Belgian artist platform Tourmanagement.com has acquired Beatswitch, bringing software for festivals and artists under one roof.
The deal covers the Beatswitch platform and its customer base. Financial terms were not disclosed. For existing Beatswitch customers, there is no immediate change: operations and support will continue.
Beatswitch is a Belgium-based platform used by festivals and event organisers worldwide to streamline artist advancing: the practical coordination between events and artist teams, including set times, transport, accommodation, hospitality and technical requirements. The platform is used by festivals like Pukkelpop (Belgium), Shambhala (Canada), Sziget (Hungary) and Pitch Music & Arts (Australia).
Tourmanagement.com supports that same workflow, but rather from the artist and agency perspective. Its customers include artists such as James Blake, Selah Sue, Parov Stelar and Nick Cave, as well as management companies and agencies including Gentlemanagement (Belgium), All Things Live (Norway), Friendly Fire (The Netherlands) and Karsten Jahnke (Germany).
Tourmanagement CEO and founder Roeland Veugelen says the acquisition responds to a recurring issue in the sector: advancing work is still far too often spread across multiple channels, resulting in needless duplicate work and increasing the risk of last-minute errors.
“This is another step towards reducing the copy-and-paste work that still dominates live production,” said Veugelen. “Artist advancing today involves information being forwarded again and again in an almost endless back and forth. When everything sits in one place, teams move faster, misunderstandings are reduced, and sensitive information can be handled more securely.”
Beatswitch founder Thomas Van Orshaegen sees the acquisition as a way for the platform to continue growing with a team that already works within the same ecosystem.
“I’m glad Beatswitch has found a new home with a company that wants to keep building the platform,” added Van Orshaegen. “For customers, continuity matters most. I’ll also remain involved as a member of the Tourmanagement.com/Beatswitch advisory board.”
Tourmanagement said it will assess in the coming period how both platforms can grow towards one another over time, while keeping customer continuity as the starting point and continuing development of Beatswitch.
