Announcing your lineup

Overview

For many guests, the lineup is the reason to buy a ticket. A well-planned announcement gives you several occasions to talk about your event instead of just one. This guide shows what to settle before the first announcement, what material you need and how to release the lineup in waves.

Settle this before you announce

Talk to each artist or their agency before you name anyone:

• The booking is confirmed. Don't announce an act that will “probably” play.
• When you're allowed to announce. Many booking agreements set a date, and some artists want to announce a tour or another event first.
• How the name is spelled, and whether you add “live”, “DJ set” or a project name.
• The order and size on the flyer, when several acts play. If nothing is agreed, alphabetical order is the neutral choice.
• Who posts what, and when. If the artist posts on the same day, the announcement reaches both audiences.

Collect the material

Ask each artist for:

• A press photo you're allowed to use for the announcement.
• A short bio, two or three sentences.
• Links and handles for Instagram, SoundCloud, Bandcamp or their own website, so you link correctly.

Photos are protected by copyright: the right to distribute a photo and put it online belongs to the person who took it (§ 74(1) UrhG, the Austrian copyright act). So use the photos the artist or the agency gives you for the announcement, not just any image from the web. If the photographer's name is on the picture, name them in your announcement too (§ 74(3) UrhG).

Announce in waves

A plan to adapt to your event:

1. First wave: a few names, often including the headliner, together with the start of ticket sales at the early-bird price.
2. Second wave: more acts. If a price phase ends here, say so.
3. The full lineup, two to four weeks before the event.
4. The timetable: who plays when on which stage, usually in the week before.

Each wave gets its own image that's readable on a phone, and the same link to the event page. Line up the timing and the price phases with your launch timeline.

When an act cancels

It happens. Tell everyone who already has a ticket first, then the public. Say openly who drops out and whether someone replaces them. Decide how you'll handle refunds before it happens. How refunds work in Gathermatter is described in Refunds.

With Gathermatter

• Prepare the performances: you enter the whole lineup in the event under Plan › Program. The public event page only shows performances with the status Confirmed and the visibility Public. For each wave, switch the visibility of the new acts. See Planning the program and booking artists.
• Names first, times later: with the program display you show only the artists at first and switch to the full program with times later.
• Artist codes: every booked artist gets an friends discount code. If the artist shares their code with the announcement, their friends get the friends list discount you set for the event.
• Artist profiles: if you link a registered artist, they bring their public profile along. See Your public artist profile.

Sources

• UrhG § 74 (protection of photographs, German)