New marketplace for booking DJ’s/Artists
It’s not very common a technology based startup comes out of Australia that is sincerely developed to help boost the local entertainment scene. Enter Request Artists, a new marketplace to help DJ’s and Artists find work from companies that require their services. Helping our valued creatives further fund their dreams, so they can keep doing what they love.
I had the pleasure of chatting with its co-founders — John Curtin and John Course, two experienced business operatives in Australia that have Uber Eats, Ministry of Sound, Stereosonic, and Festival X in their resumes of brands they helped build.
1) Thanks for having a chat to us, we love new home-bred solutions like this that help the local entertainment and music scene. First of all, seeing that you’re from the industry did this business come to light solving your own problem or from industry colleagues, how did the idea for this come to light?
John Curtin — From my point of view I have always worked in the marketing side of hospitality, startups, corporates and events, I have always been asked to help with the booking of artists, so John Course came to me with the concept and I loved it, we really thought about it from the artist, venue, booker, PR and client point of view and tried to automate the system, have the end user select based on genre, venue and also be able to view, listen and really get a vibe for the artists. We partnered with a long time friend and expert in Sound and AV so we could be a one stop shop for the entire process which has been a great option for many of our events thus far.
John Course — A little bit by solving my own problem. I often was asked by people in clubs if I was available for private events, or contacted through Facebook for the same thing and the issue is always “What sort of private event”. As a club DJ I’m fine with playing the music I play for an event, but if they want to hear ABBA, The Village People and a stack of R&B, I’m not your guy. So while I knew there was demand, I wasn’t sure there was a great vetting or search system to match the publics individual event to the right DJ. I also knew there was demand for people who had danced to DJ’s in clubs, to have those very same DJ’s at their private events, be it a wedding, engagement, birthday or corporate event because I had done some for personal friends and they had been awesome. As a DJ I’d enjoyed them and musically, the friends had wanted what they knew I would play, so they worked together.
2) Are you able to describe what Request Artists in a simple one liner?
John Curtin — Request Artists connects the best artists with your amazing event.
John Course — We match great DJ’s to private events for When Music Matters.
3) How is this different from similar platforms out there?
There are a lot of artists that aren’t available on other platforms and this will be growing over the next 12–18 months, we have some great search functionalities and also for artists we have transparent and fair pricing. We want our artists to be paid fairly and we have a system that they are. Also I guess with our experience we bring in some different angles of doing things, some good some bad
4) We know this can be used by a range of different entertainers to find work, but which entertainers do you think this will benefit the most?
John Curtin — There are a few types:
- Emerging artists can play at events and get noticed in music/event styled events
- Some older artists who can play events and can be really cool legacy styled events
- We have a great portfolio of fashion friendly acts that are awesome for brand launches and different fashion events
- Artists are often pigeon holed to having Friday and Saturday work, with Request Artists they have the opportunity to play really great gigs at times that won’t hopefully affect their normal club/event shows
- We are starting to speak to some catering and venue companies
John Course — All of our DJ’s actually DJ in clubs. We also have several “search tools” within the site to specify DJ’s who work (or worked) at a favourite club you may of attended (or still do attend) and a second music related search tool that allows you to filter DJ’s by the music styles they play. Once you’ve found a potential match you can share the DJ’s playlists with your friends or co-workers and also from there easily make enquiries and complete booking contracts and payments all online. So we have quite a few things which separate us from other booking services which may have only one of these sorts of features.
5) It’s been a little while since it launched, can you share some success stories of how it connected entertainers with companies?
John Curtin — We have had some really special events including Essendon Football Club Christmas Party, John Course playing the Festival X Artist Party, an epic 50th birthday at Cumulus with 2 of our artists Jorj and Jono with Leo Sayer and the Mossimo x Target Summer launch.
John Course — I’ve had bookings for me for weddings and birthdays from people who used to go to One Love or had a Ministry Mix CD where they were literally like “I listened to your Sessions 1 disc all the time and I want music like that”, or “We met on the dance floor at One Love while you were playing and we’re getting married and want to see if you can do a guest set at our wedding”. Clearly music was important for these people and they didn’t want a random mobile DJ that they couldn’t relate to when Request can connect artists who have a synergy with the clients. It’s experiences like those that we are trying to make happen.
6) Lastly where would you like Request Artists be in a year from now?
John Curtin — We will be working towards growing the platform and connecting the best artists with your event
John Course — After our launch with a Victoria focus from Beta late 2019 and into 2020, I’d like to see us Australia wide by the end of the year. I know there are people across the country who love dance music (not pop and rock) and want club DJ’s and club music for their events, or music with a cooler edge than some mobile DJ’s can supply, so we want be known as the place to go “When Music Matters”. If you have zero care about the music at your event, then maybe we’re not for you, but if it’s important to have great music that suits your event in a personal and important way, or if you want a well known DJ for a private event, then we’re the place to go!!!
If you’re an artist looking for work, or a company looking to talent have a look at the website and sign up, the interface and user-experience has been designed to be seamless.
