Request Artists is a new booking platform that matches the right DJ to the right party, ensuring no event ever dies on the dance floor.
It is the brainstorm of DJ John 'Coursey' Course, who has developed the concept in partnership with marketing expert John Curtin as well as Piero Giovannini after noticing a disconnect between client expectations and the types of DJs they were booking to play private functions.“As a DJ, I get a lot of enquiries about private gigs and I was always hesitant to do them; not so much the corporate gigs, they’re fine – but the birthdays and things like that I was like, ‘this could be great fun’, but when you get there they want ABBA, 'The Nutbush' and some rock & roll, and that’s not what I do.
“I felt there was a type of mismatch and I was hesitant because I didn’t want to disappoint the client,” Coursey explains.
With a little help from his friends John – who has extensive experience as the Head Of Marketing for Stereosonic and Festival X – and Piero, a fellow DJ who also runs the staging and production company Night Grooves, Coursey has launched Request Artists as an almost entirely automated platform that streamlines the process of booking entertainment for functions.
L-R: Piero Giovannini, John Course and John Curtin
For John, his intuition for marketing was attracted to the idea of providing a one-stop-shop service that clients could use to book every aspect of entertainment for their event, from the talent themselves right down to the audiovisual equipment.
“Particularly now in terms of modern marketing, music is such a statement and it’s a way for people to connect with a brand. It almost used to be that people wanted their songs on the radio and now I actually think people want their song turned into a television commercial,” John says.
“I saw it as a great opportunity, but there’s such a plethora of artists we want to work with, and also we want to work with some larger hospitality and function groups through to anything.
“The quality of bookings that have already come through has been great, but it’s really about making sure we can connect artists with events that both groups are excited to play and be a part of.”
“What we kept going back to was ‘what does it feel like for a person who’s booking a 40th birthday or an end of year party for the business?'” Coursey adds.
“It’s about coming at it from music programming, running events, DJing, and tying in the sound system and lighting options was a logical step in being a one-stop-shop where you can get the whole experience as easily and quickly as possible.”
The platform allows clients to search for specific DJs that will match the mood and vibe of the event they're planning. They can check out the DJ's work using Spotify lists and also search for DJs by venues at which they have performed.
Whatever the event, Request Artists is there to accommodate your music needs. “You may want someone to play in the background of the launch of your brand-new restaurant and you want cool, chilled disco and funk tunes; you don’t want someone playing main-room EDM,” Coursey says.
“While we can cater for the mainstream, we also wanted to make sure that as the logo says, when music matters and it’s important to you, we can curate to a level that’s very, very satisfying.”
