I'm currently part of a small team running a lil bitty DIY venue. We're nowhere near needing all this info yet, but we are looking at expanding soon and this is all super important info!! Ty
Best advice I can say is branch out. Comic Con Events, comedians, whatever. Just get things in your venue and keep money flowing. The worst thing to see is a venue vacant on a friday night. Where is the venue located?
Thank you for the positivity Ryan. I really truly hope it was helpful. The business is so competitive that no one likes to share information. So I wanted to try and get something out there for people.
That's all I know haha, I just knew there wasn't a lot of honest information out there about this stuff and wanted to share what I've learned. Thank you for the kind words!
Thank you Casey!! This is awesome! I’m from Provo, Utah! We have a lot of venues here around town and they’re all very good at giving a lot of respect and having great hospitality for local bands. I’m hoping to start a venue here too, and this video was quite inspiring.
That is awesome Dallin! I wish I could say the area I'm in. It's a lot more of a how can I suck as much money out of you as possible and then I'll dispose of you.
You dont even know how much this video helped me as I'm entering event management with a passion for concerts! Thank you for sharing the info and template, absolutely loved the video from start to finish! :)
I am really glad it helped! When I was working at the venue I couldn't find a single video about promoting. So I wanted to make this because I think the more information out there the more music can thrive! Please let me know what events you are doing I love to see what people are doing
It's from experience like yourself. It's interesting when you work in a bar or a venue as a lower level employee. My boss had no grasp of reality of how things operated. He had experience as a touring bass player for many years back in the 80s/90s but it's amazing how little he knew about how venues worked. The lower level people see a lot of the day to day issues that make a venue go out of business. The owners typically just go by without any real clue as to why it's not working.
if I could love react this video, I would. you did such an amazing job at explaining so many processes and giving advice about them. I personally have experienced many of the stories you have shared about doing shows over the years. this video is the most detailed I've seen. the end when you had spoke about your friend and what you had to deal with your boss was so personal and powerful. I appreciate the time you took putting this together so well and sharing your experiences. cheers.
React away my friend! Thank you for the positive comment. I made some videos years ago and did a very immature job at explaining. I always felt I could of done better so I really wanted to put this out. You can see this isn't a booming youtube channel and I know it's not a topic that will bring in millions of views, but I know where you've been and know how it feels. It's a slimy industry and I just want to get information out there so people can understand.
Sammy I hope it was helpful! I struggled to find any information like this when I made that first video, and I know someone out there would benefit from it. Thank you for watching!
Thank you so much for this video, it's a dream of mine to start my own music venue and you have given me so many valuable tools to begin planning. You seem like a really extraordinary guy.
Amena thank you for the kind words that is so kind of you. I am glad it has helped at least getting you thinking. I learned a lot in the short time I was at a concert venue. It's definitely a difficult industry. Have you started promoting shows? Or just putting on concerts at random places?
Justin, it warms my heart you including Denny. What an incredible man who helped so many musicians throughout his life. But there are a lot of those unknown heroes out there. I hope this was helpful Justin! Thank you for watching!
This was a great video. This sounds like an impossible industry to be in. My dream is to own my own venue and this was enlightening. The biggest question for me is the size of the venue to go with. Something small and more intimate or something like The Fillmore.
Honestly it's easier to start small. Way more room to grow and learn from. When you got a large venue it has more daily cost. Also it's good to start out doing concert promoting. renting a place that you can have a concert at. If you can start to really build events doing that then getting your own place is good
hey bro! i have your next drink if you happen to be in kansas i learned a lot about you, plust collective soul!!! i love it, you obviously have talent bro!
Dude that is so kind of you! I honestly don't have a crazy amount of experience but I learned a lot from Denny, that guy was amazing and just knew his stuff. I went to work every day with him and took in every single word like it was my final exam paper or something. Please let me know if you are using any of this and if you are booking grounds or not. Best of luck to you Dane of GHRecords!
He was truly one of a kind. I could tell lots of stories about Denny. He stood up for what was right. He was partners with a guy for years. Found out the guy was scraping money off the tickets. Lying to the bands on how many they sold then pocketing the money. So Denny left him and went on his own. In this industry I haven't met a lot of people who would have done that (sadly). He was actually just the booking agent they hired. The venue I was at had three owners. Which caused some pretty sitcom like days. Not so funny when you are in it, but the owner who was there every day was... a character to say the least. He liked to belittle the employees, to make himself feel like a tough guy. The sad thing is they fired Denny, because they wanted money NOW. Denny explained to them that being successful in this industry means longterm investments. You won't be making large profits until you put in the work. Originally they agreed, but my boss was a reactionary guy. He fired Denny hired (ironically the Denny's former partner). What really made me agree is that my boss spent months telling everyone that Denny was just out of it and couldn't do it anymore. He ran his name through the mud because he was an impatient child who didn't understand business. The place went under QUICK! After they fired Denny I got out about 6 months later. They only lasted another year after that. It was sad, it could of been a great venue. But like I compared in the end of the video. People don't always look at the numbers. They want glory or the big acts they love, and they end up losing money left and right until they can't do it anymore. (I will say the other two owners were good guys, they just weren't as involved in the day to day as they should of been. They were way smarter, and would of kept that place running smoothly)
Honestly finding the venues a decent distance from you is good. I'd look up regularly places in chicago, st. louis, indianapolis, Des Moine... its a lot of work but it really helps when you are first starting out. Finding those groups who look like they'd like to get more gigs. Just check their rosters, espcially the ones a ways in advance. Besides that Pollstar might not be super updated with their tour schedule. But it's possible. Also just being aware of what up and coming bands are out there. Denny (who I talk about in the video) was a master and just looking up bands on youtube and finding these unknown artists. I will never forget this band that had a song called "pumping blood" and he said they are going to go somewhere. video had maybe 2,000 view. A year later that song was on a panteen commercial. Millions of views on that video after that. Eventually you will get connections with bands and they will start letting you know when they are looking to book venues. That's when you know you are doing well. But it honestly takes a long time to get to that point. You just can't give up. I think the venues who just get tired and stop trying to find artists on their own are the ones who fall quickly.
What would I be looking at if the venue was held once a year, possibly a 3 day show, and multiple acts? 100,000+ attendance. How would anyone go about starting this?
If you've never promoted in the past. To be frank, you're gonna lose every dime to your name if you try to pull this off from the start. I've seen if happen time after time. It's like a kid learning to play guitar. You can't start with Eruption by Van Halen. You have to learn a G chord first. Or at least how to play a couple strings and get your placement correct on the neck. Those type of events have to start small. Start with local acts. Don't try and grab Jellyroll or some giant name year one. You'll probably lose all your money, and if the event is a disaster your looking at lawsuits up the rear. So you have to start out small. Get comfortable running events. And as you go you can build up to a festival. Also most of those people who run festivals have the names because they've built relationships with them for years and years. If you have been doing it awhile that is a different story.
