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 Nuevostage

A GROUPON FOR CONCERTS

There's a reason that one club in Central Square doesn't want to book a gig for your new band. It's nothing personal. They like your mp3s. It's just that you've never played there before, and they're not entirely sure anyone will show up.

Enter Maxwell Wessel. He spends his days at Harvard Business School, and believe it or not, he understands the nature of this problem. He's also got a solution, borrowed loosely from the idea of group-buying platforms like Groupon. Wessel's creation, NUEVOSTAGE, aims to give up-and-coming acts the opportunity to play shows at established venues by making it less risky for those venues to book them.

Here's how it works: Some venues won't take a chance on a band that doesn't have a known draw — even if that means the club's stage stays dark some nights as a result. With NuevoStage, if a band can get enough fans to commit to coming to a show on an open night, the venue will book it.

Provided the clubs buy in, the idea has real merit. Wessel studied his target audience — show-goers between the ages of 14 and 25 — and noticed that social media has an almost universal adoption rate within it. The same demographic is plainly comfortable with both social buying, and for offering support for causes and bands and brands they like — especially if it's as easy as clicking a few buttons to "Like" a page or "Share" a message.

For bands, NuevoStage hopes to be a platform to create events and share those events — hard — with their fans. If enough fans respond, the show goes on. And because there's an audience-friendly imperative, Wessel aims to make it easy to buy in. For instance, users don't have to create an account, as with LivingSocial or Groupon. As Wessel says, he isn't interested in your data. When a user buys in, she gets a one-time guest checkout — not a lifetime's worth of daily emails.

And because he isn't selling your data, Wessel freely admits that — small processing fee aside — he won't get rich doing this.

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  Topics: Music Features , Music, music industry, Ben Folds,  More more >
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5 Comments / Add Comment

lindisfarne

I wish I could read all the article without having to click in each part; it would be easier to save too. Regards,
Posted: April 22 2011 at 10:12 AM

Anonymous

The Patronism.com concept looks promising. Says you need just over a hundred “patrons” for a musician to earn a living. I wonder if they really can save the music industry?
Posted: April 22 2011 at 10:41 AM

ConquerNewEngland

I really wish that someone had looked at Conquer Entertainment. Conquer Entertainment will do for independent and major artists what the traditional label has failed to do–allow them to have complete control of their careers and be compensated fairly. Conquer Entertainment offers services that allow all artists the ability to record, promote, perform and globally distribute their music and make a profit in multiple ways. 100 fans can get you a $300 check every month...and that;s only one way we are getting artists paid. More info contact me.
Posted: April 22 2011 at 12:08 PM

ConquerNewEngland

bjboucher74 AT gmail DOT com...seems that the Bio feature isn't available! :)
Posted: April 22 2011 at 12:10 PM

John Pointer

I noticed that one of the other companies passes 75% of the revenue to the artist. Patronism passes 85%, and with only 104 patrons at the current site average an artist nets over $1000/mo. We're set up like this because I am an artist, built it to serve my own needs, and created the deal I'd want when we turned it into a platform.

Our other strength is that we know the difference between consumers and patrons. We use our expertise to help artists attract and serve the latter, while still being able to sell consumables to the rest of their fanbase.

John Pointer
CEO/Co-founder, Patronism.com
Posted: April 23 2011 at 7:05 PM
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