program their own space? Stagehand has worked with many non-traditional venues and what is fascinating is that when the basics of finding and booking talent becomes easy, people start to innovate. At the Calgary Airport they went from music only on special occasions to one of the most active live music programs of any airport in the world! One stage quickly became four, they experimented with musicians at the security line and they had musicians welcoming travellers on baggage carousels. Gravity Cafe, Stagehand’s first coffee shop, started hosting live music 5 nights a week and Half Hitch Brewing, Stagehand’s first microbrewery, hosted 100 performances in their first year!

Right now a lot of commercial real estate companies are nervous. COVID has hit everyone hard and we need to draw people back into malls, office towers, small businesses and restaurants. Wouldn’t it be great to provide some new infrastructure to activate these spaces and re-engage the public? Infrastructure isn’t always sexy, but done right it forms the basis of growth and innovation. We all could use some of that right now!

Stagehand is a Calgary based technology company that builds infrastructure that makes it easy for creative cities, businesses and organizations to work with local artists.

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Calgary’s +15 Walkway as a Music Venue?

Derek Manns — Wed, 21 Apr 2021 17:09:00 +0000

Written by Dan Duguay & Derek Manns

In a recent blog, Chief Flaneuring Officer at Everyday Tourist, Richard White, mused about “crazy” ideas to make Calgary more interesting. One of his big crazy ideas that caught our eye was to activate the +15 walkway in Calgary’s downtown core, essentially turning the walkways into an entertainment hub.

We love the idea, in fact last year, before the pandemic, Stagehand was asked by Calgary Arts Development to fulfill a request. The request had three requirements: music, downtown, and winter. Downtown and music is easy to solve, but generally music doesn’t happen in winter in Calgary, unless it’s inside. Our solution was to figure out how to bring music to downtown indoor public places and the most obvious location to start was the +15 walkway.

This turned out to be easier said than done. To have music in the spaces between the buildings known as the +15s, a lot of red tape needed to be unravelled. There was permitting, liability insurance, security issues and traffic flow considerations. We found out that it’s illegal for an artist to accept tips (busk) in the +15’s and we discovered that the last time the city had made any changes to the rules, Trudeau was Prime Minister, but his first name was Pierre.

In doing the work of trying to get music into the walkways, we learned that some initial research had been done by the city, and 8 locations were identified as potentially viable to have live music performances. The challenge for us was to line up all the property management companies with the City’s roads department (the department in charge of the +15’s). There were discrepancies as to whether $5 million or $2 million was needed and we learned that the insurance companies would earn almost as much as the artists (are that many people really going to trip on guitar cords?). We were planning on collecting data via surveys from passers-by to see if they appreciated the initiative, tips would not be accepted, but an honorarium would have been paid. We were getting set to launch when along came the lockdown…

Richard White thinks it’s time for an update and we agree. With travel all but prohibited, we have all come to appreciate “local” and that includes local talent. In 2019, Stagehand worked with the Calgary Airport to help them host over 1600 performances by local musicians (here is another Blog by Richard about music at the airport). And make no mistake these are talented artists who regularly play local clubs like the Ironwood, and have also played in Nashville, recorded multiple albums and toured all over the world. Many people told us that the experience of having a live musician at YYC changed the entire feel of the space and created a lasting first impression (“I thought I landed in Nashville”). We could do the same in the +15! When the pandemic ends and people begin to head back downtown to their offices, we want to see artists dotting the +15’s, creating energy and excitement in those corridors. And if you happen to hear a talented local artist on your way to get a coffee and that provides the catalyst to tear yourself away from Netflix and head down to Music Mile on Friday night, even better!

New York City runs a program called Music Under New York that has 30 stages and over 300 partner musicians. We can do something similar in the +15’s maybe we call it “Music Over Calgary”. It would bring artists a much needed revenue stream and inject some culture into the downtown core. If Calgary wants to be a 4 season city, this is an innovative way to leverage some of the unique resources we have at our disposal. Let’s get crazy, let’s do it!

P.S. If you are a company and would like to sponsor an initiative like this please get in touch (info@stagehand.app). We can help you get some visibility while putting money directly into the pockets of talented local artists.

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How live music can compete in a new era

Derek Manns — Wed, 26 Aug 2020 21:50:00 +0000

Written by Derek Manns, Co-founder & CEO, Stagehand

Recently I have been listening to Dan Carlin’s podcast, Hardcore History. In his series about World War I, Carlin discusses how, for the first time, technology was a major factor in war. In 1914, the technological revolution was already underway and new inventions like aircraft, submarines, artillery and machine guns played an important and devastating role. Militaries that relied on old technology and paradigms often paid a terrible price.

The same thing is happening today in the local live music industry. Large tech companies have moved in on old cultural paradigms and the local music scene (among other cultural entities) is under attack. If you have any doubt as to how lopsided the battle is, consider that Apple recently spent over $6 Billion on content for their new Apple TV+ offering, Amazon, who owns Prime Video, is valued at $1.5 Trillion, and Netflix, which focuses exclusively on developing and streaming content, is a $200 Billion dollar company. All of this programming is competing for our time and attention and it is all coming at us from multiple angles including the smartphones that most of us carry 24/7. How can a local independent club possibly compete? At best the local music club represents a valiant guerilla fighter who wins a few battles but, with current course and speed will ultimately lose the war.

But here is the good news:

Abundance of supply

Every city has an abundance of talented and diverse artists. I am not going to debate if today’s music is better than yesterday’s music, but what is undeniably true is that today’s technology has enabled more artists than ever before to create and distribute their music. These new artists are eager to perform and even though they may not yet be a household name, they are talented and motivated to succeed.

Local is “in”

In 2020, brand experts say that consumers are looking for “brands that support local authenticity”. Local represents pride in community, shared values, and social cohesion. Local beer, local coffee, and local food are all trending and now it is time for local music to take centre stage. Better still, buying close to home provides the opportunity to avoid the middleman and disintermediation puts more money directly in the pockets of the creators.

Technology can help

Platforms like Airbnb have shown that anyone with a room to rent can compete with the hotel industry and Uber has done the same to the taxi industry. Airbnb and Uber provide the platform that organizes the masses and provides consistency and confidence to consumers. The local music industry needs the same thing. Individually, your local live music club may not be able to compete with Netflix, but collectively they can! If all the local music clubs leverage and promote local talent in a consistent way, they can level the playing field.

Pragmatically, getting an industry including independent businesses to work together is difficult. I often use the analogy of plumbing when I talk about the infrastructure required to support the local music industry. Imagine if you lived in a country where there was no central plumbing. To get water, you would need to dig your own well. That is what it is like for the local music scene today. Even though we are all drawing talent from the same source, everyone has their own infrastructure for finding, contracting, promoting, and paying artists. Imagine if hiring a musician was as easy as turning on the tap. If there was open, efficient, cost-effective, and reliable infrastructure, why would anyone go through the trouble of drilling and maintaining their own well?

From need comes innovation

The pandemic has put 96 per cent of live music venues on the edge of bankruptcy and this is forcing the industry to adapt. What if we emerged from the pandemic with “pipe in the ground” and anyone that wanted to tap into the live music infrastructure could easily get connected? Traditional music venues would be more efficient allowing them to focus on their product and their customers rather than administrative tasks. Non-traditional music venues like Airports and microbreweries can improve their customer experience and create new opportunities for artists. The general public will know where to find live music and have greater confidence in the product that is being presented.

The COVID-19 pandemic is another blow to an industry that was already struggling… but live music is not going away. It will continue to find its way, but it could really use some enabling technology of its own.

At Stagehand, we are optimistic about the future of the local live music industry. We are a technology company that is building reusable infrastructure for the arts. We are celebrating local musicians and venues. We are innovating on ways that live music can create unique experiences.

Download this post: Stagehand_-_Live_Music_In_A_New_Era.pdf

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Repositioning Local Live Music

Derek Manns — Wed, 15 Jul 2020 10:13:00 +0000

Written by Derek Manns, Co-founder & CEO, Stagehand

What is it about the term “local” in regards to music that invokes a negative reaction?

When I started Stagehand, I was an outsider to the music business. As I became more involved in the industry, one thing that surprised me was that casually referring to someone as a “local” musician was perceived as a put-down. I can see where that perception comes from, but it seems to be out of step with other forms of culture. The notion of “local” is trending—local beer, local coffee, locally-sourced ingredients. It’s time to change this perception for music as well.

Local music is surprisingly good!

To all of my musician friends, please know that I say that with tongue in cheek. Anyone who is a regular in the local music scene would not be surprised at the level of talent, but let’s face it, most people are not regulars and those are the people we need to attract to grow the industry.

Last year, before the COVID shutdown, I was talking to one of the artists that regularly performed at the Calgary International Airport. She laughed when she told me how people would come up to her and say, “You’re actually pretty good!” Of course she’s good, she’s recorded in Nashville and toured in Europe! Just because an artist is not headlining a 20,000+ seat arena does not mean they aren’t talented. That is like saying that you need to go to Paris to have a really good meal. The more you get to know the local music scene the more you realize there is only a fine line that separates the talent on stage at the local 200-seat club from the talent that plays to a sold-out arena.

So why don’t people take in the local live music scene more often? Here are a few reasons:

Competition. Competition here does not refer to other live music venues. The real competition for our attention is the multiple screens that we spend hours staring at. Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Apple TV—competitors designed to keep us cocooned at home and on the couch.
Ignorance. I remember talking to a woman who lived in the suburbs and whose children had just gotten to the age where she could leave them with a babysitter. She talked about how she loved jazz and wanted to get out again, but there just wasn’t much going on. She was wrong! There was lots of jazz, but she needed to know where to look to find it. This would likely involve searching multiple websites to find a show and even then, her options would probably be names that she didn’t recognize. Her choice came down to paying for a sitter so she could venture out to see a jazz performance who she wasn’t familiar with, or she could stay at home with her kids and watch Game of Thrones.
Perception. This comes back to the misperception that local music is somehow inferior. It is not! Yes, it is different, but it’s different in a good way. It’s more intimate, less costly, and you even have a better chance of meeting the band between sets or after the show.

Right now, local music is the only live music, making it all the more important to support the local music scene and local artists. Choose to see a show at a local venue, listen to a playlist featuring local artists, or purchase merch from a local band.

Dare to celebrate local!

The post Repositioning Local Live Music appeared first on Stagehand.

Stay safe, we will get through this!

Derek Manns — Tue, 17 Mar 2020 19:18:00 +0000

What a difference a few days make! A week and a half ago I left for New Orleans for a mix of business and pleasure and this week my wife and I are back in Calgary in self-isolation (we feel fine). Everyone I know has been impacted by this both professionally and personally. In particular, I feel for venues and artists who are being forced into indefinite hiatus. We have been using Stagehand to track aggregate artist compensation over the past several weeks. Two weeks ago earnings dropped by 13.2%, last week it was another 12.4%, and, based on cancellations I am seeing this week, it is no surprise that it is going to get worse. We don’t pretend to have any silver bullets, but here are some things we at Stagehand are focusing on:

Take solace in the fact that we are ALL in this together and we will get through it
Focus on what you can control and do what you can do
Help your neighbour

We have started reaching out to industry organizations, government, and, of course, our artists and venue friends. We are over three years into this Stagehand adventure; this is a second career for me personally and I learn something new every day. In my old corporate world, there was severance, EI, and HR. In this new world, artists and venue owners operate without a net, so the potential for impact is more severe. How can you support them? In the short term, buying gift certificates from your favourite venues or merch from your favourite artists can provide some immediate cash flow relief.

We will learn from this crisis and we would like to hear from you. If you have ideas for how we might help please reach out at info@stagehand.app

Stay safe!

Derek Manns

Co-founder & CEO

Stagehand

The post Stay safe, we will get through this! appeared first on Stagehand.