Kelley Williams (right) is the vocalist and guitarist of Las Cruces band Back of a Car.
One of Kelley Williams’s most boasted memories of his recent tour was the night that his band, Back of a Car, played a show on the roof of a trophy-engraving center in Arlington, Texas. “There were like forty people who came. It was really cool,” he says.
These are the kinds of tour experiences that resonate the most with Williams: well attended, personal and obscure. But, of course, they’re difficult to come by. Back of a Car’s status as a post-hardcore emo group based out of Las Cruces, New Mexico, means that booking tours around the country entails a lot of pavement-pounding, word-of-mouth connections and Facebook searches.
“For a lot of people that I know, and myself included, booking a DIY tour is one of the most difficult things, for sure,” Williams says.
Imagining artists like Williams calling friends of friends, poring over Facebook and carefully wording e-mails to venues makes you wonder if he’s behind on his technology. Is this really still how independent artists get booked? Are cold calls and mass e-mails still the best way to make a tour happen?
That was the sentiment that sparked Patrick Quinn’s work on a new product, Backline. Watching his younger brother’s own struggle with the business side of becoming a full-time Austin-based musician showed Quinn that there was likely a market for helping independent artists book tours in a rather simple way.
“For too long, the people who were in charge of the music industry were not the people making the music,” Quinn explains. “And right now, as technology becomes more prevalent and as the music industry shifts, people like my brother are getting to make more decisions on their art and on their career in music. I think that’s really cool, and I want to help that happen.”
The product hasn’t even reached beta stage yet, but the concept is this: Touring independent bands use the web-based tool to create a profile that they fill with the information that venues want to see — press kits, tour stats, songs samples and general band details. This centralized information allows bands to contact venues in other states in a more streamlined manner, as well as connect with other independent bands around the country to fill their bills.
“If you think of all the things the music industry has created — all of the support systems from a manager, an agent, a booking agent — they’re all there for a reason,” Quinn says. “But these independent artists don’t have the tools to help manage the business of being in a band. So that’s what we started to do.”
Aaron Walker, Backline’s director of product communications, likens Backline to a sort of LinkedIn for bands. Just like LinkedIn guides users to input the necessary information to get job offers, Backline will help artists provide the stats needed to get booked.
The product will be free, which should be a good fit for unsigned artists, right? Some independent bands still have questions about this sort of business model. For example, the distillation of a band’s information into a single web-based profile raises some uncertainty for Williams. He fears that relying on stats without interacting with the musicians will give venues a limited view of a band, allowing them to partake in a sort of Tinder for venues. “Emo band?” they might ask. “Swipe right. These touring stats? Swipe right.”
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Those interested in sampling Backline’s Beta version can visit the website to request an invite. Beta release is expected late December 2016-early January 2017.
By Mariah Taylor
Lots more on this! Read the whole article here:
http://www.westword.com/music/backline-seeks-to-help-touring-bands-but-will-indie-artists-embrace-the-technology-8362482