Promotion and marketing

Creative ways to build audiences across Ontario’s live music sector

Audience development is critical to the long-term success of the live music sector. Performers depend on receptive and engaged audiences to come out and attend their shows; promoters and venue owners depend on them to purchase tickets or pay cover charges. Finding ways to build and renew audiences, especially through effective promotion and marketing of Ontario’s diverse music scenes, is a concern for all in the live music industry.

There is a sense within the industry and beyond that Ontario’s sector is an underdeveloped resource with huge potential for greater economic, social, and cultural impacts. Live music can, and should, increasingly partner with cities, tourism organizations, and other industry sectors to attract audiences and tourists.

Understanding audiences

Our consultation revealed that presenters and promoters in Ontario generally have a good understanding of their audiences and potential new markets. This can be attributed in large part to unprecedented access to social media as a marketing tool, and to the metrics that accompany these tools. However, respondents to our consultation reported there is still a desire for more comprehensive data (further discussed below in the “Impact Measurement” section) and that not all promoters or presenters are using the tools available. Smaller operations, specifically, may lack the capacity to effectively utilize data even when the resources are known and available to them.

According to our survey, emerging promoters sometimes struggle with understanding what sponsors and advertisers, a key component of their business directly linked to growth, want.

At the same time, francophone music presenters—those that program events entirely in the French language— are often in smaller and more rural communities and are less inclined to take risks with programming. They are more likely to book established acts and not experiment with new genres. The difficulty of gathering and accessing data on francophone audience preferences exacerbates this problem, which can ultimately deprive new genres of audiences and opportunities in these communities.

Building effective partnerships

Partnerships with cities, tourism organizations, and other industries can be an effective way to market and promote live music. The role of live music as an important draw for visitors is being increasingly studied. A 2013 report from the Ontario Arts Council, the Ontario Arts and Culture Tourism Profile, found that arts and culture tourists spend more and stay longer than other kinds of tourists.

There is, however, limited awareness among both the tourism and live music sectors of the mutual opportunities posed by partnership. Many respondents to our consultation also noted that connecting with tourism organizations or businesses is significantly more challenging for smaller organizations, and those in rural communities.

Building these partnerships is an important priority for the sector, and professional development opportunities, such as Canadian Music Week, could be leveraged to respond to this need. Industry organizations, such as Music Canada Live, could also support this goal by offering tools or resources that respond to the needs of the industry, such as:

• the Canadian Live Music Industry Awards
• trade delegations to music festivals and nearby markets
• facilitating stronger relationships with tourism organizations, such as Destination Ontario

The Ontario Live Music Portal

As a comprehensive live music listing website, the Ontario Live Music Portal is potentially a key resource for activating the Vision for Ontario’s Live Music Industry. It features listings in every region of the province, and in communities both large and small. The Portal serves as a one-stop source for live music offerings anywhere in the province, for domestic consumers and visitors alike. The Portal’s listings are populated by aggregated data feeds, submissions from independent live music presenters, and the performers themselves.

The Portal represents an excellent potential resource for industry, listing nearly ten thousand events in any given year, but ultimately requires wider recognition and dedicated resources for growth. It could also be a powerful tool for reaching the millions of visitors to Ontario every year, allowing them to plan their visit around, or enhance their visit through, live music experiences.