Want To Expand Your Industry Network? The Live Music Professionals Program Can Help

Live Music Professionals is a business coaching program aimed at helping small-to-medium, Victorian live music businesses succeed. Applications for the 2019 program are now open so we asked 2018 participant Annemarie Blades about what she got out of the experience. For more details about the program, follow the link here. Applications close 13 May. 

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Working behind the scenes in the music industry you’re often stuck in an office, tapping away at admin. As a band booker, you’re relying on your gut, using the stats you get from the shows you’re booking and taking into account general band and punter feedback. There’s no handbook that tells you how to do your job and you fall into these roles because of your love of music.

My name is Annemarie Blades and I’m the band booker and PR manager at The Gem Bar and Dining in Collingwood. I’ve been booking here for about three and a half years. I love my job. I came into the 2018 Live Music Professionals program with the attitude that there’s always more to learn and I certainly got a lot out of it.

Live Music Professionals really highlighted for me the amazing music community we have in Melbourne. The program increased my network of great music industry people including other participants, coaches, speakers and Music Victoria staff. On top of increasing my network, I’ve made some great friends and colleagues and I would recommend the program to anyone wishing to expand their business skills and networks when it comes to working with venues, festivals or other live music businesses.

The program kicked off with a meeting where we pinpointed what we wanted to focus on throughout the program and from there we got partnered up with coaches who would help thrash through the nuts and bolts of our role. These coaches all had specific industry skills and were established bookers of larger venues, media specialists, accountants, festival owners or people with extensive industry experience. I was partnered with Emily Kelly (the co-owner and director of Deathproof PR), Sharlene Harris (the national entertainment manager of AHL Group) and Ben Thompson (the venue booker of 170 Russell). Straight away I felt like I had new friends and a great support network. Conversations were honest, genuine, informative and super helpful, and there was lots of experiential knowledge shared which you wouldn’t get elsewhere. We also had heaps of laughs.

The conversations helped me get a really good sense of where I was with my own business practices and where I could expand. It gave me new business ideas, partnerships and industry opportunities and also helped me define where I wanted to head and how I could make the job more sustainable.

One of the stand-out moments for me was the involvement in the CHANGES Music Summit & Festival where we got to have roundtable conversations with agencies and managers and I got to put faces to the names of people I had been working with. CHANGES gave me some great insights into music trending, marketing and new businesses. Not to mention, there was some downright music-nerding about records and music technology which I LOVED.

We also attended a conference in Ballarat which, on top of the workshops and keynotes, acted as a showcase of regional acts and venues. For me, as an inner-city booker, it was great to see what’s happening regionally and I now have regional venues on my radar when booking tours. On the speaker side of things, we heard from Mick Newton of A Day On The Green along with talks from artist and branding specialist, Callum Preston and digital marketing specialists, Bolster. On top of this we had sessions on ticketing, business planning and more! The great thing about all of these masterclasses was the open-hearted and honest dialogues about the realities of working in music; the anecdotes and ups and downs, the wins and losses.

I also like that we had guest speakers, like Tom Larkin from Shihad and life-coach Amanda Ashton, talking about mental health, working in the music industry and finding balance in our ever-busy lives. Let's face it, it’s kind of an excessive industry with lots of work, late nights and irregular hours and they were important conversations to have.

It’s been seven months since doing the Live Music Professionals program and I’m still in communication with a lot of the coaches and the friends I made in the group. My knowledge base has improved exponentially and I feel stoked that I had the chance to be part of it.