Louis Tomlinson and his manager Matt Vines have invested in the fan engagement platform Openstage.
Openstage is a fan engagement platform built specifically for the music industry. It was created by people with first-hand knowledge of the industry, music managers who were as frustrated as the artists they managed with not being able to maximise every earning opportunity that came their way.
Having been in many fandoms over the years, while we become part of them because we admire an artist/band etc, there has always been a feeling that fans are undervalued, just a commodity that makes record labels and others in the industry money. There is often little to no thought about fans when marketing campaigns for albums, singles, tours, merch etc are released.
Openstage is helping bridge that gap and connect artists and their teams to their fans. Sam Jackson who manages Only The Poets and Tom Millichamp have championed the platform for years, as it’s played a pivotal role in Only the Poets going from an unsigned to a signed act with a major label. All while continuing to put the fans at the forefront of everything they do.
The case study featured on Openstage highlights how OTP turned a loss into a profit and sold 12,000 extra tickets.
In 2022 the band were offered a slot to support Louis on the European leg of his world tour, having previously opened for him in 2020 at Scala in London. The case study says “The band wanted to make the most of this amazing opportunity by growing demand for their own live shows. They were worried that other platforms make it hard to capture and record new live demand and this could result in lost sales.”
It goes on to expand on the issues the band were facing “ Promotors would only put 4,000 tickets on sale for their headline shows and some locations refused to book them at all. This meant the tour would run at a loss even if it sold out.” It then explains how Openstage helped them “Using our platform Only The Poets offered fans at each support show an incentive to register their interest in their headline tour and to help drive up pre-saves for their new single. They captured 18k pre-saves which they can roll over to all future releases. By doing this Only The Poets created a permanent record of 30k+ fans who want to attend shows across Europe. They presented evidence of this demand to promotors so that new shows could be added and existing ones upgraded to larger venues. This resulted in them selling an extra 12K tickets and the tour turning from a loss leader to a profit maker. The band avoided lost sales and losing money by successfully maximising the opportunity the support tour had created for them.
Openstage has helped artists such as Sam Ryder. The Wombats and Isaac Anderson to measure demand for their live shows and ultimately sell more tickets.
In an industry that seems to bleed both artists and fans dry, Openstage is a beacon of light helping artists keep connected and in control of what really matters to them and help grow their careers on their own terms. Louis and Matt investing in the platform makes a clear statement that both individuals are people who champion artists having control of their careers. And are striving to see the industry change, investing in platforms like openstage which have the potential to make that change happen.
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