E24: Empowering people to host, artists to earn & tour, and fans to enjoy the shows with Laura Simpson, Co-founder and CEO of Side Door Access
Speaker Bio:
Laura Simpson is one of the co-founders and CEO of side door access. She is a living large, DNA music pumping through her veins, music industry professional. She lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She also founded the surf factory, which began hosting house concerts in 2011, offering strategies and services to artists in 2015. She's also been an organizer in the art scene since she was 14 years old going to all age shows and then eventually taking live music photography and freelancing. She is writing about shows and artists which later to become a journalist for seven years with CDC and Roger's radio. Eventually, she found her way back to the music world and has been involved in numerous initiatives from working as an export development officer and communication manager for Music Nova Scotia. There's also the Halifax jazz festival, the Capicola, the East Coast Music Association in 2015. Lauren even mentored with some top-tier music marketing teams at Blackbox and LA. She's even juried on Music Nova Scotia health x pop explosion, CBC music search like competition and the Juno's and now one of the co-founders and the CEO side door access where they have a dream of making things better for touring artists and live music fans.
Episode Overview.
Side Door Access was started with the welfare of the artists and the fans enjoyment deeply in mind. The business is built on tech to make it easier for artists who are touring to find places to tour and to have better profit margins. When it started, they located venues that are low overhead, including houses, cafes, bookstores, churches and people who want to offer that space for a show. The process is a split so that the artist gets the majority of the revenue and a portion is taken cared by host to cover costs and then have a typical booking fee which is the same in the industry right now, but being done doing it virtually and they are building the tech so that they can try to create almost like a Tinder-style match between the host and the artist. Using their preferences, they put in the details and instantly they're going to get back basically a match that sounds like they could play on the location at this time.
it's an automatic contract that's made and the two parties decide what they want to do with that show and they're off to the races. Side Door does all the ticketing, help with the promotion, support them with all sorts of best practices because the one of the founders is a host herself. Laura’s co-founder is Dan Mangan who is a junior award-winning artist in Canada and he built his career on doing house concerts and now he's doing huge concerts. They have seen both sides of that process. They wanted to find a way to make it a little bit easier for artists who are constantly struggling to make a living with all their touring.
What you will learn in this episode:
The people are the resources. You don’t think about it unless you talk to those people. A network can give you ways to structure your business or ways to finance the company. The company survives and thrives based on trust by influencers. Not every company wants to be a Unicorn but a zebra which is like the strong and steady Staying true to your personal philosophy and motivation for doing it. Take advantage of scheduling tools to make things easier Walk the dog every single day for an hour keeps clear your head Moving outside and being outside in the fresh air is close to meditation and makes you more productive later during the day. Steadying and maintaining the philosophy and that motivating factor which keeps you going forward.
Resources Mentioned:
Productivity Tool: Podio
Productivity Tool: Calend.ly
Website: Side Door Access
Website: Haligonia
Conference: Dazzle Con
Book: Chris Hadfield’s The Astronaut
Book: Tiffany Haddish’s The Black Unicorn
Book: Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard
Hotspots: Agricola Street Brasserie
Hotspots: The Seahorse and The Marquee
Hotspots: Seafood at Nova Scotia
Twiter: @novascotiamusic
Company Overview:
Side Door is a startup in BETA phase. We give audiences instant access to intimate and unique events happening right in their own neighborhoods. Artists match with hosts who turn their private homes, businesses or alternative spaces into venues while we manage the ticketing fairly and transparently.
Our goal is to create a direct-to-audience gigging economy, trimming overhead and making touring financially feasible even for emerging acts. We want to foster connective tissue between people in tactile offline shared experiences.
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free