Localturnon Startup Success Story

About Localturnon
Founders of Localturnon and Team
How was Localturnon Started
Localturnon - Name and Logo
What is Localturnon
Localturnon - Revenue Model
Localturnon - User Acquisition
Localturnon - Funding and Investors
Localturnon - Startup Challenges
Localturnon - Competitors
Localturnon - Growth

The well known American dancer and choreographer Agnes de Mille, once said “The truest expression of a people is in its dances and its music. Bodies never lie”. And she rightly said so. Music and dance are excellent ways to express oneself. Music and dance are those turn-ons that help us release the stress and feel refreshed and rejuvenated. Are you also a vivid lover of dance and music? Whether you are a performer or someone who simply loves to enjoy a serene musical evening or a rocking dance performance, Localturnon is here for you. This Noida based startup is helping you discover your turn-ons.

About Localturnon

Localturnon is a Noida based startup established in the year 2015. Localturnon is a unique platform that covers all aspects of the customer’s journey when it comes to music and dance. Whether someone is looking for a center or tutor to learn music and dance, or book bands or artists or maybe just want to enjoy a music or dance event, Localturnon provides solutions for everything.

Music is like cricket in India. Like the top 11 cricket players, who play for the country are famous, in music also there are many big names and famous bands. But then there is this huge pool of talent both in Cricket and Music that resides in every nook and corner of the country. If there is a cricketer in every gully in India, then in the same gully there resides a musician and dancer too. If cricket needs a platform to help the talented get their dues, music needs it too and we are playing our part.  

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Founders of Localturnon and Team

Tajinder Bagga is the founder of Localturnons.  

Tajinder Bagga has about 15 years of corporate work experience with companies like IBM, Airtel, Pantaloon, Bata, etc before starting Localturnons.

I had no musical training or background which comes as a surprise to many. But yes, we have partnered with bands, have seasoned musicians as advisors in each category.

Localturnons started with a full-fledged team split into business development and content so that they could focus on both aspects. Later the team merged together as artist and content come bundled. Local turnons outsources the technical work.

The work culture in the entertainment industry is very informal. In fact, when the initial meetings were held in 2015 and I used to dress up in corporate attire I found myself as a misfit. It is now jeans or khakis that are the norm. Still, a long way to go for the tattoos and hoodies though. On the work schedule, the change is that entertainment or events are usually over the weekends. So Saturdays and Sundays are the most hectic of days. I think Mondays and Tuesdays are the new weekends for us.  

How was Localturnon Started

The idea came to Tajinder while watching an IPL match, in the year 2015.

While watching a match live in a cyber hub Gurgaon restaurant where there was a live band playing the picture sort of presented itself.  Watching music and cricket side by side, artists and players with their gear side by side, formed the idea in my mind- Tajinder

Tajinder spent close to a year and a half i.e 2015 to early 2017 in researching the market and interacting with artists. Initially, it was simply a platform where bands and artists could promote themselves. From 2015 to 2017, Localturnons covered every article published in Delhi publications, followed music through the year to get a sense of the seasonalities, met, interacted, spoke with at least 150 musicians, artists. Attended events from classical shows at India Habitat Centre, Kamani auditorium to concerts and food shows to see how the industry works. Went to music instrument shops, followed international blogs and tried to grasp as much as possible about the music and dance industry. Tajinder tried to understand the pain point, challenges and difficulties faced by artists. Such experiences crystalized his idea and helped him making Localturon a better platform

Localturnon - Name and Logo

The name is the combination of the words ‘local and turn on’.  The local is the locale or nearby and the turn on is the increase in volume. It also fits in as you can turn on the volume of talent, opportunity.  

The terms most frequently used in our descriptions are turn on music, turn on talent, turn on happiness, life, etc.      

The logo is also like a location sign with the turnon symbol beneath it denoting the message.

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What is Localturnon

Localturnout is a unique platform that brings music, dance, entertainment closer to the audiences. It takes care of everything related to dance and music. One can search for tutors or centers to learn dance and music, book artists or book tickets for dance or music events.

The major USPs of Locaturnon are-

• It is a single platform for music and dance centers, and artists. You can find and connect with them as per your choice.  
• Localturons offers a platform for talented artists to perform live and make money.
• The company organizes concerts in line with the audience demands, the venue sensibilities and the occasion
• It provides end to end event solution with stage, sound, light, artists, DJs, anchors, etc
• Localturons promotes its artists and events on social media so that they get the required publicity.  

Our initial offerings were promotions and visibility for artists/bands and came as a quarterly subscription model. I think we were very economically placed and location agnostic to have appealed to the artists. In the end its all about trust that gets you the next client. We don’t like to call them as clients or customers. The preferred word with us is they are our partners!

Localturnon - Revenue Model

Localturnon's revenue model was started in 2017 (almost 1.5 years post study of the market and interaction with artists). It was essentially a subscription model. Artsits could take up subcription and Localturon in turn promoted them.

Currently Localturnon earns revenue from the following sources-

•    Commissions earned by promoting artists.

•    Commissions earned by promoting various events.

•    Revenue earned by selling tickets of Localturons’ own concerts and tickets.  

In the future, the company also has plans to generate revenue from-  

•    Subscription model for the centers.

•    Commissions from bookings made through its platform

•    Instrument sale

•    Sponsorship  

From the first band in Kolkata to Bangalore, to Delhi to Mumbai we have come a long way

Localturnon - User Acquisition

As said by Tajinder, when Localturons hooked on to their initial partners there were a lot of queries which helped them get more traction.

Ethical dealing, proof of billing via receipts and invoices, statistics or measures of results were openly shared with the partners leading to trust and confidence.  

Wherever there have been instances where we could not deliver we have been honest and open about it as well.  

Working with DLF Mall of India, Noida was one good break for Localturons, which got them a lot of visibility. Recently the company has come up with some unique themes and collaborations with cafes to promote the platform. The company is actively connected to its target audience through social media.

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Localturnon - Funding and Investors

Localturnon is currently a bootstrapped company. However, the company has plans to raise funds in the future, to move to the next level.

Localturnon - Startup Challenges

"The biggest challenge was where to start" said Tajinder. However, the 1.5 years that Tajinder spent in gaining experiences about the dance and music market, did gave him the required knowledge and courgae to start Localturnon. Good social media presence and building good rapport with the artist community  has worked in favor of the company.

As said by Tajinder, Localturnon made some major slips initially while signing up artists. While getting into subscription mode Localturnon signed up artists without even asking them for their performance bytes and as a result, it ended up with a couple of noteworthy, non-talented folks. The company had to give them their refund as it would have been impossible to have got them their events and orders. This was a major lesson learned by the Localturnon team.

Besides, the company has pending cases for dues and hopes to get them back soon.  

Pending payments are one of the regular business hiccups that you face when the other side is unethical and decides to play under the belt.        

Localturnon - Competitors

Localturnon is a unique platform as it offers a one-stop solution for all dance and music related requirements an individual may have. As such it does not have any competitor which can compete with it on all the scopes. However, event or artist management companies do pose competition for Localturnon.

The Entertainment industry needs to be looked into  from the perspective of  Music & Dance Schools and tutors, the music dance Instruments or equipment, the live performances in clubs, restaurants, hotels, the weddings and the corporate events, the festival celebrations in every RWA, society during Holi, Diwali, Navratras etc. If we take into account the songs, the albums and the content its huge. You really can’t put an exact number to it but it runs into billions of dollars. In parallel, if you look at the manpower attached to the industry it's mind-boggling as it has both forward and backward integration.                  

Localturnon - Growth

Growth Localturnon has grown 200% YOY since the launch of the offering from 2017 to 2019.  

Some milestones achieved by the company are-

•    750+ dance and music centers are listed with Localturnon.

•    900+ artists, musicians, bands, dancers, DJs and anchors are associated with Localturnon.

•    It conducts its own concerts and events and works with Companies such as ATS, E&Y, IndusInd Bank, DLF Mall of India for their events, parties. Localturnon did a mega concert with raftaar and aseeskaur in 2017 and Nizamibandhu Show SUFIYA in 2018    

Localturnon is also planning to have music instruments and apparel, etc on the platform to complete the ecosystem.

Our biggest achievement is that bands that we started out with have grown in stature. Not saying its entirely because of us but then it's nice to see that they have been associated with Localturnon. The sense of satisfaction also comes from the fact that our partners rely on our word and are willing to go the extra mile when it comes to deliverables expected out of them. This speaks volume about the company’s ethics and practices and that too in an industry where a lot of rotten fishes spoil the space.