Member Article

Entrepreneurial brothers launch North East music startup

Tyneside-born brothers Stephen and Paul Davis have launched a new business designed to provide a one-stop shop for all things music in the North East.

Following a £50,000 investment from private investors, Gigs North East acts as both a promotion and networking website allowing bands to promote their talents and sell their merchandise.

Expecting to turnover £400,000 in its first year of trading, the startup has also set its sights on employing a further 20 staff in the North West, to kickstart the second phase of its scaleable business model.

The interactive new platform has taken almost nine years to come to fruition and allows artists to upload their music and promote themselves to fans and promoters alike as well as giving them exclusive access to music PR experts, videographers, tour managers, and agents.

Gigs North East has also confirmed it has already set up an in-house record label and will be using its new facility to keep tabs on the North East’s finest emerging talent and has pledged to sign up the very best.

With lucrative advertising deals already confirmed, Gigs North East Managing Director, Steve Davis, said: “Gigs North East was set up to create a marketplace for regional live music artists and their fans to communicate and trade. It is built up by several different elements but contains over 200 individual stores currently with more to come.

“The new company is a completely new concept, and we don’t have any direct competition. There are similar promotion tools nationally with Ents 24 and GigsandTours.com, but none of them combines the artist services to go with the promotion on offer.

“We haven’t launched Gigs North East just because we live here, the history of the music scene doesn’t lie. There are lots of amazing acts here, but few of them, if any, makes the grade nationally. We want to bridge that gap for artists that are good enough to progress.”

The business hopes to provide an unrivalled promotion platform for musicians, venues and businesses involved in the sector and will also act as a ticket portal and merchandise hub for hundreds of bands in the region.

Over 200 bands have already signed up to Gigs North East, and the company has signed four bands to its label and currently works alongside 20 venues.

The company hopes to have over 1,000 bands using its services by the end of year one and have promotional deals with over 40 venues.

With limited overheads and over 50 years of experience in the music industry, Gigs North East believes it can treble its turnover inside three years as it moves in on the North West market.

“With sales of CDs being diminished by the digital revolution and the streaming habits of the consumer constantly on the rise, we have become accustomed to it becoming increasingly difficult for bands to earn from their trade,” explains Steve Davis.

“The current streaming trend makes us wonder how long even record labels will be able to function. It has never been more important for artists to have a direct line to their followers and venues need closer links with the bands they want to promote and book. Our service provides this.”

O2 Academy Newcastle General Manager, Paul Twynham, has said Gigs North East will be a welcome addition to the industry in the region.

He explained: “Any platform that allows the underdog to get more exposure and offer resources such as Gigs North East will be a valuable addition to any music scene.

“It can be hard for individual musicians and bands starting out to get to grips with these services when tackling them on their own. They should be spending their time creating, writing, rehearsing and gigging so to have this in place is a godsend.

“To know that everything is in one place; merchandise, ticket sales, listings and biographies with total editing and control at your fingertips, it’s a no-brainer!”

Gig North East sponsor, PMT Newcastle, said it’s looking forward to a bright future for the region’s musicians now that the new support service has launched.

Store Manager at PMT Newcastle, sponsor of Gigs North East, Thomas Mclaughlin, added: “PMT Newcastle prides itself of being fully immersed in North East’s music scene and we’re looking forward to working with Steve and Paul at Gigs North East to help musicians get the exposure they deserve and get their music heard.

“Opening our store in Newcastle had been on the cards for a while. A city with such a rich background in rock and roll we felt we had to be involved. Since opening we’ve had plenty of local legends in through the doors and we’ve been involved with a number of projects and we’re delighted to be working with Gigs North East to help make the industry even stronger.”

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