The Launch Squad

Name: The Launch Squad
Address: Gymea, NSW, 2213, AU
Telephone: +61418684180
Rating: 5

Home
Australia
Gymea, NSW
The Launch Squad

Call Directions Website Contact the business

Sydney Based Entertainment Consultants, live music and events specialists.
(1)

18/10/2026

There's something about the live entertainment industry that I think gets overlooked.

Everybody talks about getting the gig.
Musicians want more bookings.
Venues want great entertainment.
Agents want to put the right acts into the right rooms.

But the actual booking is only one part of the job.
What happens after that?

Who's making sure the artist has the correct details?
Who's confirming performance times, equipment requirements and payment arrangements?

What happens when the musician cancels three hours before they're due on stage?

Who's handling invoicing, payments and applicable superannuation?

And who's taking responsibility when something goes wrong?

We've seen plenty of situations over the years where the artist and venue both thought everything was sorted.

Until it wasn't.

And that's when you realise how much work happens behind the scenes to make a three-hour gig run smoothly.

Now, plenty of venues and musicians manage this themselves extremely well.

But as booking requirements, administration and compliance become more involved, there's a question worth asking.

Is the entertainment industry still treating booking administration like an afterthought?

At The Launch Squad, we've spent years building systems around the parts of the booking that nobody in the audience ever sees.

Because finding a good musician is one thing.

Making sure the entire booking runs properly is another.

And increasingly, we're finding that venues aren't necessarily looking for different musicians.

They're looking for a better way to manage the ones they already have.

So here's a question for venue managers, musicians and agents

What's the biggest headache in managing live entertainment, finding the right act, or everything that happens after you've booked them?

👇 Interested to hear what's actually causing problems out there.

16/10/2026

There's an uncomfortable reality about the live music industry that I don't think we talk about enough.

For many venues, replacing a musician has become remarkably easy.

A regular soloist becomes unavailable?
There are another twenty ready to put their hand up.

A duo wants a higher fee?
Somebody else will probably do it for less.

A band decides it doesn't want to play a particular venue anymore?
Another one is waiting for the date.

And with so many talented performers competing for the same work, it's tempting to assume they're all relatively interchangeable.

But are they?

Because there's a difference between somebody who can play three hours of songs and somebody whose absence is genuinely noticed.

The musician who knows the regulars.
The act that understands exactly how the room works.
The performer who turns a quiet afternoon into something people look forward to every week.
The artist who has spent years building a relationship with a venue and its customers.

You can replace their spot on the entertainment calendar.

But can you replace what they bring to the room?

On the other hand, perhaps musicians sometimes overestimate how important they are to a venue's business.

If the customers keep coming, the drinks keep selling and nobody notices the change, what does that tell us?

Maybe being a great musician and being an irreplaceable entertainer are two very different things.

So here's the question
Have musicians become too easy to replace?

Or have too many performers simply failed to give venues a compelling reason to keep booking them?

13/10/2026

Musicians have been complaining about stagnant gig fees for as long as we've been booking entertainment.

And in plenty of cases, they've got a point.

Equipment costs more.
Fuel costs more.
Insurance costs more.
Everything involved in getting an act onto a stage seems to cost more.

Yet some gig fees have barely moved.

But here's what doesn't get mentioned...

Are musicians themselves contributing to the problem?

Every time a venue offers a low fee, somebody seems prepared to take it.

Maybe they're just starting out.
Maybe it's a hobby.
Maybe they want the exposure.
Maybe they simply need the money.
Maybe they don't need the money at all....

And it's difficult to criticise somebody for accepting work they want or need.

But if there's always another act willing to play for less, what incentive does a venue have to increase its entertainment budget?

Of course, venues have their own pressures.

And paying more doesn't automatically guarantee a better performer or a more successful night.

So perhaps the issue isn't as simple as venues being tight or musicians undercutting each other.

Perhaps it's what happens when the market has more performers looking for work than opportunities available.

Can musicians realistically demand better fees while continuing to compete primarily on price?

Or should venues be doing more to recognise the value of quality entertainment?

12/10/2026

Here's something we've seen countless times over the years.

A venue books a musician.
The gig gets little promotion.

There's no signage.
No social media push.
Sometimes the venue's own staff don't even know who's playing.

The musician turns up, plays to a handful of people, and the feedback is
“They didn't bring a crowd.”

Hang on a minute.

When did the musician become responsible for the venue's entire marketing strategy?

There's obviously a difference between a ticketed original artist selling their own show and a cover musician booked to entertain a pub's customers.

But that distinction sometimes gets lost.

A good performer can keep people entertained.
They can build atmosphere, get people dancing and give customers a reason to stay.

But expecting them to fill an otherwise empty venue without any help seems a pretty big ask.

Then again, some musicians have built strong local followings and genuinely bring people through the door.

And venues understandably value that.

So where should the responsibility sit?

Is a pub musician being paid to entertain the customers, or to deliver them?

And if a venue does nothing to promote its live music, can it really complain when nobody turns up?

Venue managers and musicians, this one's for you. 👇

09/10/2026

Some venues have great stages.
Some have incredible production.
Some have big entertainment budgets.

But ask a working musician where their favourite place to play is, and the answer isn't always the biggest or most impressive venue.

Sometimes it's a suburban pub with 70 people who know every word.
A regional club where the regulars treat the band like family.
A b**r garden where the crowd starts singing before the first chorus.
Or a little front bar where the same familiar faces turn up every Sunday afternoon.

Because a great live music crowd can make an ordinary gig feel extraordinary.

And every musician who's played enough venues knows the opposite is true too.

You can have the best stage, sound system and lighting in the world.

But if nobody in the room gives a damn, it's a very different experience.

So we want to know
Which Australian pub or club has the BEST live music crowd?

Not the biggest venue.
Not the most famous.
Not necessarily the one booking the biggest acts.

The venue where the audience makes you want to come back and play again.

👇 Musicians, tag the venue with the best crowd you've ever played to and tell us what makes them special.

And punters, feel free to nominate your local. If you reckon your crowd is the best in Australia, make your case.

Let's see which pubs and clubs have built something genuinely special around live music.

08/10/2026

Whenever musicians talk about how difficult it has become to get gigs, the conversation usually goes in one direction.

There aren't enough venues supporting live music anymore.
And there's certainly an argument to be made there.

But there's another side of the equation we don't talk about nearly as much.

How many acts are now competing for the gigs that remain?

A venue advertising one available date can be approached by solos, duos, bands, and agencies.

Technology has also lowered some of the barriers to entering the market.

Backing tracks are better.
PA equipment is smaller and more accessible.
Artists can promote themselves directly to venues.
One musician can potentially offer themselves as a solo, duo, trio and full band.

Again, none of that is necessarily a bad thing.
It's created opportunities for plenty of talented people.

But there's a basic question worth asking:

Has the supply of entertainment grown faster than the number of places buying it?

Because if it has, some of the things happening in the industry start to make more sense.

More competition for dates.
More pressure on fees.
More artists approaching venues directly.
More people willing to take a cheaper gig just to secure the work.

And more musicians feeling like opportunities are disappearing.

But here's the contradiction.

We also regularly hear from venues and clients who say:
“It's really hard to find good acts.”
Which is fascinating.

Because perhaps we can have too many acts competing for work while simultaneously not having enough acts that venues confidently want to book.

Reliability matters.
Presentation matters.
Communication matters.
Repertoire matters.
Understanding the room matters.
Actually entertaining people matters.

So maybe the problem isn't simply:
“There aren't enough gigs.”

Maybe it's a combination of fewer opportunities, more competition and a changing definition of what venues actually want from entertainment.

What do you think?

Are there genuinely not enough gigs anymore, or are there simply far more people competing for them?

05/10/2026

We hear it a lot.
“People don't go out for live music like they used to.”

But maybe there's another question worth asking.

Can people afford to go out as often as they used to?

Think about what a night out can involve now.
Dinner.
A few drinks.
An Uber or taxi there and back.
Maybe a babysitter.
Possibly tickets.

And suddenly a fairly ordinary night out for two people can become a significant expense.

That creates an interesting problem for live music.

Maybe people haven't stopped loving it.
Maybe they're just becoming much more selective about when they leave the house.

Instead of going out every Friday and Saturday, perhaps it's once or twice a month.
Instead of taking a chance on something they don't know, they choose the act, venue or event they're confident will be worth the money.

That might also help explain why some ticketed tribute shows and nostalgia events can perform strongly while a good band playing down the road struggles to get people through the door.

But venues are caught in exactly the same squeeze.

Their wages, food, utilities, insurance, entertainment and operating costs have all increased too.

So simply making everything cheaper isn't necessarily an answer either.

Which leaves live entertainment in an interesting position.

Perhaps the competition isn't another band.
Or another venue.
Or Netflix.
Maybe the competition is the total cost of leaving the house.

And if people are going out less often, perhaps the challenge for all of us in entertainment is making the nights they do choose feel worth it.

What are you seeing?

Are people falling out of love with going out, or has going out simply become too expensive to do regularly?

We're interested to hear all sides. 👇

04/10/2026

I personally have no time for the footy.

Honestly, watching a bunch of blokes smash into each other for 80 minutes does absolutely nothing for me.
Same with Roman Greco wresting....

But after 25+ years of booking live entertainment into pubs and clubs, I'll say this without hesitation.

The footy is more important than your gig.
And on NRL Grand Final day, it's not even close.

Every winter we see entertainment schedules moved around NRL games.

7pm gigs become 5pm gigs or gigs cancelled
Sets get split around kick-off.
Artists start after full-time.
Sometimes entertainment gets dropped from a particular night altogether.

And I've heard musicians complain about it.

I reckon they're wrong.
You might hate sport.
You might think live music contributes more to a venue.
You might have been booked for 7pm.

None of that changes why the customers are in the room.

If you've got 150 people glued to a close game and your contracted start time arrives, the idea that the venue should turn the footy down because Dave and his acoustic guitar need to start The Horsesl is absurd.

You're playing in a pub.
Read the bloody room.

The job of entertainment isn't to win a battle against everything else happening inside the venue.

It's to contribute to the reason people are having a good time there.

So on Grand Final day?
Play beforehand.
Build the room.
Get everyone up.
Then get out of the way.

And when the game finishes, be ready to turn a room full of people who were about to go home into people ordering another drink and staying another hour.

That's where live entertainment earns its money.

I still won't be watching the footy.

But if I've programmed entertainment into a venue today, the game wins every single argument over the gig.

As it should.

Musicians, if your set time gets moved around a major sporting event, fair enough?

Or should the venue stick to the time you were originally booked for?

Let me know.

02/10/2026

There was a time when the local live music circuit was dominated by cover bands, original bands and artists building their own following.

Now, look at entertainment calendars around the country and you'll see something else everywhere:

Tribute bands.

Fleetwood Mac. INXS. Queen. Cold Chisel. ABBA. Guns N' Roses. Pink. Foo Fighters. AC/DC.

And audiences are buying tickets.
For venues, the appeal isn't difficult to understand.

The audience immediately knows what they're getting.
The marketing has an obvious identity.
The songs are already loved.
And a good tribute show can create something much closer to a concert experience than a traditional night of covers.

But there's another side to it.

Every Saturday night given to an established catalogue is a Saturday night that isn't going to an original artist trying to build one.

And when audiences increasingly choose the music they already know, does it make it harder for something new to ever become the music they know?

Then again...

Is that the tribute band's fault?

Maybe audiences have simply become more selective about where they spend their money.
Maybe nostalgia has become more valuable.
Maybe tribute acts have become better.

And perhaps venues are simply programming what people are demonstrating they'll actually turn up for.

So we're interested in both sides.

Have tribute bands taken too much oxygen out of the live music scene?

Or are they one of the things keeping live music commercially viable?

Musicians, venues, promoters and punters, tell us your thoughts. 👇

30/09/2026

We hear it constantly.
“People don’t support live music anymore.”

But I wonder if that’s completely fair.

Think about the great live music venues people became loyal to over the years. You knew what you were getting. Certain nights had an identity. Certain venues had a sound. Audiences formed habits around them.

Then look at how some entertainment is programmed now.

One week it’s acoustic covers.
The next it’s a rock band.
Then a DJ.
Then nothing for two weeks.
Start times change.
Entertainment gets moved around the room.
Successful nights disappear because somebody decides to try something different.

And then we wonder why the audience hasn’t developed a habit.

Maybe a “live music scene” isn’t created by putting an act in the corner once a week.

Maybe it requires consistency.

A reason for people to know that every Friday, every Sunday afternoon, or every first Saturday of the month, something worth turning up for is going to happen.
Audiences can absolutely be difficult to build.

But before saying people stopped supporting live music, maybe we should ask whether we’ve given them something consistent enough to support.

What venues have you seen build a genuine live music following, and what did they get right?

Address

Gymea, NSW
2213

Telephone

+61418684180

Website

http://www.thelaunchsquad.com.au/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when The Launch Squad posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.