SIDE DOOR – LAURA SIMPSON – AN INTERVIEW

One of the hardest tasks for new artists is their ability to acquire decent shows to raise awareness and create a buzz. Usually the shows aspiring artists book are sporadic at best and at the mercy of the venue in many ways. Side Door is trying to change the face of touring by transferring the control back to the artist.

Side Door is a online platform that matches artists with spaces to create shows anytime and anywhere. According to co-founders CEO Laura Simpson and Juno award winning recording artist Dan Mangan, the heart of Side Door‘s mission is to work closely with artists and hosts to create memorable moments in unique spaces. Side Door believes that any space can be a venue, creating valuable connections between performing artists and hosts in a variety of locations. Since its launch more than 2000 artists and nearly 800 venues have signed up to be part of the platform, resulting in nearly 700 Side Door bookings throughout North America.

Side Door has embarked on a new adventure. They have initiated a new partnership with SXSW called Side Door to SXSW in which Side Door will facilitate 8 curated tours leading to this years conference. The 8 bands selected will have their tour experiences documented culminating with an official Side Door showcase. The 8 bands participating in this initial venture are Partner, Grlwood and WHOOP-Szo from Canada, Mir Fontane, Madison Mcferrin, Kaina, Sen Morimoto and Hayfitz from the U.S.

AMP interviewed CEO Laura Simpson in order to further delve into the workings of Side Door.

AMP: What was the impetus for Side Door?

Simpson: Side Door was simultaneously conceived in Dan and my heads around 2015. We came at it from an artist’s perspective. He was helping out artists that he was working with by mostly finding them house concerts in order to get their feet wet and aid in growing an audience. At the same time I was on the other side of the country hosting shows in my house. I think I started around 2011. I really saw an opportunity to make the repeatable process more efficient with technology. It was actually a mutual artist friend of Dan and I who introduced us. In 2016 we started work shopping the idea but it wasn’t till 2017 when we incorporated the business. We both had the time and inclination to give it a go.

AMP: How Does Side Door Work?

Simpson: For most people it is easiest to understand in the context of an Airbnb model. So it means that online you can be matched with the other party you are looking for. If you are an artist you can find a host or venue and vice a versa. We are basically making it easier to go through the discussion of booking and contracting It breaks it down into stages after you are matched with somebody so it doesn’t feel so opaque and odorous. Meanwhile the format tries to quantify everybody’s expectations ahead of time so by the time the artist gets to the show they can concentrate on having a good time. So it’s a matchmaking, booking and ticketing process. The audience can use our ticketing link to not only know about the shows but also use our payment system therefore the host doesn’t have to worry about paying the artist. It’s all done through our platform.

AMP: How does Side Door differ from Sofar?

Simpson: I would distinguish ourselves from Sofar just by the fact that we focus on connecting the parties involved in organizing a show. The people running the process are the artists and venues. We act more like an agent as opposed to Sofar which is more of a promotional entity. Further more Side Door concentrates on an artist’s full tour. The artist can create their own route and book a series of shows while setting the ticket price. Side Door offers more control.

AMP: What is considered a participating host?

Simpson: As far as our hosting model goes, we have branched out of the house perspective and have begun to explore alternative channels. We have created four categories. First we have private houses. Then there are private businesses where an employer has a large enough office space and wants to do something good for his employees. Thirdly, we have a number of community spaces such as community halls. Lastly, there are public businesses like breweries. So we went from trying to restrict what kind of hosts we accepted to opening it up so we can be the engine that can serve both the artist and venue’s needs. The artist can vet and filter the venues to see if they have done shows with us before and check specifics like capacity. The venue has the same capability. As the filters become more and more detailed both parties can narrow down who they want to engage with.

AMP: What have been some of the successes and setbacks so far?

Simpson: We have this concept that if we serve the artist’s needs we will necessarily attract the best hosts. For the last three years this has served true. We have gone from working with emerging artists to having a number of established artists investing in the company. Recently we have been attracting booking agencies who not only want to work with us but also want to invest. So what Side Door is seeing is a real trust by the music establishment, artists and organizations. They see our platform forging new avenues of touring and converting new audiences in a novel way. Creating these types of alliances and seeing the company grow has been my personal satisfaction. I’m proud of the SXSW project that is currently happening since it was started as a guerrilla project and when the partnership was officially formed it felt real good. As far as setbacks go, we extremely fortunate to be in the position we’re in. Most startups fail after 2 years. We have a small staff but we are really scrappy. The only pitfall is we’re not growing as fast as I know we can but I appreciate where we are and are learning from our small mistakes.

AMP: What kind of feedback have you received from artists concerning Side Door?

Simpson: I could even send you some reactions. We get so much great feedback. Just this morning I received this email, “Holy shit! You guys rock! This is the greatest platform I’ve ever seen. I joined when you first came out but I really didn’t check it out till now. What an incredible platform! What an amazing tool!“. That’s the kind of message we get on a regular basis. Again, we come at this from an artist’s perspective and in my opinion the artists have been under served and disrespected in a lot of ways for way to long.

AMP: Does having Dan Mangan as a partner raise the platform’s visibility?

Simpson: At the beginning (2015) I began drawing up a wire frame for the platform. I remember speaking with my husband about joining forces with Dan and we both felt that even though I could do this on my own, the respect and trust Dan has for the industry would be a major plus. When Dan’s audiences, here in Canada and abroad, see him they feel a “lightness of being“. How can that not be a lightning rod for our company. It’s all a win having Dan a part of this project, for sure.

AMP: How did your current venture with SXSW come about and how were acts selected?

Simpson: We approached SXSW early last year and went back and forth several times till we finalized the scope of the project. We wanted to send a pile of artists but since this was our first year settled on a select few from the pool submitted who were vetted by SXSW. We were able to add an additional artist due to the fact that artist had toured regularly with Side Door. We wanted to select a diverse group of artists not just singer/songwriters. We wanted to showcase the variety of talent Side Door has available.

AMP: How do you spread the word about Side Door?

Simpson: Currently we have a lot of word of mouth. What we ended up doing was every time someone came to a show we tried to engage in a correspondence to gauge if they were interested in hosting another show. We had quite a large number of audience members signing on. We used that methodology a lot. Even though we have not done any major advertising campaigns we believe that partnerships like the SXSW one will boost our visibility by just doing it. Once artists and hosts understand what we are trying to do in changing the profile of touring our exposure will grow.

AMP: Your year in review for 2019 looked very promising. What does the future of Side Door look like?

Simpson: We are aggressively going into the U.S. this year. That means looking for more partnerships and projects like SXSW. We are also trying to develop relationships with organizations and communities to ensure what we are doing can bring them value. We have laid some groundwork in Europe as well with a managing director already in place. The long term goal is to change the the way artists tour. We are taking it one show at time.

AMP wants to thank Laura for her time and energy. We applaud Side Door for wanting to change the touring landscape for the better.

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