Industry news & advice blog

After a successful first year, live business platform BandWagon is kicking of 2013 with a slew of added features as well as a new look and a widget especially built for promoters and festival organisers. The staunchly anti pay-to-play company, that connects artists and promoters, has also been selected as one of 25 UK companies to showcase in a trade mission to SXSW 2013.
 

Launched just one year ago, BandWagon has been working with live music promoters and venues to simplify the gig booking and event management process. The new features, especially the submission widget, have met favourably with the festival community as well. Inverness multi-venue festival goNORTH and 26k capacity arts and music festival Secret Garden Party have been some of the first to add their stamp of approval with the widget embedded on their websites.
 

As well as embedding on their own website, the submission widget also allows the promoter/festival to receive and ingest thousands of standardised submissions with full artist/band information including SoundCloud audio that can be filtered by genre, location and audio. The artist remains on the promoter/festival website when applying via a three-step application process. Promoters and Festival organisers can also create gig opportunities that are genre and location specific whilst curating their lineup by adding extra days and stages to each event.
 

A complete site re-design also offers a slick new interface and experience for both the artist and the promoter. The promoter’s tools on the platform have been expanded to include the submission widget, a public event page, which can be easily created so fans can see the full gig details at a glance; and the ability to add non BandWagon artists to a line-up so all the artists can be notified through one system.
 

Both artists and promoters will be able to eliminate ambiguity surrounding gigs with the ability to curate load in times, sound checks and stage times – as well as set lengths for an entire line-up.  A new feature particularly for artists offers the opportunity to be recommended directly to a promoter as an opportunity is created.
 

As margins get tighter and the music industry looks for new revenue streams, BandWagon is taking a firm stance on pay-to-play ‘initiatives’. Distancing itself from any company looking to profit from bands trying to get gigs, BandWagon will incorporate its own community agreement into its terms and conditions, disallowing any such activity on any of its gigs.
 

This trailblazing approach has piqued the interest of UKTI as BandWagon was selected to join 25 companies on a trade mission to SXSW interactive. The company will participate in trade shows, networking events and generally represent Britain as one of the UKs most innovative digital music companies.
 

Said Stan Mcleod, co-founder and CEO, BandWagon “We are excited to launch the new BandWagon with some exciting new features, festival partners and more opportunities in the pipeline. It’s important to us that BandWagon pushes for more transparency in the live music industry. The anti-pay-to-play agreement is just the start in our mission to promote a fairer live community.”
 

“BandWagon is a fantastic platform and we are delighted to be working with them to manage the application process for this year’s edition of goNORTH”, said Festival Director, Shaun Arnold. “Finding a robust, artist-friendly submission partner is essential for our event, and BandWagon has proved a great solution for our festival”. 

 

BandWagon is the UK's fastest growing live music business platform in the world, bringing together live music promoters with bands, DJs and solo artists to create and book gigs and shows.
 

Adopting a freemium model, BandWagon co-operates with live music promoters and venues by simplifying the gig booking and event management process. Promoters create and manage multiple events. Bands and solo artists apply for/play various gig opportunities in their local area and further afield.
 

With 3,700 artists and 550 music promoters on board our easy-to-use platform, BandWagon has since its inception in 2012 created more than 2,000 opportunities for artists, resulting in over 1,500 deals.
 

Staunchly anti pay-to-play BandWagon seeks to nurture an organic live sector creating overall value for the artist, the promoter and the platform.