Tenant Spotlight: Jared Judge of BookLive

So BookLive’s missions is to help make art a profitable thing, so that artists and musicians everywhere can do more of what they love to do. Right now it is challenging for them because they are so passionate about creating new things that they don’t spend time on the business end, nor were they trained on it. They didn’t go to business school; I didn’t go to business school. BookLive is a software that helps do the back office and business for the artists so they don’t have to learn things from scratch.

We launched a beta about a year ago, and have since grown to over 700 users. Most are musicians, but we are currently in the process of expanding beyond music (theater, visual arts, etc). 

So far, these musicians have played hundreds of gigs and use the software tools, 1, to get the gigs, and 2, to write their contract, take credit card payments, and manage people - like making sure their musicians show up on time, know the music, and are familiar enough with the venue so they can just show up and play. It helps band members get paid out of the full sum given to the band. It's a full end to end solution, that makes art easy + fun to do!

 

Full time employees, it’s just me! But, I have two other partners that are the Chief Technology Officer and Chief Marketing Officer. Apart from that we have 5-6 contractors that help out, advisors, and I like to think that musicians in a way are helping build the platform because they, and the booking clients, are shaping the product.  There is also a Nō Studios member that recently joined the project, Jim Neuner, who is the head of venue relations- helping to shape the venue directory side of BookLive.

I am from New Jersey. I grew up in Princeton and then went to Penn State University, and became a music teacher for kids K-12. Then, on the side, I ran an opera company, because being a teacher wasn’t tiring enough. What brought me to Milwaukee was the opportunity to be a Graduate Assistant at UWM for orchestra conducting. I got my degree there, and started Dream City Music, which became successful enough that I didn’t need a "real" job when I graduated in 2017. Fast forward two years, and here we are with BookLive at Nō Studios. 

The current trajectory is helping all kinds of artists. We started in music, but in the next couple of months, we are working with Imagine MKE to include visual and performing artists and even people outside of those categories. The goal is to have BookLive be the vehicle for these artists to make money.

If we continue on this mission, we could be a powerful force to help artists nationally. Currently, we have users across the country, but maintain strong roots in Milwaukee. But, we would like to see how far we can take this.

I am a musician myself, and when I was in grad school I was struggling to make ends meet, as grad students do. I didn’t want to get a job flipping burgers, I wanted it to be related to my passion. So, when I started Dream City, it was to make money. I discovered it was really hard to make something on your own as a musician. There were so many different challenges and it began taking up so much time that grades started slipping, and professors were not very happy.

I had been a coder since middle school, so I thought, well this is an engineering problem. I can automate a solution. So, I identified different parts of the artistic process that weren’t very creative, but took up the most time, like communication. Sending out a contract to a client isn’t as fun as making music, but it is necessary if you want to make money. I began auto generating contracts based on gig details with digital signatures instead of mailing. I then created a portal that couples could log in to, to choose songs for their wedding playlist whenever they wanted, saving me time by not having to get that information out of them through constant emailing. I continued finding pieces that could be automated, and eventually had an all in one solution that I could benefit from. When it was developed enough to where it was useful to others, I opened it up. 

Make learning business a part of your process. You don’t need a whole degree, but understanding the basics of contracts is super important. Another is finding your why. Like, why are you doing what you’re doing - and in order to do your why, you have to be fluent in the basics of artistic business, otherwise you are opening yourself up to being taken advantage of, and it happens all the time. Start small, you don’t have to do everything all at the same time; build in pieces. Identify one need at a time. Eventually that one thing turns into, you just did 1000 things and you’re so much better for it. 

Author: Eric Ries

This book is all about finding small problems, that once you solve them, lead to the next thing and the next. It helps prove that what you are doing is viable. 

Author: Simon Sinek

The basis is to find out why you are doing this. I discovered my why, which is that I want to help artists of all kinds, make a living doing what they want to do. It’s too hard to do that without the right tools.