Airbnb Concerts Helped Me Create A Live Music Platform For My Artists

Airbnb Concerts Justin Oringer

At Coachella ‘18 I initiated discussions with my friends and aspiring music-industry entrepreneurs Christian Dimitriades and Trent Peltz. We brainstormed alternative strategies for partnering with prospective partners for the live performance series we all had long envisioned.

The Alley Studios | Justin Oringer, Christian Dimitriades and Trent Peltz

Our objective was fourfold:

  1. Create a live performance platform to help “gig” the artists we were already managing (in my case, SOZ)
  2. Provide further value to the many artists with whom we’re connected (in my case, the roster of artists that have come thru my “Stem x USC” initiative)
  3. Establish a robust new pipeline of talented artists in our network by offering them a live performance platform and booking their shows.
  4. Don’t lose money we don’t have!

We had come to an agreement by the end of May with Airbnb Experiences and Concert Media. They gave us the platform so that we could book talent, coordinate all show logistics, and promote the bills (i.e. create promo content and selling tickets).

We hosted our first event in early September at The Alley Studios in North Hollywood, California featuring our close friend Pink Slip who headlined the sell-out show.

We built upon the success of our initial show and produced five additional shows including one over Thanksgiving in my hometown Montreal, Quebec. I was privileged to collaborate on this show with several of my talented and closest old Montreal friends. A sincere thank you to Jaclyn Lavy, Elie Climan and Kaitlin Markus for all your creativity and hard work 💯.

In addition to this talented crew, I need to share my deep gratitude to Tim Lukow, Co-Founder of Stem, for the insightful mentorship he provided while I was an intern at Stem during the summer of 2017. The decision to partner with Airbnb came about as a direct result of Tim sharing his personal music industry innovators (Minnovators) story with me.

Tim emphasized the importance of developing ways to increase my artists’ reach and stature in much the same manner he had done while studying at the Berklee School of music. His strategy back then for managing and gigging his emerging artists was to align them with well-established musicians and have them all perform live on the same billing thereby allowing his artists to gain credibility and reach.

Tim suggested that I follow his strategy. I listened and executed, but with a twist: In becoming a promoter, I did so by leveraging all that Airbnb had to offer on their platform. Thanks so much, Tim 🙏🏻.

Finally, I’d also like to thank Stoli Vodka and Pabst Blue Ribbon who join our growing roster of sponsors in supporting our incredibly talented young artists.