Mandolin, a livestreaming platform based in Indianapolis, IN, has announced an exclusive partnership with boutique music booking agency, Ground Control Touring.
This marks Mandolin's first exclusive partnership with any agency and will take advantage of Ground Control Touring’s extensive list of independent artists which include Parquet Courts, Ani DiFranco, Belle and Sebastian, Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, Jackie Lynn and Sonic Youth. Mandolin will oversee not only the livestreaming but the producing and marketing of each show.
For John Chavez, vice president of Ground Control Touring, entering into an exclusive partnership with a single platform made the most business sense.
"With so many new players entering the space and the wide variety of deals being thrown around, we felt as an agency that creating our own in-house solution to simplify the process and have access to the data generated was a no-brainer,” Chavez told Pollstar.
Mary Kay Huse, Mandolin’s CEO and co-founder who previously was an EVP with Salesforce, launched the livestreaming platform last spring. The livestreaming service has already signed exclusive deals with venues including Nashville, TN’s Ryman Auditorium and City Winery, which has seven locations nationwide.
"Fans cannot wait for the return of live music," Huse told Pollstar. "In partnering with the pioneers of Ground Control Touring, Mandolin's helping booking agencies amplify in-person shows with unforgettable, exclusive digital fan experiences: uncapping room capacities for venue partners, driving additional revenue streams for roster artists and connecting fan bases around the globe to the live acts they love most.”
The partnership between the two launched in March 2021 with a livestream of a Waxahatchee concert, which celebrated the first anniversary of their album Saint Cloud. The streaming was followed by a 2021 fall tour announcement by Waxahatchee that starts on September 2 at Headliners Music Hall in Louisville, Ky., and concludes in Boston on October 16 at Royale.
"Like the rest of the touring industry, Ground Control Touring saw the nearly-overnight launch of the livestreaming industry during the first few months of the pandemic,” explained Chavez. "As traditional touring continues to ramp up, it was important for us to find a flexible partner to power GCTV streams while our agents could focus on getting their bands back on the road. Mandolin and their team provide the perfect solution for Ground Control Touring as we navigate the restart of the touring world, providing a flexible backend toolset and data complimentary to the years of experience that our agents have with their clients.”
Future livestreams under the partnership will include Current Joys on May 19 at 7 pm PDT. The livestream, titled The Phantom of the Highland Park Ebell is a horror-comedy-play-concert-film-experience that will feature music from their new album “Voyager.” The six ticket options range from $20 to 69.99, which will include everything from access the livestream to the deluxe package which includes access to the livestream, LP, cassette and T-shirt.
Other livestreams from Mandolin from non-Ground Control Touring artists have included Michael McDonald on May 7 and Dionne Warwick, who performed a Mother’s Day concert on May 9.