The Launch Squad

The Launch Squad Sydney Based Entertainment Consultants, live music and events specialists.
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There’s a particular reaction you see when the right old song starts.The conversation stops.Someone points at their frie...
04/09/2026

There’s a particular reaction you see when the right old song starts.

The conversation stops.
Someone points at their friend.

Someone else yells something completely unintelligible.

And suddenly a group of perfectly responsible adults with jobs, mortgages and children are behaving exactly like they did twenty years ago.

That’s the extraordinary thing about nostalgia.

It doesn’t simply remind us of something. It can briefly reconnect us with the version of ourselves that experienced it.

The song hasn’t changed.

We have.
Which may be exactly why it feels so powerful.

For a few minutes, the distance between then and now gets very small.

That’s also why nostalgia in entertainment is more than simply playing “old songs.”

The product isn’t really the song.

It’s recognition. Memory. Identity. And sometimes the chance to feel 18 again without actually having to be 18 again.

What song instantly turns you back into your younger self?

I’ve heard some version of this conversation countless times.“The band was good, but nobody danced.”And sometimes that’s...
02/09/2026

I’ve heard some version of this conversation countless times.

“The band was good, but nobody danced.”
And sometimes that’s useful feedback.

But is the dance floor really the best measure of whether live entertainment is working?

Look around the rest of the room.
Are people staying longer?
Are they singing from their tables?
Are they watching the stage?
Are they ordering another round?
Are they talking about the act?

Did the room feel better with the music there than it did before they started?

A Sunday afternoon acoustic act and a Saturday night party band are doing completely different jobs.

Yet too often we judge both using the same metric:
How many people were standing in front of the stage?

Sometimes the most engaged person in the room is sitting at a table with a beer, singing every word.

Entertainment should absolutely create a response.

But perhaps we need to get better at understanding what that response actually looks like.

How do you judge whether live music is working in a venue?

Every generation seems convinced they got the good music.The generation before them lost touch. The generation after the...
31/08/2026

Every generation seems convinced they got the good music.

The generation before them lost touch. The generation after them doesn’t understand.

And somehow the songs released when we were teenagers and young adults just happen to be the ones with the most feeling, the best bands and the strongest memories.

What an incredible coincidence.

Except maybe we aren’t judging the songs in isolation.

We’re remembering first cars. First relationships. School friends. Nights out. Road trips. Bedrooms covered in posters. The person we were before mortgages, children, careers and responsibilities arrived.

A song from that period can bring all of it back in seconds.

So when somebody tells us the music from our era was rubbish, perhaps it feels strangely personal because they aren’t just criticising a record.

They are accidentally criticising a little piece of our identity.

Which might explain why arguments about music generations are almost impossible to win.

What era are you completely incapable of being objective about?

The music industry has never been more connected.Artists can message agents instantly.Venues can message artists instant...
28/08/2026

The music industry has never been more connected.

Artists can message agents instantly.
Venues can message artists instantly.

Everyone has Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, text messages and email sitting in their pocket.

Ironically, I think we've also become more impatient.

There was a time when you'd leave a voicemail, send an email and wait. If someone didn't reply until the next day, that was just normal.

Today, we can see when a message has been read.
We can see when someone was last online.
We can even see when they're typing.

Somewhere along the way, that visibility created an expectation that if you've seen my message, you should be replying now.

Running an agency has made me realise everyone feels this pressure.

Artists are waiting on gig offers.
Venues are waiting on confirmations.
Agents are chasing both.

Individually, every request is reasonable.
Collectively, they're impossible to answer all at once.

Just because someone has read your message doesn't necessarily mean they're in a position to give it the attention it deserves.

They might be driving to a gig.
Loading in.
On stage.
Meeting with a venue.
With family.
Or simply trying to finish one conversation before starting another.

Technology has made us more accessible than ever before.

I'm just not sure it's made us more available.

Has instant communication made our industry more efficient... or has it quietly created expectations that no one can realistically keep up with?

I've always found this fascinating.There are millions of songs to choose from, yet if you walk into ten different pubs o...
26/08/2026

I've always found this fascinating.

There are millions of songs to choose from, yet if you walk into ten different pubs on a Saturday night, there's a good chance you'll hear Wonderwall, Seven Nation Army, The Horses, Mr. Brightside, Summer of '69, Khe Sanh... and plenty more of the usual suspects.

It got me thinking...
How did we all end up here?

Nobody handed musicians a rulebook.
There wasn't a meeting where everyone agreed on the same setlist.

Yet somehow, thousands of cover bands across Australia have landed on almost exactly the same pool of songs.

Is it because audiences genuinely want those songs?
Do venues expect them?
Are musicians playing it safe?
Or has the industry gradually trained itself to believe these are the songs people expect to hear?

I'm not saying they're bad songs. Most of them have earned their place for a reason.

I'm just curious how we've arrived at a point where so many bands sound remarkably similar before they've even played the first chord.

Is it evolution?
Commercial reality?

Or are we all stuck in a feedback loop where bands play them because audiences expect them, and audiences expect them because bands keep playing them?

I'd love to hear from musicians, venue managers and punters.

If you could permanently retire one overplayed cover song... what would it be?

There was a time when live music felt like the event. People stood in front of the stage, watched the band, sang along a...
24/08/2026

There was a time when live music felt like the event. People stood in front of the stage, watched the band, sang along and made the performance part of their night.

These days, it often feels different.

You'll see people talking through songs, scrolling on their phones, walking in and out of the room or treating the band as part of the furniture. In some venues, live music has become the soundtrack to conversations rather than the reason people are there.

So it got me wondering...

Have audiences changed?
Or have we, as performers, stopped demanding attention?

Maybe audiences have more distractions than ever before. Phones, social media, sport on the TVs, shorter attention spans and endless entertainment options all compete for people's focus.

But maybe performers have changed too.

Have we become too comfortable standing in one spot?
Too focused on playing the songs perfectly instead of creating a moment?
Too concerned with getting through the setlist rather than connecting with the room?

The best live acts I've ever seen didn't just play music.

They made it impossible to look away.

Maybe that's the real job.
Not just to play well.....but to earn people's attention.

I'd love to hear from both sides.

Has live music become background music, or is it up to performers to make sure it never does?

The word exposure has become one of the most controversial words in the music industry.Mention it and you'll usually get...
21/08/2026

The word exposure has become one of the most controversial words in the music industry.

Mention it and you'll usually get one of two reactions.

Either...
"Never play for exposure."

Or...
"You have to start somewhere."

Personally, I don't think it's that black and white.

There are plenty of opportunities dressed up as "exposure" that are nothing more than someone trying to avoid paying musicians.

Artists should absolutely be paid fairly for the value they bring.

But I've also seen artists turn down opportunities that weren't about the money at all. They were about getting in front of the right audience, building relationships or opening doors that eventually led to paid work.

Not every unpaid gig is a good opportunity.
Not every unpaid gig is a bad one either.

The real question isn't whether a gig pays.

It's whether it moves your career forward.

Sometimes the answer is yes.
Sometimes it's no.

The challenge is knowing the difference.

What's your view?
Has the word "exposure" become unfairly demonised, or is the reputation deserved?

For whatever reason, booking agents seem to have developed a reputation that many musicians are immediately wary of.Some...
19/08/2026

For whatever reason, booking agents seem to have developed a reputation that many musicians are immediately wary of.

Some believe agents take too much.
Some think they don't add enough value.
Some have had genuinely bad experiences.

And to be fair, there are agencies that have earned that reputation.

But I also wonder if part of it comes from the fact that a lot of the work an agent does is invisible.

Artists see the booking.

They don't see the venues that said no before someone said yes.
The phone calls that saved a gig.
The fee negotiations.
The last-minute replacements.
The compliance.
The invoicing.
The difficult conversations.
Or the relationships that have taken years to build.

None of that means agents are above criticism. Like every part of this industry, there are great ones and there are poor ones.

So rather than turn this into another "agents vs musicians" debate, let's do something different.

If you've worked with a booking agent who genuinely backed you, fought for you, helped your career or simply made your life easier, tag them below and tell us why.

Good people in this industry don't get recognised nearly enough.

Let's change that conversation for a day.

Is it good business... or unrealistic?This came up in a discussion recently and it got me thinking.There's an expectatio...
17/08/2026

Is it good business... or unrealistic?

This came up in a discussion recently and it got me thinking.

There's an expectation that agencies should reply to every artist enquiry.

But should they?

Don't get me wrong, if we can reply, we do. Especially when an artist is a good fit for one of our venue clients. But agencies receive dozens of emails, DMs and submissions every week, on top of bookings, contracts, payroll, super, cancellations and everything else that goes into keeping artists working.

Does every enquiry deserve a reply, or is it reasonable for agencies to prioritise the opportunities they're actively working on?

What do you think?
If you think every enquiry should receive a response, tell me why.
If you think it's unrealistic, tell me why too.

This isn't a criticism of great musicians. I've worked with some phenomenal players over the years.But talent isn't usua...
15/08/2026

This isn't a criticism of great musicians.
I've worked with some phenomenal players over the years.

But talent isn't usually what separates the artists who are working every weekend from the ones asking why the phone has stopped ringing.

The busiest artists tend to do the little things consistently well. They reply to offers. They confirm bookings. They turn up on time. They're easy to work with.

They engage the crowd instead of playing at them. They read the room, adapt when they need to and leave the venue feeling like they made the right decision.

I've also met incredible musicians who struggle to stay busy. Not because they can't play, but because they assume talent should do all the heavy lifting.

The reality is, venues don't book musicians to judge technique. They book people who help create a successful night.

Being a great player will get you noticed.

Being someone people genuinely enjoy working with is what keeps you working.

If you could only pick one, what's more valuable over the long term, exceptional talent or being the person everyone wants back?

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