ReverbNation is combining data and human curation in new ways that benefit developing artists. The indie music tech powerhouse is using curation-at scale to help to chose bands for Milwaukee’s multi-day Summerfest and other major festivals.
ReverbNation revealed that it has become an important behind the scenes player for several globally known music festivals, tours and sporting events who have tapped into the company’s curation-at-scale capability to find bands to fill performance slots.
Milwaukee’s Summerfest, Barcelona’s Hard Rock Rising, Special Olympics, and others have used ReverbNation’s curation platform to find the bands.
ReverbNation’s three-tiered curation platform is part big data, part human. Near the top of the curation pyramid are ten Senior Curators based in major markets. Each is also a music journalist, DJ, producer, manager or television producer.
“We ingest a tremendous amount of original music from new bands each month, and our curation-at-scale platform has enabled us to review this music to find the most promising bands for these career building opportunities,” said Simon Perry, ReverbNation’s CCO and Head of A&R. “The industry is beginning to see ReverbNation as an important, cost effective source to identify many of the best emerging artists, and that’s a huge validation of what we’ve been working towards for several years.”
“The quality of bands our entertainment buyers were able to secure through our relationship with ReverbNation was extraordinary this summer,” stated John Boler, Chief Marketing Officer of Summerfest which features 800 performers and hosts 900,000 fans.
For Hard Rock Rising, nearly 13,000 bands globally participated and six finalists travelled to Barcelona to compete for a slot to perform on the festival stage in Barcelona. Minneapolis-based Enemy Planes, who have been ReverbNation members since 2007, won the slot, appearing in front of the tens of thousands of music fans at Parc del Forum Barcelona on July 24th. ReverbNation also chose 65 bands for the 46 day Special Olympics Unified Relay Across America.
In addition to collaborating with festivals, ReverbNation’s curation platform powers the Company’s CONNECT program, an artist development incubator introduced earlier this year.
