Tennents have been a big supporter of live music for some time. Their T In The Park festival has been around since 1994, and has been a massive success for bands, fans and the brand alike. But with so many big branded festivals around (V, O2 Wireless, Carling…) how do you stand out in a crowded marketplace?

How about you giving the power over to the fans and the music community and enable them to create their own gigs.

Tennents is putting it’s money where its mouth is by investing £150,000 into the Tennents Mutual, with Scottish music fans having the say in how that money is spent. Members get to select the artists and venues and get to set the ticket prices by interacting as a community and voting for their preferences online. To become a full member and gain full voting rights all you have to do is to buy a ticket to one of the gigs.

The programme, which kicks off in Edinburgh on the 21st of September, aims to transform Scotland’s live music landscape “by switching influence from the hands of the industry, into the heart of the music community”. Anyone who lives outside of the likes of Edinburgh or Glasgow will know that how hard it is to see your favourite band in you home town, so it’s nice to see that the first round of gigs will see the likes of Teenage Fanclub, Glasvegas, King Creosote and Hot Chip take the stage in Fort William, Ayr, Inverness and Dumfries. Not your average tour stops for many artists!

All the ticket income generated from 2008 shows will be reinvested to increase the 2009 live music fund. This ensuing sum will be further fortified by a donation from Tennent’s Lager’s music budget.

The brand has also added an unsigned area to the comprehensive website, allowing local bands the chance to support some of the bigger name acts that are part of the programme, giving then valuable exposure and a bit of experience playing to a big crowd.

citizensound says:

It’s great to see a brand come up with a project that really enables and empowers a community of music fans, especially in a part of the UK that is so often underserved by live music. As the project develops it will be interesting to see how many non-local artists and bigger acts can be persuaded to hit the lesser known highways and byway’s (LCD Soundsytem are the only international act taking part in the first round of gigs), but this is a really interesting start for a brand that seems to be prepared to put its money where its mouth is.