HALIFAX – It can be much harder today for musical artists to make a living at their craft. Digital technology was all but wiped-out album sales and, unless you know the right people, finding venues to play at can be frustrating.
But a Halifax-based business is making it easier every day for artists to find venues and venues to find artists. In 2017 Laura Simpson and Juno award winner Dan Mangan launched Side Door, an online platform that matched artists with places to play.
They are fast becoming the Airbnb of the concert scene in Canada. With Side Door, artists who don’t have an agent, manager, or industry connections, can find an audience.
“Most of the revenue artists earn these days is from touring because streaming really diminished the ability to sell music. So, the touring element is essential to earn an income,” says Simpson.
“Most of the folks who play, like 97 percent of them…don’t have representation. It is with representation that you can get into gigs and you can get on tours. And, beyond that, you’re really fighting for the off-nights and just trying to prove yourself to the bar managers. It could be a real struggle.”
Side Door, which makes its money by taking just under 10 percent of ticket sales, also encourages people to use their own homes and properties as concert venues. Side Door’s philosophy is anywhere can be a stage for music. Side Door has helped accommodate concerts in such unique places as goat farms, barns, and even a National park.
“People who have a space to offer can create this ecosystem. You can be an active participant in a tour route to help artists come out East and play,” says Simpson.
“The environment is really the third character in the scene. You’ve got your audience and your artist, but the place where you’re seeing something – it’s exciting and it can really add to the vibe.”
Simpson and Mangan met through a mutual friend in 2016 when they discovered they both had a similar idea for hosting a house-concert series. From there, the duo’s partnership formed and Side Door became a reality.
Simpson’s love of music and time spent in the music industry also formed the foundation of her business. In a previous career, Simpson was an export development officer, helping run a fund for Music Nova Scotia that helped artists go on tour. In that role, she saw how often artists struggled to make money.
“Oftentimes, people who go and do all the right things still come back having lost money because it’s just such a risky endeavor,” explains Simpson.
The music entrepreneur also discovered years ago how joyful it is to turn one’s home into a concert venue. Side Door now gives her a way to spread that joy to other people.
“My husband and I have been hosting house concerts at our place since 2011. And I do remember there was one night back in 2015 when I was watching a show happening in my backyard and thinking to myself, ‘this doesn’t get much better than this,’” she recalls.
Right now, Side Door hosts 5,000 artists and 2,000 venues and they will be looking to expand more into the United States within the next year. The expansion will be made possible by a $3- million in seed money recently raised by a series of investors. Side Door hopes to put on 100 U.S. concerts in the next six months.
The group that led this big investment is a Vancouver firm called Rhino Ventures. Peter Hung, one of Rhino’s investors, became sold on Side Door after seeing the passion Simpson and Mangan had for their product.
He was particularly impressed with the two’s ambitious goal of helping 100,000 musical artists earn $100,000 a year.
“When we met Dan and Laura for the first time, we were absolutely blown away by the way they conveyed their story and their passion,” recalls Hung. “We do a lot of founder calls every day and Dan and Laura definitely stood out. We felt the emotion they shared with us.”
Hung became emotionally invested in the product when he attended his first virtual concert hosted through Side Door.
“The artist was connecting directly with the audience…people were crying – there were tears, people were singing along,” recalls Hung. “And I was just so captured by that experience. I don’t think that time could ever be erased from my memory.”
The rise in virtual concerts during the Covid-19 pandemic proved to be fruitful for Side Door. Using Zoom, the platform hosted more than 900 concerts, and Simpson believes virtual concerts are here to stay.
“One of the reasons we wanted to do that was so that the audience and the artists could all see each other. People were really turning on their mics and having good communication with the audience.”
“For us and the artists that we worked with, this was our biggest time to date.”
Right now, Side Door is hiring more technical staff and preparing for a world where people will want both in-person and virtual concerts.
“We had to pivot once with the in-person to online last March. And now we are going through another pivot and now the world is changing again, and we have to adapt to going back to in-person and infusing the online with that,” she explains.
“And we really see a bright future for the hybrid model.”
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was higher in late-morning trading, helped by strength in energy stocks, while U.S. stock markets also moved up.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 34.91 points at 23,736.98.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 178.05 points at 41,800.13. The S&P 500 index was up 28.38 points at 5,661.47, while the Nasdaq composite was up 133.17 points at 17,725.30.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.56 cents US compared with 73.57 cents US on Monday.
The November crude oil contract was up 68 cents at US$69.70 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was up three cents at US$2.40 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was down US$7.80 at US$2,601.10 an ounce and the December copper contract was up a penny at US$4.28 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
TORONTO – Strength in the base metal and technology sectors helped Canada’s main stock index gain almost 100 points on Friday, while U.S. stock markets climbed to their best week of the year.
“It’s been almost a complete opposite or retracement of what we saw last week,” said Philip Petursson, chief investment strategist at IG Wealth Management.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 297.01 points at 41,393.78. The S&P 500 index was up 30.26 points at 5,626.02, while the Nasdaq composite was up 114.30 points at 17,683.98.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 93.51 points at 23,568.65.
While last week saw a “healthy” pullback on weaker economic data, this week investors appeared to be buying the dip and hoping the central bank “comes to the rescue,” said Petursson.
Next week, the U.S. Federal Reserve is widely expected to cut its key interest rate for the first time in several years after it significantly hiked it to fight inflation.
But the magnitude of that first cut has been the subject of debate, and the market appears split on whether the cut will be a quarter of a percentage point or a larger half-point reduction.
Petursson thinks it’s clear the smaller cut is coming. Economic data recently hasn’t been great, but it hasn’t been that bad either, he said — and inflation may have come down significantly, but it’s not defeated just yet.
“I think they’re going to be very steady,” he said, with one small cut at each of their three decisions scheduled for the rest of 2024, and more into 2025.
“I don’t think there’s a sense of urgency on the part of the Fed that they have to do something immediately.
A larger cut could also send the wrong message to the markets, added Petursson: that the Fed made a mistake in waiting this long to cut, or that it’s seeing concerning signs in the economy.
It would also be “counter to what they’ve signaled,” he said.
More important than the cut — other than the new tone it sets — will be what Fed chair Jerome Powell has to say, according to Petursson.
“That’s going to be more important than the size of the cut itself,” he said.
In Canada, where the central bank has already cut three times, Petursson expects two more before the year is through.
“Here, the labour situation is worse than what we see in the United States,” he said.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.61 cents US compared with 73.58 cents US on Thursday.
The October crude oil contract was down 32 cents at US$68.65 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was down five cents at US$2.31 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$30.10 at US$2,610.70 an ounce and the December copper contract was up four cents US$4.24 a pound.
— With files from The Associated Press
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was down more than 200 points in late-morning trading, weighed down by losses in the technology, base metal and energy sectors, while U.S. stock markets also fell.
The S&P/TSX composite index was down 239.24 points at 22,749.04.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 312.36 points at 40,443.39. The S&P 500 index was down 80.94 points at 5,422.47, while the Nasdaq composite was down 380.17 points at 16,747.49.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.80 cents US compared with 74.00 cents US on Thursday.
The October crude oil contract was down US$1.07 at US$68.08 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was up less than a penny at US$2.26 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was down US$2.10 at US$2,541.00 an ounce and the December copper contract was down four cents at US$4.10 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 6, 2024.
