Speakers

Rebekah Campbell
Posse.com

Profile:

Rebekah Campbell is one of the Australian music industry�s best known names � or best kept secrets. It depends who you are. To record companies, artist managers, and most of the artists, she�s a familiar and at times, assertive face. To music lovers and the listening public, she is an unseen force.

In 1998, Rebekah�s concern for New Zealand�s high youth suicide rate prompted her to organise The Levi�s Life Festival, creating public debate on the issue and drawing young people�s attention to support groups. It meant personally raising money from corporate sponsors, local and national government. The results: fifteen major bands performed across two stages to an audience of 15,000, sponsorship from multi-national companies and government, with the whole thing broadcast nationally on free-to-air television. The festival was one of the biggest music events for young people in Wellington�s history and successfully drew public and political attention to New Zealand�s youth suicide epidemic.

In 2000, Rebekah headed for Australia to work for the Grant Thomas Management agency in Sydney � and within three months had signed a little-known Brisbane band, ‘george’. She released their EPs independently; with sales of around 20,000, these created an expanding street following. Then, after nearly two years, george’s debut album, Polyserena, released through Festival Mushroom, debuted at number 1 on the ARIA Chart reaching Triple Platinum status and became one of the biggest sellers of 2002.

Fortuitously, Rebekah met Australian music industry legend John Woodruff at an event to celebrate george�s number 1 album debut. John encouraged her to launch her own management company and offered her support, a loan and a free office to help her get started.

Within a few weeks of establishing Scorpio Music, Rebekah discovered and signed the company�s first client - the youthful Evermore brothers from Feilding, New Zealand, aged fourteen to eighteen. In their early days, the band toured relentlessly, building the kind of grassroots fan base that helped launch george. In 2004, Evermore�s first album, Dreams, sold over 100,000 copies, and was nominated for five ARIA awards. It established both the band and Scorpio, which moved into its own premises.

In 2007, while promoting a major tour for Evermore, Rebekah encountered a problem when ticket sales to the band�s Perth show flagged. Disillusioned with the impact of traditional advertising channels on sales, and searching for alternative avenues of promotion, she recalled high school days of dance parties and commission. She decided to ask the band�s Perth fans if they�d become promoters of the Evermore show at school or university, offering to pay commissions for tickets sold.

It worked. Evermore fans started putting up posters in school common rooms and university foyers and selling tickets to their friends. The result? A sold out show and a lot of empowered young fans who now felt they were part of the music business.

And the idea arose � could there be an internet version of this, selling tickets on a secure website? From this initial thought, Posse.com was born.