Bandsintown’s Fabrice Sergent on The Live Music Industry Podcast
Fabrice Sergent, co-founder and managing partner of Bandsintown, joins Prism CEO Matt Ford on The Live Music Industry Podcast to explore how the world’s largest concert discovery platform helps artists, venues, and promoters build an audience while retaining control of their data and direct communications with fans.
“opening people’s hearts and minds”
On the podcast, Fabrice Sergent shares how “when I heard that 2 million people who wanted to buy tickets to Taylor Swift couldn’t, I was here saying that I have a lot of artists who would love to have some of your fans buy tickets to see them.”
“Believe me, the level of excitement, pleasure, joy, and connection with others can be really strong in a small venue with a small artist. It can be really rewarding. So don’t be upset that you missed the opportunity to see that big artist,” he continued. “For me, discovery is still a challenge. It’s about more than providing efficiencies. It’s about opening people’s hearts and minds.”
In addition to this music-first ethos that puts new artists and independent venues on an equal footing with the majors, Bandstown‘s ability to help grow the live music audience comes from its massive scale:
- 650,000 registered artists
- 65,000 registered venues, festivals, and promoters
- 88 million registered fans
- 1.5 billion monthly active users
- partnerships with Spotify, Apple, Shazam, Google, Mircosoft Bing, and more
- 5 billion personalized concert recommendations annually.
Two B2C platforms, Bandsintown Promoter and the new automated marketing solution, Bandsintown PRO, empower venues, festivals, and promoters to bypass algorithms, build their audience, and sell more tickets.
Podcast Highlights
Timestamps
- (01:45) Concert discovery platform
- (06:35) Different from streaming apps
- (09:45) Bandsintown artist platform
- (14:15) Venue and promoter platform
- (15:45) Integrations and partnerships
- (17:30) The origin story
- (20:10) Bandsintown acquisition history
- (22:55) Business growth trajectory
- (25:00) Fabrice’s entrepreneurial history
- (27:00) Live music market equilibrium
- (33:15) Market diversity and vibrancy
- (35:25) Supporting local venues and acts
- (36:45) Increased concert attendance
- (39:15) Leaning in even more to AI
- (43:10) Vision for the future of the industry
Listen to this special Live Music Industry Podcast here or on your favorite podcast platform.
FIND MORE FROM MUSIC BIZ WEEKLY & OTHER GREAT MUSIC BUSINESS AND INDIE MUSICIAN PODCAST EPISODES HERE
Bruce Houghton
Emphasizing the importance of supporting local musicans and venues, Fabrice disscuses how this fossters diversity and vibrancy in the music industry.