NEW
YORK (TourVote PR) - When the band Army Of Me takes the stage at
Washington D.C.'s venerable music venue The
Black Cat on Friday
February 11, they will be secure in the knowledge that at least a
portion of the attending audience had proactively requested the show.
Both the band and the venue are taking advantage of a unique, new
"request line" that empowers music fans to communicate their live music
wishes not only to the musical artists they want see in concert but
also to the venues and promoters that put shows on stage.
Rather
than simply waiting and hoping that local music venues and promoters
will book shows by the musical artists they want to see, some consumers
are registering their requests through a growing number of web sites �
collectively called The TourVote Network � run by live music venues,
promoters, radio stations, entertainment publications, and the artists
themselves. The requests are funneled to the artists and to live
entertainment buyers who want to gain direct insight into the deepest
desires of concert-goers.
"The people have spoken. DC loves Army
of Me. That's cool because we love DC," said Army Of Me lead singer
Vince Scheuerman. "TourVote is great � it gives the fans a voice. Let
them be heard." Army Of Me currently has the distinction of being the
most-requested indie band in the DC Metro area, according to the
TourVote system. A much larger number of fans have requested live shows
by Army of Me in other cities around the US, fueling the band's hopes
for breaking out into a wider market.
The TourVote Network is
the brainchild of Demand ID Systems, a Baltimore startup company
testing their novel supply-and-demand matching system locally before
taking it to the national stage. "Much like with any other product,
live shows will be more successful if they are produced based on a
clear picture of what the market wants," points out Ben Cruz,
co-founder of Demand ID. "I'd be hard pressed to think of a company
that made a mistake by asking prospective buyers what they wanted. And
I've never met a consumer who didn't think well of those that responded
by delivering exactly that."
The TourVote live music request
line is available free to web sites wanting to give their visitors a
voice in local, live music under the site's own brand. Site owners have
online access to reports detailing the votes placed from their pages.
Voting music fans receive a co-branded "TourAlert" by email when the
act they voted for is scheduled to appear locally. "I'm always happy to
find new ways to tell people about our shows, especially when I know
it's an event that they are interested in," said
Dante Ferrando, talent
buyer for The
Black Cat, an 800-capacity venue. "It's hard to get good
information to help determine what a band will draw. CD sales are just
not as good a gauge as they used to be, so I find any extra tools
incredibly helpful". More than a thousand people have placed requests
for the shows they want to see using TourVote right from the club's web
site.
The company's forthcoming DemandIntell service enables
live music venues and promoters to see comparative levels of local
demand for shows by any artist in the database and to uncover
opportunities to stage shows they might never have considered
otherwise. "The demand for live shows by an increasing number of
artists is greater than ever before as millions of consumers discover
new music on the internet," points out Jay Bartlett, Vice President at
Demand ID. "Until now, the live music industry has had no means to take
advantage of that trend."
"TourVote and the DemandIntell service
promise to be a boon to all participants in the music industry �
artists can tour more profitably; venues and promoters increase
audience attendance with reduced expense; A&R and talent agents can
spot rising talent at a grassroots level; and more recorded music is
sold," said Carl Freed, a leading national concert promoter. "The
revolution begins with web sites that believe that the key to sustained
success on the internet lies in delivering the power of community �
that their site visitors will delight in having a collective voice in
shaping their own local music scene."
