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Our series of profiling Nashville based startups in partnership with Project Music continues! This week, we looked at With The Band, an app that enables music fans and artists to create and participate in fan projects & fan meet ups. Read our conversation with Founder & CEO Sarah Beth Perry below.
TNB – Tell us about With The Band and how it works.
Sarah Beth – With the Band enables music fans and artists to create and participate in fan projects and fan meet ups. We are all about strengthening the community of artists’ fan bases to help fans feel less socially isolated. Currently, our app allows fans to create or join fan projects and meetups from around the world. We also have partnered with artists to help them create unique fan engagement activations for their fan bases.
TNB – What is an example of an exciting fan project and how was it pulled off.
Sarah Beth – Our first large fan project was at the Jonas Brothers concert at Bridgestone Arena this past fall. This was the band’s reunion tour and fans were eager to see them reunite on stage. We gathered a team of 9 fans who helped us pull off the largest fan project that the Jonas Brothers have seen to date. We passed out over 16,000 signs to fans that said “Thank You for Coming Back to Us” as a way to show the band how much the reunion truly meant to their fans. This fan project went viral, ended up with all three of the brothers crying on stage, over 1,000,000 social media impressions, and multiple writeups featured in major news outlets.
TNB – How can artists and their teams take advantage of the app?
Sarah Beth – Since touring is currently on pause, we are focusing a lot of our efforts on improving fan engagement strategies for artists in this digital era. Right now we are working on a mobile platform that will give artists more control over their fan bases, as well as create a new revenue stream. This mobile platform will allow artists to launch their own fan clubs all at a zero start-up cost to them. Furthermore, it will help music fans feel less socially isolated by providing them a strong fan community to be a part of. If you or your artist would be interested in a tool like this, please email sarahbethperry@
TNB – What is the business model?
Sarah Beth – Our first stream of revenue comes from artists paying us to handcraft these fan engagement activations for their fan bases. Our second revenue stream comes from the fans. Once we launch our new platform, fans will pay to be a part of these fan clubs and we will take a small percentage of that revenue.
TNB – Any funding history?
Sarah Beth – We have thus far raised all of our funds from winning pitch competitions! We have been able to stretch this money a long way, but we are actually about to open our first seed round in June.
About founder Sarah Beth Perry
Sarah Beth Perry is the Founder and CEO of With the Band. She is a native Nashvillian and of course, a big music fan! Sarah Beth attended Belmont University and graduated in May 2019 with a double major in Music Business and Entrepreneurship. Previously she’s worked with CMA, Creative Nation, Tin Pan South, Big Enterprises, and Andy Grammer. Currently, she also serves as a board member for YEP and the T.J. Martell Foundation Young Professional Advisory Council. She is obsessed with music fans and is passionate about helping create community among fan bases. Some of her favorite Nashville artists include Caroline Kole, Kassi Ashton, and Madison Kozak.
