Inside Live Nation’s music venue strategy in Charlotte

Fillmore Underground is more about expanding the Charlotte music scene than about making money, they said.

A club that size is not going to be a big profit driver, said John Canaday, national director of marketing at Live Nation.

But a company the size of Live Nation can afford to run it on a tight margin. And when Bootlegger’s closed in the late winter/early spring, it was too good to pass up.

“We looked at it as an opportunity in the music scene,” Canaday said.

Taking over Bootlegger’s is more about being able to book different types of bands at the Music Factory, open up more dates on the calendar and overall make Charlotte a more attractive place for live music.

“Every great band that tours has to come to Charlotte,” said marketing director Chris Ozment.

The space will fill a hole in the type of band that can play in Charlotte.

There’s a continuum of music venues in the city depending on how many tickets the act can sell. The smallest shows go to The Evening Muse. If you’re going to sell 800 tickets, you go to Neighborhood Theatre, if it’s 1,000 you go to Amos Southend, and if it’s 2,000 it’s the Fillmore.

Fillmore Underground will house about 600 people.

Especially as places like Tremont Music Hall and The Chop Shop have closed down in the past year, this new venue is an opportunity to capture some of that market.

It also seriously opens up the calendar.

Right now, you can’t have an event at the Fillmore and the Uptown Amphitheatre — now the Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheatre — on the same day. It just doesn’t work because the size of the acts are too big.

But you will be able to have events at Fillmore Underground on the same night as both of those. And Live Nation plans to take full advantage.

Sometimes they’ll plan events that provide entertainment pre- and post-show. Other times they’ll plan shows that are dissimilar enough that they don’t overlap in ticket sales.

There’s also going to be room to do off-the-wall things like blasting Radiohead at 2:15 p.m. or doing a straight-up Drake night.

This new space will have a similar feel to the Fillmore and a lot more local flair than Bootlegger’s had.

Think more local beer on tap and local art installations. They’ll also book local bands to play as opening acts. That’s kind of a new opportunity because most of the bands that play the Fillmore tour with their own openers.

The ultimate vision is to put Charlotte on the map.

Ozment said he wants Charlotte to get that critical mass where people are coming to the city to find new bands to sign.

“You don’t just inherit a music capital,” he said. “You have to build it.”