{"id":1656,"date":"2015-08-19T02:51:48","date_gmt":"2015-08-19T06:51:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.peatix.com\/?p=1656"},"modified":"2018-07-05T04:45:55","modified_gmt":"2018-07-05T04:45:55","slug":"freeform-untitled-takes-one-for-the-music-community-how-they-overcome-budgeting-and-marketing-challenges-to-bring-kl-lites-live-acts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eventblog.peatix.com\/organizer\/freeform-untitled-takes-one-for-the-music-community-how-they-overcome-budgeting-and-marketing-challenges-to-bring-kl-lites-live-acts\/","title":{"rendered":"Freeform Untitled takes one for the music community: How they overcome budgeting and marketing challenges to bring KL-lites live acts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Just as the band goes up on stage, and I\u2019m standing there at the side looking at the crowd go wild – that feeling is simply amazing. – Qisthina, Talent Executive of Freeform Untitled<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"Qisthina,

Qisthina, Talent Executive of Freeform Untitled<\/p><\/div>\n

We could totally sense Qisthina’s passion for\u00a0what she does as she reflected on what keeps her going in running music events with Freeform Untitled as its Talent Executive. Qisthina, together with the team at Freeform Untitled enable folks to get up close and personal with some of the hottest live acts around the world in Kuala Lumpur through the apt moniker Upfront<\/strong>. They’re also the group behind homegrown annual music and creative arts\u00a0festival, Urbanscapes<\/strong>, where you could\u00a0experience Singaporean music while taking\u00a0<\/span>selfies with an art installation produced by an Australian and eating Malaysian food! Urbanscape’s unique and equal focus on both music and the creative arts means festival goers get to enjoy\u00a0live acts by\u00a0comedians, theatre performers, artists and musicians all at the same time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Upfront<\/p>\n

The amount of legwork that goes behind putting these events together must be massive, but judging from Qisthina’s responses, not insurmountable. Read on to find out how she overcomes logistical, budgeting and marketing challenges when hosting music events in Kuala Lumpur, and her motivation for doing even more for the music community despite these challenges!<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the one thing that excites you most when you get up each day?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Getting to write \u2018to-do\u2019 lists in my planner! Haha. Everyday tasks are usually not the same, so it\u2019s cool to see on paper what I have to accomplish day-to-day. It helps that I have a very cool planner.<\/p>\n

What inspired you to kickstart the Upfront music series and what do you hope to achieve from organising them?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t exactly kickstart the events (credit goes to my boss, Adrian Yap), but I had the\u00a0privilege to grow the Upfront series and assist with other types of cool events alongside Adrian. Our hope, aside from contributing to the local music scene, is to sell the entire experience<\/i><\/b> – it\u2019s not just about seeing an artist, but it\u2019s also about meeting with friends, that awesome drink you had while groovin\u2019 to one of the songs, getting to buy a drink for that cute bassist, or simply having a fun evening. If concert-goers generally had a good experience, that alone should be an indication of a successful event (of\u00a0course, realistically speaking financials\u00a0also\u00a0<\/i>determine the success of an event).<\/p>\n

Share with us three challenges you\u2019ve faced in organising music events in Malaysia. How have you overcome each of them?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Finance takes up 2 of the 3 challenges. Haha. We\u2019re finding it very difficult to stick to a healthy a budget for shows these days, sometimes it\u2019s almost impossible to do so. The only way to overcome that is to have a good relationship with brands\/partners who believe\u00a0in and support our mission wholeheartedly. I also feel that music venues are limited in Malaysia, especially when we\u2019re looking at bigger scale events. I suppose this is why The Bee, Publika doubles as a music venue with quite a\u00a0decent capacity – Adrian (owner of The Bee) must\u2019ve thought this through.<\/p>\n

Last but not least, getting more people to the event can be quite a challenge. The bands we book oftentimes have a very niche audience and so, this is where the media come into play. With support from the media, hopefully we create enough hype to get the word out and potentially reaching out to more people to support Upfront. We\u2019re building up quite a bit of following, and\u00a0would like to see this expand further.<\/p>\n

What keeps you going in running your events?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Just as the band goes up on stage, and I\u2019m standing there at the side looking at the crowd go wild – that feeling is simply amazing. I\u00a0truly believe music fosters connections and propels people forward, and getting to share that connection with the rest of the concert-goers is what keeps me going.<\/p>\n

Last but not least, as\u00a0we approach Hari Merdeka, what are your wishes for Malaysia?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My wish for Malaysia is for people to see it beyond its, err, craziness. If you peel the onion gently, you\u2019ll find beautiful layers that make up Malaysia<\/i><\/b> – oftentimes overlooked. We\u2019ve got awesome local bands, youth-led movements and small enterprises with big potential.<\/p>\n

\n

Join the Freeform Untitled\u00a0music community<\/a> – experience it live at one of their gigs or win a pair of tickets<\/a><\/strong> worth RM156\u00a0to an\u00a0upcoming gig featuring Yumi Zouma, an indie band hailing from New Zealand whose music has been characterised as undeniably stylish, underplayed and honest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just as the band goes up on stage, and I\u2019m standing there at the side looking at the crowd go wild – that feeling is simply amazing. – Qisthina, Talent Executive of Freeform Untitled We could totally sense Qisthina’s passion for\u00a0what she does as she reflected on what keeps her going in running music events…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1657,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,3,17,15,16],"tags":[25,36],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eventblog.peatix.com\/organizer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1656"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eventblog.peatix.com\/organizer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eventblog.peatix.com\/organizer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eventblog.peatix.com\/organizer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eventblog.peatix.com\/organizer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/eventblog.peatix.com\/organizer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eventblog.peatix.com\/organizer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eventblog.peatix.com\/organizer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eventblog.peatix.com\/organizer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eventblog.peatix.com\/organizer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}