Live Performances & Touring

MUM Says: Music is social. Share it from live-streams, share it from stages big and small. Connecting directly, emotional vocal deliveries or feeling the air-pressure from an amplified kick drum, make the physical aspect of shared musical experience increase in value both concretely and in the abstract. This is where your knowledge of industry, IP, product and market all play together to make sure community and commodity are celebrated and reinforced.

Accurate venue research allows informed decisions to be made on the appropriateness of the venue for the intended performance.

Accurate venue research Identifies:

• Location of potential venues

• Audience demographic of potential venues

# In consultation with relevant people

The location of the venue is a considerable factor in the venue decision-making process. Location affects the patrons directly as accessibility impacts the travel arrangements of your audience. Other things to consider are: Parking / Availability, Surrounding venues, accommodation etc. A high-density location with plenty of public transport and parking is a more desirable location than one with the opposite factors. The brief for the event will also dictate the location.

The audience demographic affects the potential attendance for your performance, depending on the style of event and intended audience. Audiences can be pre-existing or targeted using marketing campaigns or internal company events etc.

Identify Venue/s:

• Operational capabilities

• Technical capabilities

• Regulatory, licensing or permit requirements

# use appropriate sources

Operational capabilities of a venue are the staff and day-to-day operation of the venue. It may also include: Maintenance, cleaning, etc. Technical capabilities of a venue include the installation of Audio and Visual equipment. This may impact your decision when researching appropriate venues for your event. Generally speaking most event-based venues contain some level of audio / visual equipment. For example: function rooms, theatres, clubs and pubs (who do live music).

Regulatory, licensing or permit requirements are all associated government and council approvals that need to be applied for or adhered to when running events. Usually, already established venues have pre-existing policies and procedures that adhere to government and council legislation.

Assess venues ability to cater to needs of:

• Audience

• Performers

The definition of a venue's ability to cater to the needs of audience and performers is simply the available floor space, WHS, staff numbers, staff policy and operational practices. Amenity location and capacity are also factors that contribute to a venue's ability to cater to audiences and performers. One example is a venue having a small performance space that doesn't fit more than a duo act with a large dance floor and 1 unisex bathroom. This scenario is less desirable than a venue with a larger stage and more amenities.

Disabled access is a factor.

Under 18 venue policy may be relevant to your intended event

Food / Beverage availability. Does the venue sell food / drink?

Compare and Assess suitability of venues based on market position.

• Consumer perception of a brand

• Product - In relation to competing brands

• Process of establishing image / identity of a brand

Market position is a venue standing within the local and regional culture. Venues develop a cultural standing and become recognised for certain aesthetic qualities. Some venues may cater to a specific audience, while others may have a broader reach. Market position may impact your venue selection quite significantly based on the performance you are booking. For example a poor venue choice for a string quartet may be the local pub. This venue may be better suited to a cover band or indie rock band, as the patrons are interested in that genre of music.

Maintain accurate records:

• Market position of venues (including costs)

As a booking person, it is a good idea to keep a record of venues for future reference. Generally if an event is a success, you will be inclined to book that venue again and build rapport with the venue operations manager / staff.

Data collection and storage:

There are many data storage methods to effectively compile venue data and be able to manipulate the data for business practices.

Records may come in the form of:

• Spreadsheets

• Saved emails

• Cloud-based storage / documents

• Phone app

• Other document system

Performance Brief & Liaise with venue

Liaise with relevant venue personnel - Performance compliments image and tone of the venue

The goal of booking a venue is to match the image and tone (aesthetic) of the venue to the style of performance. This is achieved by having a sound understanding of the artistic content of the performance and venue artistic understanding. In developing your understanding of a venue's aesthetic, it is relevant to attend the venue, talk with patrons, talk with staff and attend events to get a feel for the venue's demographic.

There will be communication between yourself and the venue negotiating terms of agreement for intended performances.

Confirm Artist Performance Agreement

Liaise with performers - venue complements style and genre of performance

In selecting the right venue for a performance, it is likely that the performer may have input into the venue selection process. It is important to be able to communicate ideas effectively and reach a beneficial conclusion. Venue selection may be undertaken with multiple venues to choose from and weigh up the positives and negatives of each. Sometimes venues have limited availability which may impact the decision-making process.

Risk analysis

• Safety and security

• Performances are financially viable

All venues must abide by WHS policy and procedure. As a booking person it is relevant to understand WHS requirements in a general context as there may be specific requirements from venue to venue. For example, one venue may have noise restrictions with operational policies, whereas another venue may have strict operating hours.

Generally speaking, with established venues, they will have safety and security pre-established. For venues with no existing WHS policy ie: the venue is a "dry" hire meaning it is a completely empty venue. There may need to be safety, WHS and legal responsibilities.

Financially viable performances are essentially events that take in more money than what goes out. Generally, venues work with booking agents to arrange a mutually beneficial financial agreement, however it often falls on raw ticket or door sales to make bottom-line margins. This is exclusively in the context of booking live music performances.

An easier, and more financially viable booking model is a fee for service model where a client may request a particular performance type (ie: solo acoustic act, string quartet, magician etc) and the fee is negotiated and paid up front.

The context of booking arrangements changes quite significantly from the live music context to other relevant performance bookings and will be expanded on in sessions 3-5.

Negotiate and confirm special arrangements

Negotiate and confirm special arrangements with the venue as required. Special arrangements may consist of a range of circumstances that may need to be factored into a venue negotiation.

These arrangements consist of:

• Special requests by performers (Extra production, staging, lighting, other)

• Audience requirements (Disability, special requests, food, beverage etc)

• Venue requests (access requirements, timeframes, other policies)

• Any relevant legislation / venue union requirements