Common Space

Musicians, comedians and other creatives - this is for you! What does Common Space do? It allows creators to book a world tour from their phone. Ranging from basement listen parties to large venues, Common Space's directory democratizes performing by creating a relationship between venues and performers directly.

Why is Common Space needed?

Performing artists of all sorts regularly struggle to put together a tour - bookers may be unreliable or difficult to get in front of, venues may only work with local artists, getting paid isn't always easy - there are lots of problems that people face when touring.

Common Space is the solution to these problems. At its core, Common Space is a growing and dynamic international directory of spaces and organizers ranging from residential back yards and basements to local dive bars all the way up to larger venues and clubs. Artists can submit booking requests through Common Space - some venues provide instant booking while others allow the venues to screen artists first to make sure the fit is right.

Beyond this core functionality, Common Space does so much more - it becomes the engine that drives artists and venue bookings through facilitating ticket sales, guiding artists in touring strategies, providing payment directly to venues and artists, and providing options for artists to fund their tours.  Artists can also build their networks and communities, both of fans, other artists, bookers, and more. Through profiles on Common Space, artists can share new music or performances, share directly to major social networks, and keep in touch with their fans.

What is the business model?

Common Space has a business model that is easy to understand and easy to implement. From a user perspective, the platform offers two user types - free and paid.  Free users can access the Common Space community network and calendar, maintain an active profile and solicit payments through the profile, share online content (both hosted and streaming), and more. The free account is a great way for users to dip their toes in the water, start to build their network, and share their creativity with the world.  Paid users are the heart of Common Space, not just from a revenue perspective, but for the platform itself. These users are performing artists that want to book shows and tours as well as venues that want to list their space. Through this membership, they are provided access to educational resources (the Touring Guide), an international directory of performance spaces and venues, event promotion tools, and priority access to events, panels, and workshops.

Additional revenue sources include ticket fees (these will be a lot less than what most people are used to paying when they buy tickets from major ticketing companies!), credit card fees associated with the Common Space credit card that users can use to finance tours, advertising and promotion fees, and more. 

The Opportunity

Common Space is doing something that other companies rarely do - it is building a community of users that can also be owners of the company. The company has done a small pre-seed round with investment from owners and strategic partners and plans to raise capital which will largely be deployed for marketing and sales as well as product development. The Common Space website is currently live and its app is nearing its V1 launch. The company has already started building its network of performance spaces and is building the infrastructure needed to support artists and venues alike.

A Business is Only as Good as its Team

The team behind Common Space includes Alex Wiley, Yultron, and Brad Ryan, along with experienced developers, music and entertainment industry veterans and professionals, and more. The company is currently building out its Advisory Board to help guide and shape the future of the business.

Where do we go from here?

Common Space has put together a project road map for the next two years of operations. One of the key focuses of the company is driving user growth and adoption - without users, the platform will not be successful. The company is taking a growth-oriented approach where it will invest in driving user acquisition in favor of generating revenue so that it can reach a critical mass over the next twelve months. Once the business is sufficiently sized, it can than re-focus on revenue generating activities from its user base to drive further growth and adoption.

We are playing to our strengths

Common Space has identified some key ways that it can stand apart from the competition. First and foremost, no other company is providing as all encompassing a solution as Common Space which really sets it up as a first mover in the space. Furthermore, the team has extensive experience in music, entertainment, and live performances which has informed its understanding of a market need and enabled it to create the perfect solution.