I Did It My Way: 2022 Survey Of Live Music’s Indie Sector

With all of the havoc the pandemic heaped on the live business with the almost total shutdown of live events, subsequently followed by layoffs, venues shuttering and an increase in mental health issues, one bright spot has been the industry’s resilience and can-do attitude. This has been especially apparent in the independent sector, from venue owners like xBk’s Tobi Parks banding together to form the National Independent Venue Association and lobby Congress to “Save Our Stages” to the formation of new agencies like Arrival Artists.

As part of our Special Independents issue, Pollstar reached out to several indie pros to get their take on the state of the business, surveying folks from the venue, agency/management and festival worlds.

Tobi Parks
xBk nightclub in Des Moines, Iowa / Owner
No. of Employees: 15

More than two years after the pandemic caused the biggest disruption to live concerts and touring this industry has ever seen, how is your business doing thus far in 2022?
Tobi Parks: xBk opened in September 2019, so we were only open for 6 months prior to the pandemic. xBk is continuing to grow month over month, but we don’t have much of a pre-pandemic record from which to compare. There are a lot of things that I still find concerning (a lot of late buying, higher no show rates, cancellations, etc). Though the industry is functioning, we’re still not quite back to “normal” at the club level. However, I am optimistic things will continue to improve over time.

In 2022, what do you consider your biggest successes and your biggest challenges?
Both the biggest success and the biggest challenge is continuing to stay open! Things are still not back to “normal” and for a small cap club like xBk (250) margins are already very tight. Keeping staff and artists healthy is my main priority. We’re a tiny staff so if one or two folks go down with COVID, it’s a huge impact on us. We’re continuing to navigate the environment and making things work.

What opportunities do you see for your business?
The biggest opportunity on which I’m focused right now is being a founding member of D Tour, an indie venue and promoter collective. Being able to collaborate and work with like-minded venue owners and promoters from across the country to streamline booking and help develop artists is extraordinarily exciting. We have a real opportunity drive more bookings to indie venues and help the indie ecosystem compete on a larger scale.

What do you still love about being an independent business in the live industry?
I love that we are carving our own path and have opportunities to make change in ways that would be difficult to do if we were not independent.

What changes would you like to see in the live industry?
My answer will always be more diversity, equity, and inclusion in this business. The industry is very much dominated by cis white men. That needs to change!

Erik Selz
Arrival Artists / Agent, Partner
No. of Employees: 26

More than two years after the pandemic caused the biggest disruption to live concerts and touring this industry has ever seen, how is your business doing thus far in 2022?
Erik Selz: Busy. We’ve had to balance the needs of artists having been off the road for 18 months – some with three new albums in tow – with the financial realities of the consumer, who can’t absorb 31 shows per month. Robust packaging has been and will continue to be key. Shows came back in a more consistent fashion 3-4 months earlier than we expected, we booked 1700+ shows in the 2021 calendar year, and are on pace to more than double that in 2022.

In 2022, what do you consider your biggest successes and your biggest challenges?
The ascent of Goose, Mt. Joy, and Khruangbin (all three of whom landed on Pollstar’s 2021 Year End Top 200 North American Tours list) has been thrilling. We’ve signed a few dozen new artists – many hand-in-hand with our European partners at ATC – including Genesis Owusu (who went on to sweep the Australian equivalent of the Grammys – the Arias), David Cross (Comedian/star of Arrested Development), Amyl and the Sniffers, and incredible new talents like Billie Marten and Trousdale.

The challenge heading into 2023 will be to thread the needle between the increased cost of touring on all fronts, with the realities of the economy writ large, and consequently the need to be extra mindful of ticket prices. Our friends at Thalia Hall in Chicago ran shows for 53 consecutive nights across April, May & June, and my guess is that’s closer to a rule rather than an exception. The appetite for live music feels as strong as ever, but has a ceiling!

What opportunities do you see for your business?
We were fortunate to bring in several staff with previous agency experience who are now beginning to construct their own artist rosters. Roster curation is a true art, and we’ll lean on our collective wisdom to guide these individuals in building profitable/sustainable rosters from the jump.

What do you still love about being an independent business in the live industry?
For me, this is a return to form, having QB’d Red Ryder Entertainment for nearly two decades before folding into Windish in 2014. At Arrival we aren’t chasing scale or volume, instead focusing on being the best possible laboratory for artist development, relying on our instincts and the insights gained from positions at both boutique and major agencies. To think that my experience carries all the answers in an ever-changing industry is naive – I’m incredibly proud of the extent to which we have made Arrival organizationally flat, welcoming and encouraging opinions, perspectives, A&R ideas from all.

What changes would you like to see in the live industry?
When I started booking in the 1990s, most of the money was on the dealsheet, FMFs weren’t yet a thing, and ticketing surcharges were minimal. The ballooning dollar volume on both of those fronts results in the artist occasionally walking with as little as ~20% of true gross (when factoring in all of the add-ons). I miss the 1990s!

Shay Jasper
Trio Presents, LLC / Co-owner & Producer
No. of Employees: 4

More than two years after the pandemic caused the biggest disruption to live concerts and touring this industry has ever seen, how is your business doing thus far in 2022?
Shay Jasper: The disruption to the industry put everything on pause for us for nearly 15 months. At times, it felt like normal operations were just as far away as all of the farsighted hopes and dreams we had for our company when Tracy Lane and I launched Trio Presents in December of 2019 and purchased the rights to Roots N Blues Festival after its 13th year of operation. Using that mindset, we established a wish list of functional changes that would build a better experience for passholders, staff, volunteers and artists, no matter how unachievable or expensive they seemed.

We’re now just three months away from the 15th presentation of Roots N Blues Festival and we feel like we’re on more solid ground than ever before. We have expanded our demographic and have reached numbers from our previously-held highest pass sales year. We’ve hired additional staff at competitive wages and are professionalizing a lot of areas that were previously one hundred percent volunteer based.

In 2022, what do you consider your biggest successes and your biggest challenges?
Our greatest success is booking a lineup and creating a space that represents our entire community. We’ve prioritized making everyone feel welcome, safe and comfortable at this event. Through expanding our presented genres, elevating the art and amenities onsite, and identifying the widespread barriers to live music, we can be an influential part of the successful future of this industry.

Our greatest challenge, like so many other small event production companies, is maintaining industry success without compromising our status as an independent, women-owned business. Our creative control, authentic voices and close-held values are critical to the work we put into this event.

What opportunities do you see for your business?
Tracy and I continue to revisit the wish list we made during our uncertainty and are always game planning, budgeting and asking ourselves hard questions. We see so much value in participating in every aspect of our business, from selling merch to cleaning up the festival grounds on Monday morning. We operate by the ethic that if we can’t pay someone to do the work, we do it ourselves. The greatest opportunity for us is to expand our team and to create additional unforgettable live experiences.

What do you still love about being an independent business in the live industry?
We get to have conversations with our community that aren’t just social media insights and surveys. This engagement creates genuine connections and deepens our accountability. We know where every dollar comes from and where it goes.

What changes would you like to see in the live industry?
Being an all-women owned and independent business in the live industry is unique. We would love to see that change. Until then, we hope to be leaders that challenge and influence the entire industry.

We want to see more women, Black, Indigenous, disabled and LGBTQIA+ creators on stage and in executive positions. We want to see meaningful and lasting progress in safety backstage and to have more diverse personnel working in production, security and operations with safe working conditions and equitable pay. If our independent staff of four can take meaningful steps towards this reality, there’s no excuse for the rest of the industry.

James Irvine
Knitting Factory Entertainment / Senior Talent Buyer
No. of Employees: 500 – this is inclusive of all of the arms of KFE. Record labels, hospitality, venues, etc.

More than two years after the pandemic caused the biggest disruption to live concerts and touring this industry has ever seen, how is your business doing thus far in 2022?
James Irvine: The pandemic was difficult on everyone, and the entertainment industry was no exception. With the hardships that incurred, Knitting Factory did find some silver linings. I think because KFE is an independent, we could move more quickly and were more malleable to the different circumstances and issues that were thrown at the industry as a whole. We have been incredibly fortunate to find some new festivals & venues to work on such as Maha Festival, Hop Springs, Alma and Wine Country Amphitheater. Conversely we just announced the closing of our Brooklyn Knitting Factory location due to a staggering increase to our rent in a post-COVID world. New York City is the cornerstone of the Knitting Factory story, we’re not quite ready to let it go, so stay tuned …

In 2022, what do you consider your biggest successes and your biggest challenges?
Biggest success & challenge – survival, ha. It was not a given over the last 2+ years. COVID really forced us to streamline our team. We saw a lot of good people go. All KF employees are an essential cog in the machine, and to have to rebuild from the ground up hasn’t been easy. But we feel really great with our team going forward, we’re incredibly fortunate to have found several new team members that bring the drive & enthusiasm we share as a company. Personally, the mental fatigue of the peaks and valleys of the last two years is something I am challenged by daily. The music industry can be a grind, and I’ve certainly felt it at time. I’m lucky to have a great support system both at home and work, and try to do the little things daily to remain driven and happy with my career choice.

What do you still love about being an independent business in the live industry?
I love the freedom to be creative beyond buying/booking shows. I really could never see myself working in the corporate music world again.

What changes would you like to see in the live industry?
I feel that in this industry, we have an obligation to use our collective voices, now more than ever, to champion for social causes such as reproductive rights, systemic racism, & income inequality. There’s still a lot of an old boys club mentality within the industry and it’s irritating. I’d really love to finally see assistants, women and minorities treated and compensated fairly across our beloved industry.

Michelle Cable
Panache Booking, Panache Management / Owner
No. of Employees: Panache Management 4 / Booking 2

More than two years after the pandemic caused the biggest disruption to live concerts and touring this industry has ever seen, how is your business doing thus far in 2022?
Michelle Cable: Both businesses are hanging in there and surviving but it’s been a struggle as what you normally took for granted as touring income as 90% likely happening is really 50/50 at this point on whether or not a show could be canceled, an artist could get COVID and cancel 1/2 way through the tour etc. Plus touring is so much more complicated now because of COVID fears, cancellations, health measures, COVID protocols. Making sure it’s all clear and confirmed as an agent is often one of the main liaisons with the venue.

In 2022, what do you consider your biggest successes and your biggest challenges?
I am SO happy that a lot of tours have happened. King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard finished an epic 3-month long tour with only 1 cancellation (Boston Calling).

It’s amazing to finally see the fruits of your labor of 3 years, actually reach fruition and get to see these concerts that I’ve been moving around and working on for 3 years happen.
BUT it’s also difficult as it’s very likely an artist could/will get COVID and get really sick and cancel many touring dates, which leaves you then figuring out how to get an artist out of a country/or town and how to find a way to still make the tour sustainable/financially make sense if half of it is canceled.

What opportunities do you see for your business?
I’m going to get creative about how I book tours and plan them. Do more with less. Quality over quantity, plan as far ahead as possible and get creative. Panache has always been able to adapt with the changes in the music industry, and we’ve continued to do so with COVID. The management company is continually growing and I’m leaning into that more, as the 1st half of 2022 comes to a close.

What do you still love about being an independent business in the live industry?
I love being my own boss, getting to maintain my independent ethos, and operating how I want to operate. It’s amazing to see our boutique small company really grow independent artists that are far from conventional with their approach and help them find sustainable success in an industry that is quite volatile. Our very hands-on attentive approach has served us well over the years. It’s not about the bottom line, it’s about the art, and we strive to keep it that way with how we approach working with our artists.

What changes would you like to see in the live industry?
I’d love to see more diversity within the music industry, and more women in positions of power. I’d love to see festival line-ups more diverse and interesting.

It would be great to see a community of people working together rather than against each other. The time is now to help the world, as it’s a crazy place, especially America. It’d be great to see everyone in the industry put their resources together for others to help do more philanthropic work, especially with what’s just happened with Roe vs. Wade.

Frank Riley
High Road Touring / Founder, Agent
No. of Employees: 18

More than two years after the pandemic caused the biggest disruption to live concerts and touring this industry has ever seen, how is your business doing thus far in 2022?
Frank Riley: Ask me in a year, when I may have begun to understand the chaos that has enveloped our business.

In 2022, what do you consider your biggest successes and your biggest challenges?
The beginning of an understanding of how each sector of the indie community relies on each other. Which by and large is the incubator of development of new voices, new audiences … the next generation.

What opportunities do you see for your business?
The opportunity to diversify in real ways …

What do you still love about being an independent business in the live industry?
Building opportunities for voices that need to be heard.

What changes would you like to see in the live industry?
Transparency.

Denny Young
Elevation Festivals / President
No. of Employees: 25

More than two years after the pandemic caused the biggest disruption to live concerts and touring this industry has ever seen, how is your business doing thus far in 2022?
Denny Young: We were fortunate to run our Ohio festivals last summer and we experienced tremendous results. People were so starved for live music coming on the heels of nothing for 16 months that in many ways it was easier to sell tickets last summer. Most acts were not touring, the options were limited, we launched first and Elevation definitely benefitted in that moment. 2022 is more challenging. The COVID surge, war in Europe, continuing supply chain issues, inflation, crazy fuel prices and so many concerts to choose from have impacted ticket sales. Having said that, we sold-out new festivals in Pittsburgh and Indianapolis. Great acts, tickets priced right and staged in markets that do not have major festivals is something that worked for us. Our more established festivals (Cleveland and Columbus) are requiring increased marketing efforts and after a period of slower sales, we have seen a rapid improvement since the start of Summer.

In 2022, what do you consider your biggest successes and your biggest challenges?
Elevation’s biggest successes in 2022 were the two new festivals we launched. Each sold-out and received rave reviews. Our biggest challenge remains the marketplace. There are so many options available at this moment for a ticket buyer that is already facing unprecedented economic hardship. And while I realize people have always had options, this year is very busy. This puts added pressure on all of us to provide elevated experiences, entertaining lineups and tickets priced appropriately to meet the current market conditions.

What opportunities do you see for your business?
Elevation is a very diverse organization. In addition to our festivals, we have a long-standing motorsport marketing practice, a fast-growing equestrian event activation business, sporting events and our ongoing work in corporate sponsorship consulting. We meet and circulate with so many different people and organizations throughout the world. The amount of venues and organizations outside our industry that are looking for live music programming as a part of their portfolio is exciting and motivating. For us, it’s more about being smart regarding what we do and who we do it with, vs. whether or not there will be opportunities.

What do you still love about being an independent business in the live industry?
The fact that we are a privately owned company operated by the owners, allows us to continue to be very entrepreneurial. We can do what we want. We can spend what we want. The trickle down effect to our ticket buyers and artists, is the fact that we leave no stone unturned. When bands and fans come to our events, their first comment is: “Elevation thought about everything. They have missed nothing.”

What changes would you like to see in the live industry?
Domed festivals sites. The weather has been challenging for us in 2022.