Penn State musicians, need to get your music heard? Check out the Broad Street Music Group and book your own performance venue.
Today’s music scene is filled with incredible, passionate artists, just ask the Broad Street Music Group’s Dave Silver.
“People don’t realize how many undiscovered artists there are,” says Silver.
Silver, the group’s founder, has been building a company since January of 2012 that works with local artists and provides venues and opportunities they normally would not have.
“We have a basement that holds 300 people; we have plenty of nights during the week when we’re not doing shit. I figured, you know for our fraternity sake, not even for my own sake, but for my fraternity’s sake, let’s throw events bring people in, not for money, but to shed a positive light on our fraternity,” the senior at Temple said. “Lets have open-mic nights; never did I think that by hosting open-mic nights on a Thursday night, would anything turn out of it.”
Much to Silver’s surprise, a lot came out of it.
Broad Street Music Lounge was born and it took off. Just 10 weeks after launching the lounge, they had eight sold out shows. Artists from all over the Philadelphia music scene came out to show off their musical skills. The lounge slowly became the place to be on Thursday nights for local music. Whether it was hip-hop, rock or techno you could find it at the lounge.
“I started putting some artists together, started putting this idea together, and about three weeks later after pitching the idea, we had our first show. We had five musicians come out and we had 150 people show up. We had five different sponsors giving away free pizza, free soda, free giveaways all this stuff and everyone had a great time.”
The lounge was a hit. What started as just an idea, was slowly becoming a legitimate business.
Unfortunately, the fraternity house that Broad Street Music Lounge was created in was no longer a legitimate option as a venue, so Silver had to branch out.
“I decided that I would go to another venue and see if they would pick it up. Turns out a lot of venues were interested in staging these kinds of events. Now today, we have a venue every Monday and every Thursday for the entire 2013. We have meetings lined up with tones of others venues for the same thing, to throw bigger shows, to get better talent. I’ve recruited about 11 team members who are helping me in a different ways.”
The Broad Street Music Lounge had become the Broad Street Music Group. The group was specializing in booking venues for up and coming artists and letting them showcase their talents. They began working with local acts like Ground Up and started to see their business grow.
“Our whole mission is [to] throw these shows to get undiscovered musicians in the Philadelphia area, give them an opportunity to perform in front of a crowd.”
The music scene today is filled with what seems to be thousands of new artists and songs emerging each day with no outlet.
Silver’s group changes that. They give these up and comers the opportunity to get out in front of crowds.
“We’re looking to get as many venues on board and as many artists on board as possible,” said Silver.
“Our goal in a year is to set up a Broad Street Music Group tour. We would have venues booked with artists, even headlining artists, undiscovered artists, booked at those venues. A list of 20 different shows already booked of undiscovered artists all brought to you by the Broad Street Music Group.”
What started as a lounge is on its’ way to becoming a traveling music group, talent agency and even perhaps a record label. Silver has not ruled out anything and for good reason, the sky is the limit. Although Broad Street Music Group originated at a Temple fraternity, they aren’t limiting themselves to just Philly artists.
“We are working with anyone and everyone who wants an opportunity to perform. When we hit all of our venues and when we’ve done shows at all the venues we have done in Philadelphia, we will start looking into the tri-state area. From there, the East coast and hopefully in a few years we are the Broad Street Music group representing artists form the United States.
The group is in its’ early stages, but they’re gaining more and more notoriety everyday. They have shows set up twice a week for the rest of the year, as well as some major concerts coming up. All the links to their Twitter, Facebook and Website can be found below. Ground Up will be at the original Broad Street Lounge on February 22. The rest of the February events have 10+ artists already booked, so make sure you reach out soon. Enjoy.
Contact Info:
Email : broadstmusic@gmail.com
Twitter: @BroadSt_Music
Instagram: @BroadStMusic
Facebook: /BroadStreetMusic