Pare Booking App Simplifies The Show Booking Process

In this piece we look at Pare, a new app for touring artists designed to streamline and simplify the hitherto complex, tedious, time-consuming process of booking shows. Here we hear from Brandon Breitenbach, the app's founder.

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Guest Post by Chandler Coyle on NoiseTrade

This blog post was written by Chandler Coyle -­ Founder/Publisher, The Coyle Report and Instructor, Berklee Online

A question I often hear from artists is: “Why can’t booking shows be easier?” Booking often feels like a never­ending job. The challenges of booking shows are legendary. Spending time calling, emailing, and faxing instead of creating new music, recording, or fine­tuning your live show.

The human aspect of the booking process may be art­ knowing the venues, relationships with the talent buyers, negotiating the best deal. The rest of the process ­ the administrative part­­ is science, same crap, different day and, quite understandably, it can be a pain in the butt. While you can’t automate the art elements, I always wondered if someone would try to streamline the science part. Pare Booking has done just that.

Pare Booking is booking made easy. They describe themselves as: “The only booking agency that allows artists to independently and professionally manage every aspect of the booking process through a clean and simple mobile application.”

“It feels great to have the booking agent in the palm of your hand”
– Ethan Luck (Solo Artist, Studio Musician and Touring Musician for Kings Of Leon and The Lees Of Memory)

No, Pare isn’t just another app dreamed up by Silicon Valley tech geeks. Similar to NoiseTrade and PledgeMusic­­ both platforms founded by working artists­­ Pare was envisioned and built by Brandon Breitenbach after spending over 13 years working with touring artists struggling with these same booking hassles.

I spoke with NoiseTrade founder and career touring musician Derek Webb what he thinks about Pare Booking and he responded:

“In the years since I founded NoiseTrade, I’ve watched a handful of friends develop ideas in an effort to help the ever­evolving music community. Few have excited me as much as what Brandon and his team are up to at Pare Booking. Having toured as a blue collar artist for 20 years, I was grinning from ear­to­ear as he showed me their intuitive platform for helping artists book, advance, and manage their shows. it’s detailed and powerful, clean and simple, and cleverly and lovingly crafted by folks who intimately know and understand the problems they’re solving. I can’t recommend Pare highly enough.”

Here’s what a few members of the NoiseTrade community said about Pare Booking:

“As technology continues to influence how we do business in music, Pare Booking could be the perfect companion for up­and­coming bands to bring their booking operations into a more efficient digital space.”
– Jordan Mattison, Showdown Management (The Vespers)

“Finally, no more printing, scanning, and faxing contracts. [Pare] will be a great tool for the independent artist moving forward!”
– Brooke Waggoner (Artist)

To learn more about Pare, I asked founder Brandon Breitenbach a few questions about Pare Booking and the Pare mobile app:

NoiseTrade: What past experiences led you to envision and create Pare?

Brandon Breitenbach: When I first started dreaming about Pare Booking, I had one goal in mind: Bring efficiency to artists, allowing them to book great shows and better manage their touring careers. Independent artists have always been at the core of that dream. In January of 2015, I had no clue that we would be where we are today.

NT: Is there anything you want to add to the way I described how Pare works?

Breitenbach: When we first launched Pare I wanted to hear from our artists on how we could improve the booking experience for them, and the number one response that I kept hearing is “I don’t want to pay a percentage of the show guarantee for a tool.” Now, that was hard to swallow at first, but then I started thinking about it in detail and how this is the way things have always been in our industry. Booking agencies have always taken a percentage (10­15%) of the show for as long as I can remember. But, I asked myself a question “What if we did away with percentages?” What if artists could use Pare to book as many shows as they want and never have to pay a percentage again? This lined up so perfectly with our vision, and was a no­brainer change for us to make! I asked a few of our artists what they thought of this change, and it was a resounding YES! So, like lots of you know ­ we made that change! Here is a simple breakdown example to give you an idea of how we are saving artists money with this change.

The old way: $10,000 @ 10% = $1,000 in booking fees
The Pare Booking way: $10,000 on our yearly plan = $199
A savings of over $800

As founder and CEO, I would like to personally invite you to take the next steps in starting a subscription with us. The subscription premium is a flat rate of $19.99/mo or $199.99/yr and includes a FREE 30­day trial. However, if you choose to become a subscriber today, we will offer you a 50% discount that goes towards your first year with Pare Booking. You’ll be able to really dig into the app, book a few shows, and start tracking your touring expenses within the app. Simply add this promo code NOISETRADE when you complete the sign­up process.

NT: Can you tell us more about the expense tracking functionality?

Breitenbach: When you’re touring, keeping track of expenses is probably the furthest thing from your mind. Financial records and receipts can easily become lost in the shuffle as you travel from city to city. The Pare Team has extensive touring experience (After all, we are artists and touring pros ourselves!), so we understand how difficult maintaining your touring books can be. But we also know how important it is that somebody on your team handles this.

So, we designed our expense tool with all of the above in mind. Within the Pare app, you can track and record an itemized list of your expenses in seconds. It’s all there: per diems, gas, guitar strings, and much more. Fast, easy, and worry­free. Plus, with a single click, you can export all of your financial records for the year to an Excel document, then simply hand it off to your business manager or tax guy.

Trust us, come tax time; you’ll be glad this tool was in the Pare app, and in your pocket every single day of your touring life! This is just one more way we are saving you time and money, helping your touring career to run efficiently and profitably.

NT: We’ve seen a lot of tech platforms purport to solve the pain points of artists. In theory, they may be a good idea, but in practice, they may not get adopted and succeed. What do you think PARE has that will lead it to be used by artists and venues and, hopefully, make it successful?

Breitenbach: We aren’t reinventing the wheel here. We are simply taking the current process that large agencies use to book shows and automating it, making it available to any artist. Pare has seen shows booked in under 2 minutes, and this includes signing the contract and paying the deposit.

NT: Your focus seems to be solely on the artist side of the equation in your launch and marketing materials, but what about the venue talent buyers? What is their initial reaction to the app and do you have any guarantees that they will support it?

Breitenbach: We worked just as hard on the promoter/buyer side. The talent buyer fills out the offer form, and the system takes over from there. With auto­reply emails the buyer doesn’t have to wait 3­5 days for a response.

NT: For an independent artist who books shows, streamlining the administrative process of booking shows is a no brainer. What about getting the offers in the first place? How do you think PARE will help an artist get offers for gigs?

Breitenbach: We are currently building a promoter platform that’s going to answer this question. Be on the lookout for this later this year!

NT: Is there anything else you want the artists of the NoiseTrade community to know about Pare?

Breitenbach: Pare has a killer team of touring musicians that are here to help! We want you to know that Pare is more than an application, more than a piece of technology. We are a company comprised of people who find great meaning in helping artists succeed. That’s why we have an artist relations team you can speak to via email or phone whenever you need, to answer any touring question, and to help in any way we can with your career as it grows.

We are a group of artists and industry pros who have lived where you live…on the road, in a van, in a bus, on an airplane. And we believe the solutions we are offering to your touring business will be real and lasting…just like the relationships we foster with you, the artist.

Contact us anytime, anywhere. We are here to help you meet your touring goals.

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