Exploring Artist Development: New Acts, Risk & Bottom Line

For APA’s Adam Brill, who works with bands including Awolnation and Capital Cities, nothing compares to getting bands on the road early and often.

“By building relationships with fans and promoters early on, letting promoters be vocal pieces for seeing bands and speaking to other promoters, and fans speaking to fans creates this kind of grassroots feeling,” he said. “I feel that you’re going be opening a lot more eyeballs and doors by exploring territories and creating more of a dialogue that way.” Breaking acts is a team effort that requires careful coordination in terms of touring, so artists hit the right markets and the right sized venues at the right time.

Too often these days, Live Nation’s Sean Striegel sees bands that aren’t quite ready for headlining trying to step into it their first or second play in a market.

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“Usually that backfires and it creates a lot of tension between the promoter and the agent,” he said. “I agree it’s important to get the act on the road as soon as possible but I think a lot of times its better to go into a support slot.”

Moderator Roger LeBlanc of Madison Entertainment wondered how you deal with that tension and Striegel explained it all goes back to the relationships you’ve built. You need to be able to have a frank conversation about what’s better for the artist – playing in a half-empty larger room, or going for the underplay by packing out a smaller room and creating buzz for the next time the band comes around.

Finding new talent was another hot topic for panelists, and Danny Wimmer Presents’ Adam Arnkoff said he frequently gets calls from publishers, agents and managers about artists.

Others, like Adam Voith of The Billions Corporation, like to rely on a few trusted people in the business including the artists with whom they’re working.

“It’s very useful if some of the early fans of a new act are in successful bands themselves. That’s the way most bands get on a tour is if the headliner likes their music and brings them along because they want to showcase it to their fans,” Voith said. “That seems to be a really good breeding ground for seeing what an artist who has no presence can do in front of a room of people who are hungry music fans – playing to them cold. There’s no barometer better than that.”

Striegel echoed that sentiment that the support acts for larger bands coming through New York are often the next artists he’s working with. While the ways of getting information out there about artists have changed over time, there’s still one constant in the concert industry that Jake Gold of The Management Trust thought was key – you have to be a great live band.

“Great bands will rise to the top, and people will want to go see them,” he said, noting that too many acts are making records and touring nationally before developing their own constituencies regionally. “There’s no reason for a band from New York or New Jersey to be touring LA from the beginning. They should be doing Boston to DC, back and forth, then add in Chicago,” he said. “If you don’t grow organically, you’re not going to have a career.”