Promoters Debate The 'Tinder Affect' On Live Music

To wind up a great discussion of issues surrounding promotions for festivals, tours and emerging markets on the The Promoters panel at Face The Music, conversation turned to Tinder.

Moderator Paul Sloan asked panellists Marc Sousley of Secret Sounds, Travis Banko of Laneway Presents, Susan Heymann of Chugg and Archie Hamilton of Split Works United in China what they thought about Tinder, particularly whether it affects live music, as comments earlier this year by a Melbourne venue owner suggested.

Sousley was fairly noncommittal about the dating app, saying, "I don't think we've ever used Tinder to market, but Facebook is a great tool. Probably one of the best tools out there right now," to which Sloan cheekily said, "They used to go to Secret Sounds shows, but now they're getting on Tinder."
He continued by explaining, "There are a few people in smaller venues who are saying that weekend trade is harder because people are getting on Tinder instead of going to see shows," to which Banko quickly replied, "If it's the right show Tinder shouldn't affect it."

Hamilton offered, "One of the reasons I got into music in the first place was to hook up, so that was a great incentive to go to clubs and start drinking early or whatever. So I expect Tinder is having an effect for sure, because kids don't have to go to clubs to hook up anymore.

"If there's a social media component that allows you to promote shows, then maybe we need to explore that. We had a dating app for one of our festivals in China, there's quite a big lonely hearts thing going on. We use festivals as a base to educate people to meet like-minded people and make friends and hook up offline."

Heymann dished up an optimistic angle on the topic: "Hopefully people will wanna go out when they meet someone so maybe that'll inspire them to go on dates to shows."

The panel also discussed the key issues with sponsorship, pursuing the right channels in scoring a band for a show, that is, whether to go through the agent or the manager, and Asia as an emerging market for festivals.

In August, a couple of Melbourne venue promoters had already dismissed the Tinder theory — read story here.