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General News
Welcome to A New VIP-Booking.com for a Changing Industry
After more than 25 years in the live music industry, VIP-Booking.com is entering a new chapter. With AI, better data and new tools changing the way we work, we are developing the platform for the future – while keeping our focus on personal relationships, independent players and the grassroots sector that continues to drive the industry forward.
AI is going to change the live music industry in ways we are only beginning to understand.
It will make many processes faster and more efficient, but it will also make fraud much easier to create and much harder to detect. Fake artists, fake agents, false contact details, manipulated streaming figures, fabricated social media profiles and increasingly convincing emails and documents will all become easier to produce.
For promoters, agents, venues and other industry professionals, knowing that the person and information on the other side are genuine will become increasingly important.
That is why I believe valid and verified industry data will be one of the most important assets in the years ahead.
At VIP-Booking.com, we have worked with live music industry data for more than 25 years. During that time, we have seen enormous changes in the business. The industry has become much more professional, global and technology-driven – but also significantly more commercialised.
Technology can make our work faster and smarter, but we should also be careful not to lose one of the most important parts of this industry: personal relationships.
Live music has always been a people business. Agents know promoters, promoters trust bookers, managers build long-term relationships, and sometimes an artist gets an opportunity simply because somebody believes in them. AI can help us find information and make better decisions, but if every conversation eventually becomes automated, we risk all ending up talking to robots.
The challenge is therefore not to choose between technology and personal relationships. It is to use technology to make the human side of the business stronger.
A new VIP-Booking.com
This thinking is also behind the new generation of VIP-Booking.com.
After more than 25 years in the industry, we are continuing to develop the platform around better data, smarter tools and easier ways for professionals to find and connect with the right people.
But our basic philosophy has not changed.
We believe independent promoters, agents, managers, festivals and venues remain essential to a healthy live music ecosystem. The same is true for grassroots venues and emerging artists. Without places where new artists can perform, experiment and build an audience, there will eventually be fewer artists capable of filling tomorrow`s theatres, arenas and festivals.
The large companies are an important part of today`s live business, but the independent sector is where much of the industry`s diversity, risk-taking and new talent still begins.
That is something we want VIP to continue supporting.
Helping new artists get through the door
One of our new projects is BandPitch PRO, which has been created to make it easier for venues and bookers to discover and evaluate new artists.
Bookers receive enormous numbers of applications, emails and links from artists hoping for a show. For the artist, getting the attention of the right booker can be difficult. For the booker, sorting through all those submissions can be equally difficult.
BandPitch is designed to make that process more structured.
The idea is not to replace the booker`s judgement. It is to give bookers a better tool for reviewing new talent and to give emerging artists a clearer route towards the people who actually programme venues.
Ultimately, somebody still has to listen to the music, see the potential and decide: “I want to give this artist a chance.”
That human decision is something no algorithm should replace.
Join the conversation
VIP-News should also be more than a place where we report company announcements, appointments, acquisitions and festival news.
We would like it to be a place where people working in the live music industry can discuss where the business is heading.
If you are a promoter, agent, manager, venue operator, festival organiser, artist representative or simply somebody working in the industry with something on your mind, please reach out.
It could be about AI, ticket prices, touring costs, independent venues, consolidation, artist development, sustainability, regulation – or something completely different.
You don`t have to agree with us.
In fact, the industry probably benefits when we don`t all agree.
What matters is that we keep talking to each other.
Because no matter how sophisticated our technology becomes, this industry still depends on good information, good music – and good people.
Comment from Ronni Didriksen - Founder VIP-Booking.com