Music streaming as a haven for gig adverts

Music streaming services, Spotify in particular, are extremely well placed to advertise local music gigs and events to their listeners (and make a profit too). This article will go over how people discover gigs today and how streaming services can change this.

Disclaimer: This article is based on my own experience as a music lover who has many friends in the gigging economy. The points I make are perhaps most accurate in Edinburgh, where I live, but surely apply to most cities in the English-speaking world.

Gig discovery today

You are a gigging musician and have a big gig coming up. You just scored a set at a venue you love, and want to advertise your gig. What do you do?

Maybe you print out posters and put them up on the venue's walls. Maybe you take it further and put them up on the street, and other venues. But you know that the graphical nature of the poster will communicate very little about your sound. This poster is unlikely to get you any new fans. The best you hope for is that people who already know you will be reminded of the good music you played, and get a ticket.

Now, to advertise to those who don't know you, what do you do? Perhaps you upload a video of a previous gig on your socials, and get your friends to share it around. That works!...a bit. Perhaps you went the extra step and paid for your post to get promoted to users who may like it.

You've now spent money on online ads and posters, and hope for the best. The Gig is around the corner, and ticket sales are low. Luckily, you play your gig to an appreciative audience, and were bought a beer. I believe there is a way for you to sell more tickets, and spend less on those ads that most people skip and ignore.

I've learnt that when people who go on social media, they (mostly) don't go to discover and learn - and when they do, they are bombarded with so much information, that most of it goes in one ear and out of the other.

The role streaming services can play

Streaming services, this is where you come in. There are many people who are hungry for live music gigs, and don't know where to find them. They aren't the type to actively search for gigs, but would go if invited.

Spotify, you already have details about live gigs, and the locations of your listeners. You also already recommend gigs to your listeners, however that's only for the artists they actively listen to! How about if you recommended music whose bands are playing nearby?

Here's how this could work. An active listener has just finished listening to a playlist or album that they had chosen, and auto-play is about to kick in. Auto-play can queue up some songs by local musicians, which the algorithm considers good matches. If the listener checks their Spotify app window, it could be highlighted that the track being played is by local musicians playing soon, with concert dates and links to tickets.

This feature could easily be toggleable, and active by default, much like auto-play itself. In my opinion, it would be very fair if Spotify took a cut of the ticket sale, though let's keep it tiny yeah?