New Hi-Fi Owners Announce The Venue Collective To Take Over As Bookers

Max Watt's Operating Pty Ltd, the new owners and licensed managers of the recently sold tri-state venue The Hi-Fi bar, has announced the engagement of collaborative company The Venue Collective to handle future live-music booking and online marketing for its spaces in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.

The three venues, which will operate under the name Max Watt's in their respective cities going forward, had entered administration in February before reports of their sale to Max Watt's arose about a fortnight ago. However, much of the behind-the-scenes business has been kept tightly under wraps as new arrangements came to fruition. Now, though, the future is looking bright for three iconic Aussie venues that not-that-long-ago looked to be in dire straits.

"We've been able to save these venues from certain closure and believe there is a bright future given a professional management regime," Max Watt's chief executive Greg Bourke said in a statement. "Recent failures of venues across Australia are evidence of the poor returns for venues — now is the time for a new business model."

In addressing the need for a new paradigm, Bourke and the team at Max Watt's turned to The Venue Collective, which draws its team from successful standalone operations Way Over There and Corner Presents, and has been making quite the name for itself as a one-stop platform for venue owners to provide booking and promotional services all around Australia since its inception last year.

"We were approached by the new owners, who were looking for an alternative to traditional booking models — as in, they were looking at a way that overheads could be lowered by not doing the traditional thing of employing a booker and publicist and all that in-house, which is obviously what The Venue Collective is all about — trying to lower overheads for music venues so that they can stay open, I guess, in the future," The Venue Collective director Ben Thompson told theMusic.com.au. 

"So we met with the new owners and were really impressed with their understanding of the need to offer a high-quality user experience for patrons, which is something that we're really interested in when we're working with venues, you know, places that are all about looking after their patrons and looking after the acts as well, and their commitment to making some improvements to the former Hi-Fi bar venues and the venues' Max Watt's incarnation, and just saw it as a very good fit."

It's exceedingly early days right now, so nothing concrete has been put into the pipeline as far as new bookings under TVC's purview just yet — but expect the good news to start flowing out of the Max Watt's camp in the near future as the three venues recover to fully operational following their near-death experience.

"It's business as usual for the venues, with the Comedy Festival happening now in Melbourne hosting over 1800 patrons each night; and strong live gigs booked in Sydney and Brisbane," Bourke said.

"TVC will handle all future bookings nationally — their team is simply the best in the business. Ben Thompson and his team at TVC are experienced, independent, and have at heart the best interests of musicians, fans and venue operators."

The Venue Collective staffer Ashlea O'Loughlin will be the direct booker for the Max Watt's venues.

"Music fans can look forward to a great line-up at our venues in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane with all of the highly experienced and passionate venue staff staying on," Bourke said. "Venues will be rebranded to Max Watt's over the next few weeks with renovations and upgraded sound and light systems — just stay tuned!"

The venues' former live booking director, James Power, will not be continuing with the Hi-Fi/Max Watt's, and wishes Thompson and the team at The Venue Collective all the best. Power will be continuing in the booking world with an announcement to be made in the coming weeks of his new venture.