How to Find the Best Artist Booking Platform for Live Music

After being cooped up inside for a year and a half, people just want to get out and do something. Many people are turning toward live music events even when money is tight. As a music event professional, this is fantastic news for you. But you need a solution — a sophisticated artist booking platform — to help you cater to the flood of fans.

Read on to find why you need an effective artist booking platform and how to choose the right one for you.

Why It’s Important to Get a Specific Artist Booking Platform

With the right artist booking platform, you’ll significantly improve your operation’s efficiency and organization.

Many event management systems on the market aren’t built specifically for venues and booking artists. What you need is an artist booking platform that has all of the features and capabilities that matter most to a venue, artist, and everyone else behind the scenes.

When you’re working on a tour or trying to book multiple acts night after night, you can’t rely on apps that are built for a wedding or corporate event planning. Those apps don’t account for the various factors that go into producing a live music event.

But don’t sweat it. Thankfully, there is software that has been developed specifically for people in the live music industry. You just have to know what to look for.

Related: Music Artist Management: How Technology Is Making It Easier

What to Look for in an Artist Booking Platform

Check out the website for any platform you are considering thoroughly. If it doesn’t say “Music” or “Live” anywhere on the website, it’s the event software is likely not for you.

Once you get past the landing page, it’s essential to know which features your platform must have. Ideally, you’ll want a fully integrated package so you can not only book your artists but also be able to track the events and your expenses as you go.

Ideally, your artist booking platform should have the following features:

Keep All Your Info in One Place

The number one thing you want in an artist booking platform is an interface that has everything you need at the tips of your fingers. With a calendar updated in real-time, you’ll be able to check availability immediately. Imagine a world where you never double-book an event ever again.

Additionally, the calendar should be easy to use, update, and store data. You probably won’t realize how much of your time is wasted in a day going back-and-forth trying to collaborate with others across multiple systems until you switch to a streamlined platform.

With the power of a tech-enhanced calendar, you’ll be able to book more shows faster.

Easy Data Collection and Reporting

Within your artist booking platform, you should be able to collect up-to-date financial reports and quickly digest the data.

As you work to book an artist, you have to consider the offer you plan to give them. The system you use to book artists should be the same system you use for expense tracking.

But what does that have to do with artist booking? The best way to generate an artist’s offer and create a high-return event is to stay on top of your budget from the beginning. As you use the same system for multiple events, you can use the data from previous events to better picture overall event revenue. This way, you aren’t blowing your entire budget on the artist’s fees. When your profits and losses are connected to your artist booking platform, you will know if you can afford to book an artist in the first place.

Also, though people who haven’t been to a concert in years are rushing to buy tickets for their favorite artists, it’s not a great idea to plan for a jam-packed venue. Maybe you should avoid booking a big-name artist with a guaranteed offer, or you may have to sell tickets at a ridiculously high price just to break even.

Mobile Friendliness

Being able to put your artist booking platform in your pocket is essential.

We’re always on the go these days, and even if you aren’t working from home, you may still have to travel to someone else’s office to negotiate. Having a mobile-friendly system enables you to make immediate updates and take notes within the platform. All of your coworkers will be able to see the changes you made, no matter where they are.

Related: How to Become a Competitive Music Booking Agent

 A Simple Hold Process

Creating and managing your holds shouldn’t be stressful. But between sticky notes and long email threads, you may not have the most organized way of generating holds.

Your artist booking platform should make holds easy. If you need to place holds for multiple days, you should have the ability to create at least a dozen holds on your calendar with the click of a button. With an integrated calendar system in place, nothing will fall through the cracks again.

Bonus features include quickly creating a branded hold report for a show and automatically releasing your holds once you get confirmation.

Better yet, look for a system that enables shared holds. Shared holds let you automate the process of sharing available holds with trusted collaborators. Instead of relying on email, you can work with your partner by allowing them to select dates through your platform without seeing the other events you have on your calendar. If the dates they request are available, the system will automatically offer them up.

The right system will give you real-time notifications whenever a hold is placed, updated, or confirmed, so you’re always on top of your events.

Effective Artist Booking Platform

Prism is the ultimate artist booking platform, designed by music event professionals for live music event professionals and features all of the above features and more. Apart from being an integrated artist booking platform, it doubles up as a comprehensive event management platform. Get started with Prism today.