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atVenu receives $130m investment

Live event commerce platform atVenu has received a $130 million injection from US-based investment firm Sixth Street Growth.

The partnership between the two organisations is poised to accelerate atVenu’s growth into new live event markets, including sports and food and beverage.

Founded in 2012, atVenu provides a live event platform for touring artists, merchandisers, and event operators. It hosts tools for inventory management, financial transactions, and a point-of-sale system, providing organisers at over 125,000 events annually with a live event temporary commerce system.

“Over the past decade, atVenu has been intensely focused on helping our customers execute successful and profitable events,” says Derek Ball, atVenu co-founder and CEO. “Sixth Street clearly shares this mission and clarity of purpose and will add tremendous value as our impact on this industry continues to accelerate.”

“We are confident that atVenu is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the exciting opportunity set ahead”

Ben Brannen, atVenu co-founder and president, echoes Ball’s excitement: “We’re thrilled to partner with Sixth Street for atVenu’s next chapter. The firm’s vision and conviction on the growth opportunities in live events entirely aligns with ours. The opportunity to join forces with their team and deploy our combined resources to expand atVenu’s reach is incredibly exciting.”

Annually, atVenu processes over $1.6 billion in merchandise, food, and beverage sales across venues from small clubs to stadiums.

“atVenu’s innovative solutions, inspired by the founders’ deep roots and firsthand experience in the live events world, empower stakeholders across the value chain,” added Michael Bauer, Principal at Sixth Street Growth. “We are confident that atVenu is uniquely positioned to capitalise on the exciting opportunity set ahead and we look forward to supporting them on that journey.”

atVenu has recently partnered with Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre (cap. 9,545), California’s Snapdragon Stadium (35,000), and North Carolina’s Broccoli City Festival.

 


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Will Holdoway to join booking platform Togather

METHOD co-founder Will Holdoway is joining Togather, an events booking platform which claims to be the largest of its kind in the UK.

Holdoway joins as event delivery director, responsible for scaling Togather’s expanding events catalogue and managing new live event software Togather 360. The digital platform boasts a network of suppliers for live events, ranging from food and beverage to venues to photographers, plus more.

Togather has helped deliver food and beverage offerings to more than 15 million people across the UK, at events including London Pride, GALA Festival, and the TCS London Marathon.

“I couldn’t be more excited to be joining Togather at this stage of their growth,” Holdoway says. “Over the last five years, it’s become clear that F&B is now central to the event experience, and Togather has been at the forefront of modernising this sector.

“I’m confident that in the coming years, their technology will be a game-changer for live events across the country, helping to improve the attendee experience in a meaningful way.”

“It’s amazing to have someone at Will’s level of technical expertise join the team”

He joins from event production company METHOD, which he co-founded and directed alongside James Dutton from its founding in 2019. During his tenure, Holdoway oversaw operations at events including Truck Festival, Tramlines, South Facing, and Drumsheads, and project management for Superstruct, Broadwick Live, Nando’s, and GroceryAid.

An active Futures Forum member and former speaker, Holdoway joins the Togather team with more than a decade of leadership experience in the event industry.

“It’s amazing to have someone at Will’s level of technical expertise join the team,” says Togather co-founder Hugo Campbell. “His event experience speaks for itself while he brings a level of creative vision, which ensures our clients are receiving the best possible F&B experience at their events.’

Togather began in 2017 as Feast It, utilised by people to book street food catering for parties and weddings. It has since grown to host over 1,500 suppliers while rebranding to Togather in 2023.

 


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Afterparty adds $5m to launch fan engagement app

AI startup Afterparty has raised a further $5million in funding to bring its seed capital to a whopping $12m amid plans to launch an app that it believes will transform the relationships between fans and artists.

Afterparty will use the money to develop its platform, which will leverage artificial intelligence to allow fans to have one-to-one interactions with their favourite singers or sports stars or celebrities, while allowing those creators to monetise the service.

Among the investors backing the enterprise are Acrew Capital, Act One Ventures, Red Light Management, Tamarack Global, Vinny Lingham and Wilson Sonsini. The involvement of Paris Hilton’s 11:11 Media, and Kygo’s Palm Tree Crew has also generated interest in the media.

The Afterparty platform already offers livestreaming, chat facilities, and collectibles such as NFTs. The new funding round will enable developers to integrate AI voice, photo and video functions that the company says will allow artists “to infinitely scale personalized fan interactions.”

“With Afterparty AI, we have developed a proprietary system from the ground up to scale creator-fan interactions”

Those interactions will allow fans to create unique images and videos with their favourite stars. That content can then be turned into one-of-a-kind collectibles, which will be verified on Afterparty’s blockchain.

“The all-new ability to turn one-to-one AI experiences into fan-generated content takes interaction to an entirely new level,” says David Field, Afterparty’s founder and CEO. “Creators retain control over their content, revenue, and fan relationships. Fans get the opportunity to become content creators and participate in the growth and success of those who inspire them.”

Afterparty’s AI technology is designed to solve the problem of creators not having the time for personal interactions with all the fans who want such an experience, according to Afterparty co-founder Robert Graham. “We heard from many of our creators in the Afterparty community that DMs were their fans’ most-valued experience. However, with thousands of messages coming in at any given time, they have found it impossible to respond in a more personal way both creators and fans crave,” he adds.

“With Afterparty AI, we have developed a proprietary system from the ground up to scale creator-fan interactions. We work closely with creators to ensure that the AI experience is truly authentic to them in the same way we built our creator tools and IRL experiences.”

Launched in 2021, Afterparty first hit the headlines as “the world’s first NFT ticketing platform for artists.”

 


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Tinder relaunches Festival Mode with top promoters

Dating app Tinder is partnering with Live Nation, AEG Presents and Superstruct to re-introduce its Festival Mode feature across 10 countries ahead of the first full summer season since 2019.

Designed to bridge the gap between online introductions and real life connections, Festival Mode allows Tinder members to select which events they plan to attend and match with fellow festival-goers up to a month before the show.

Festival Mode includes more than 20 of the world’s biggest festivals including The Governors Ball, Bonnaroo, Stagecoach and EDC Las Vegas in the US; All Points East and BST Hyde Park in the UK and Falls Festival, Festival X and Splendour in the Grass in Australia, as well as events such as Sónar in Spain, Sziget in Hungary and Lollapalooza in Paris, Berlin and Stockholm.

“Music is a universal language and the number-one interest among Tinder members worldwide. So many of our members are excited to jump back into in-person events. We wanted to build on that excitement and offer them a head start at meeting someone new ahead of one of the biggest festival seasons in years,” says Kyle Miller, VP of Product Innovation at Tinder. “Festival Mode gives you a chance to get yourself back out there, meet new people, and make friends before you hit the festival grounds. It’s a great, low-pressure way to make real world connections again.”

“People around the world are returning to festivals in record numbers and Tinder is helping those fans connect in a new way before the show”

The feature will also include a “Festival Goers” space, for users who don’t see their event listed or are simply just fans of festival culture to connect.

“People around the world are returning to festivals in record numbers and Tinder is helping those fans connect in a new way before the show,” adds Maureen Ford, Live Nation’s president of national and festival sales. “Live events create some of life’s most unforgettable moments largely thanks to the people we enjoy them with. By partnering with Live Nation’s festivals, Tinder is able to bring this new feature to millions of fans around the world.”

According to Tinder’s research, 64% of singles say they enjoy meeting new people while attending live music events, and over 3 in 5 (61%) say they’ve become friends, or more, with people they met at a music festival or concert.

 


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Shazam integrates Bandsintown for concert discovery

Shazam, the Apple-owned music identification app, is leveraging concert data from Bandsintown to help users across the world discover upcoming concerts. The partnership will enable users to find information and tickets for nearby concerts by ‘Shazaming’ a song or searching for it in the app or on the website.

Users can also launch a Shazam Artist page to explore dates, times and locations of upcoming live shows, tap on any concert to view additional tour information, share show details, and add events to their calendar.

“With the re-emergence of live music, we’re excited to give Shazam users access to concerts”

“Shazam has a long history of innovation in music discovery and connecting artists and fans,” says Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Apple Music and Beats. “With the re-emergence of live music, we’re excited to give Shazam users access to concerts and bring even more discoverability to artists.”

Fabrice Sergent, managing partner of Bandsintown, adds: “As live music returns, we’re on a mission to help artists get more visibility for their shows. Pent-up demand from fans eager to go back to concerts is being met by an unprecedented level of live shows from artists on tour.”

Bandsintown currently serves over 68 million music fans and 560,000 artists, managers, labels and booking agents. Meanwhile, Shazam counts over 225 million monthly active users, with more than 1 billion song recognitions per month and over 50 billion total since its inception.

Shazam previously partnered with WMG-owned concert discovery platform, Songkick, to integrate gig listings on the platform.

 


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Kid Cudi’s AR live performance app raises $9m

Encore, the live performance app co-founded by American rapper Kid Cudi, has raised US$9 million (€7.9m) in seed funding.

The raise was led by Battery Ventures, and other investments came from 468 Capital, Parade Ventures, Nomad Ventures, Moving Capital, Kayak Ventures, and Gaingels.

The Encore Studio: Live Music AR app enables artists to create and perform live in custom Augmented Reality environments from their mobile device.

Fans participate via gamified microtransactions in the form of a ten-cent clap, which can be used to watch live shows, chat with an artist, and interact.

While in private beta, hundreds of artists including SSGKobe, The Cool Kids, Too $hort, and DC the Don have created and performed shows on Encore, attended by tens of thousands of fans who have collectively clapped almost a million times.

“We created Encore as a space for artists to share their art, build community, while also being able to pay their rent”

“My number one priority has always been inspiring others and providing them with the space to tell their own stories in an authentic and meaningful way,” says Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi.

“We created Encore as a space for artists to share their art, build community, while also being able to pay their rent.”

Jonathan Gray, co-founder and CEO of Encore, added: “Music artists are the original creators and they have been forgotten by the creator economy and overrun by memes and algorithms on social media.

“Our live AR technology empowers any artist to create personalised content and host experiences for their fans without a production budget or crew and make real cash with 100’s of engaged fans.”

Headquartered in Los Angeles, Encore is co-founded by Cudi, Gray and Hollywood producer, screenwriter and director Ian Edelman (president).

 


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Poppy launches own interactive metaverse app

Grammy Award-nominee Poppy has launched a brand new Metaverse app for iOS and Android called ‘PoppySphere’.

Developed in partnership with artist development company Hifi Labs, PoppySphere is “a virtual 8-bit universe for fans to explore, with dynamic rooms and secrets to uncover as they navigate a realm of iconoclastic creation”.

Users around the world can customise their own avatar and text chat while playing games and uncovering “hidden secrets”. Fans of the US artist can also submit ideas for music, games, wall art and room designs that, if chosen, can earn them exclusive gifts.

“We’re really interested in the true direct-to-fan connection,” says Hifi Labs CEO, Joe Barham.

“We’re really interested in the true direct-to-fan connection”

“We love working with artists who view the cutting edge as an opportunity and our focus is on helping artists build their own platforms to create the best possible relationship with fans.”

“I am overjoyed to be launching my very own Metaverse,” Poppy said in a statement. “A fully customisable virtual space to hang out and talk with the PoppySphere one on one.”

She added: “The possibilities are endless so, make yourself at home.”

In September, Poppy launched Roblox’s new ‘Listening Parties’ feature, making her new album ‘Flux’ available through “all of the [Roblox] experiences” and participating in a Q&A on the platform.

 


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Hearby announced as final associate sponsor for ILMC

Concert discovery app Hearby is the final associate sponsor of this year’s virtual International Live Music Conference (ILMC), the leading global gathering of live music professionals.

Hearby, produced by Area4 Labs, is an AI-driven live music tracker which helps users find – and safely enjoy – live music as it returns.

The app allows users across 100 cities in North America and the UK to filter both in-person and livestreamed events by genre, time period, postcode and artist.

This year, Hearby plans to expand to a further 100 European and global cities with a goal to “get a few more people to a lot more shows” by widely distributing and licensing the app’s live music show calendar widgets to news, travel and entertainment companies.

“We are very excited to partner with ILMC and support venues and artists across the globe,” says Ian Condry, chief anthropologist for Area4 Labs and professor of cultural anthropology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“We want to remove the friction for people finding live music events in the community”

“We want to remove the friction for people finding live music events in the community,” he added.

Hearby will be showcasing the product from a virtual exhibition area at ILMC, which delegates will be able to visit.

This year’s conference, dubbed ‘Virtually Live’, will welcome more than 1,000 registered delegates and host more speakers and meetings than ever before thanks to its limitless virtual format.

ILMC 33’s new features include video speed meetings, a digital trade exhibition, ‘watch again’ conference sessions, and live voting and polling. And for the first time in our history, non-members will be invited to attend ILMC, pointing to the busiest live music conference ever staged.

Irving Azoff, Bob Lefsetz, Sam Kirby Yoh, Emma Banks, Tim Leiweke and Klaus-Peter Schulenberg are among the confirmed speakers.

Browse the speakers and sessions online and register for ILMC here.

 


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Spanish promoter develops Covid-tracking app

A Spanish concert promoter has developed Spain’s first track-and-trace tool for concertgoers and nightclubbers.

Created by Granada promoter, DJ and production manager Álex Garvín Delgado, CEO of Girando Eventos, Alerta Covid aims to help control and contain outbreaks of coronavirus in Andalusia, where it is mandatory for all clubbers to share their personal data to assist in tracing the spread of the virus.

The system launched yesterday (6 August) at a concert in Cadiz, Garvín tells Radio Granada’s Hoy por Hoy Granada, with attendees able to scan a QR code with their phones to access the Alerta Covid platform.

Track and trace, or contact tracing, allows public health authorities to identify everyone who has been in contact with someone who has Covid-19, thus containing the spread of the virus by ordering them to self-isolate.

Such systems are credited with helping fans get back to shows in advance of a vaccine against Covid-19, most notably in South Korea, Taiwan and New Zealand, with Austria also announcing recently that contact tracing would allow it to permit 10,000-person shows from September.

 


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Taking back control

My name is Rupert Brown. I am a musician, producer and drum teacher – and, more importantly, a tinnitus sufferer.

Sadly, my story with tinnitus starts at the age of 22. In 1991, as a young drummer, I was honoured to be asked to play a series of gigs with Roy Ayers (an American jazz legend vibraphonist) at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club. It was going so well that Roy and his manager asked me to continue the tour into America.

In the second week of the Ronnie Scott’s shows, I came off stage and I noticed a huge problem with the hearing in my left ear. As I left the club to find my car, I was struck down with this terrible realisation that I was experiencing the sudden onset of tinnitus. I was profoundly deaf in my ear and was left with eight different sounds and noises of tones, screams, bells and thunder. I shall endeavour to describe this awful audiological tragedy.

If one can imagine being alone on a lighthouse in the middle of the cold winter’s dark ocean, with bells striking a clock tower at the top of the building, waves crashing around me, wind howling and gusting uncontrollably. The knocking sounds of metal rigging hitting the flag pole and birds making screeching noises as they summon the energy to leave the desolate platform on which I am forced to stay.

The question I kept asking was, ‘Would I ever be able to make friends and have a relationship with that person (me) ever again?’ The terrifying isolation that I felt was instantaneous and I knew straight away that this was going to change my life. My new sonic landscape had changed immeasurably. My world spiralled so quickly after a short time with tinnitus. That night when I got home, I wrote in pen on the wall above my bed, “PLEASE GOD MAKE THIS GO AWAY”. (I’m not even a religious man!)

Despite this experience, I didn’t give up with the last week of the Roy Ayers residency. I carried on performing concerts twice nightly. I’m fairly certain that this made my problem permanent, but I do not regret any of my decisions and carry an immense amount of pride that I was able to find the strength in me to continue the gig. Unfortunately, doing so also meant I was unable to tour the USA, as I knew I had to seek professional help.

I wrote in pen on the wall above my bed, “PLEASE GOD MAKE THIS GO AWAY”

After seeing my doctor, who had no real help or advice for me, I had to wait eight months to get an appointment with an ENT specialist at the local hospital. While I was there, I had one of those special moments. I was in the waiting room next to the doctor. I could hear him on the phone and will never forget what he was saying…

“Okay, I’ll just get rid of this one quickly and we’ll see each other on the golf course.”

He was talking about me. When I spoke with the surgeon, he asked me one question: “Do you need to hear the music when you are playing your instrument?” I almost couldn’t reply. “Of course,” I said back to him. “In that case, you will have to stop playing,” the doctor replied.

For me, that was the turning point. Although there was so much wrong with the consultant’s conclusions, it gave me the strength to get to the bottom of this by myself, as I could see that I wasn’t going to get any help.

Although it was unbearable to start with, I managed to find solace in an innocuous little Toshiba tape cassette player. I found that if I pressed down play and record and pause at the same time, I could get this wonderful hissy white noise sound. After using this day and night, and even taking it on tour with me (much to the amusement of the airport staff and security), I was able to slowly take back control of my life again.

The eight tinnitus sounds started to become six, and then five, four, three and two, and I was finally left with one hissy sound which I could cope with, and I was comfortable to live with. I was able to completely get my musical life back on track and started to embark on my career again.

Creating the music for T-Minus has been an amazing experience – and at times, it’s also been incredibly scary, dark and emotional for me

I went on to play with some wonderful artists: Nigel Kennedy (tours and album), Cher (album), The Lighthouse Family (albums), Darryl Hall (album) and Robbie Robertson (album), to name but a few. Plus, I even ran a community Samba band with 111 members in it.

A few years down the line, I was touring with my band and the worst thing that could possibly happen to me occurred one night. I had the tinnitus injury all over again. This time it felt worse; and as I was older with more experience, I had more knowledge as to the extent and severity of my symptoms.

Going to the doctors at this time was poorly judged (by me), as I was told I had to have ear wax removed. A standard procedure for most people, but for me it was a total nightmare. The nurse was not experienced enough and didn’t take into account my past hearing issues. Now my problems were becoming insurmountable. The condition I had now – on top of the raging tinnitus – was called hyperacusis.

My tinnitus symptoms were so bad that I could not leave my house for months. All sounds had become excruciating for me, which as you can imagine, is an extraordinary problem for a musician.

This time (and armed with a recording studio and my knowledge from the Toshiba tape deck), I started to look into music and sound to get to the route of my tinnitus nightmare. I would go out for walks late at night and bathe myself with the distant sounds of nature, the sea, cars and other night-time ambiances. I knew I had to desensitise myself with these sounds.

I then started to put these sounds together and create tinnitus ‘mind environments’ in my studio. I have spent more than a year and a half making the most unique tinnitus sound library out there.

My tinnitus symptoms were so bad that I could not leave my house for months.

What I have learnt is that tinnitus sufferers are capable of helping ourselves! Creating the music for T-Minus has been an amazing experience – and at times, it’s also been incredibly scary, dark and emotional for me; it has opened up very deep wounds and sensitivities surrounding my own issues.

To find these sounds I would go out with a portable recorder to capture my natural found sounds. I would take these back to my studio to EQ these frequencies and blend multiple recordings with musical dialogue and occasionally adding subtle rhythms to create ‘mind environments’.

The reason for adding the music and putting various different waveforms together was to help the individual with the emotional wellbeing and good positive feeling towards the tinnitus-masking sounds: ie simple sounds like an old car indicator and the sound of a Citroen 2CV tyre turning slowly into a gravel road were emotional triggers from my own past that symbolised safety and feeling cared for, and the train music felt like I was going back to a time where I could remember grandparents and happy positive feelings.

This subject matter explores the idea of natural and unnatural elements working together in harmony to create a strange symbiosis that produces a uniquely personal journey into the mind and enables me to work with two very different sound environments. The challenge I set myself was to believe that I could somehow create ‘harmony’ and ‘beauty’ through conflict.

Scary and harrowing, I know. But as time softens those old tinnitus sounds via my own type of sound therapies, I’m able to reflect upon this experience and use these strange, mystical noises to create a new and exciting canvas of mind environments. These have greatly helped the over-stimulation of my mind by delivering tinnitus back to tinnitus, thus eventually dulling and quietening the relentless and maddening tones.

 


Rupert Brown is a musician, producer, music tutor and the developer of T-Minus, a free app that aims to help millions take back control of their tinnitus.