Data vs. Gut: A Talent Agent on Booking Festivals in the AI Era
Mike Malak, an agent at talent agency The Team, will moderate a panel titled "Data vs Gut: festival booking and artist strategies in the era of information overload" at IFF London (International Festival Forum) on September 8, 2026, at Outernet in London. He'll be joined by Johanna Beckman of Rosendal Garden Party and Oscar Kriek of ticket resale platform Ticketswap. The panel centers on how agents and festival bookers weigh a flood of data metrics against experience built up over years in the market.
Panel details
- Date: September 8, 2026
- Venue: Outernet (London)
- Event: IFF London (International Festival Forum)
- Panel title: Data vs Gut: festival booking and artist strategies in the era of information overload
- Speakers: Mike Malak (The Team), Johanna Beckman (Rosendal Garden Party), Oscar Kriek (Ticketswap)
- Ticketing/registration: not yet announced in the source
Too much information, not too little
Malak's framing is that booking decisions today suffer from information overload rather than scarcity: chart data, Spotify for Artists dashboards, Apple Music for Artists, and a growing pile of social metrics. "We have too much information," he says — whether that's good or bad depends on how it's used. He admits he doesn't deep-dive into every metric; instead he scans regularly and talks directly with managers and artists, because data can mislead depending on how it's presented.
He splits "gut instinct" into two components: first, the market knowledge accumulated from running an entire roster across Europe, Asia and Australia, where different genres land differently and trends shift year to year; second, direct conversations with managers and artists themselves about what the right move actually is.
Who counts as a "festival act"
Deciding whether an act should be positioned as a festival-oriented booking is, for Malak, the clearest case where data and instinct both matter. Past festival attendance figures are hard data, but he's also seen acts whose numbers looked strong in a given territory fail to sell tickets once they announced a headline show there — a gap only instinct can fill. The same artist might be positioned differently market to market; he calls it entirely case-by-case, requiring an agent who understands both the market and the client.
Zooming out to touring strategy, his approach after an album release is to prioritize headline shows in the markets showing the most heat, cashing in on demand quickly, while strategically holding certain markets back for festival slots the following one or two summers.
Where AI actually fits
On AI, Malak argues it should be used to interpret existing data rather than pile on more metrics. He says his agency's stance toward AI is strongly positive and that the whole team is learning to use it — "once you use it well, the work gets faster and more efficient" — but insists the agent still has to be the one analyzing data and producing an actual touring strategy, not just relaying information between manager and artist.
As an example, he uses ChatGPT's deep research feature to pull together consumer habits and cultural differences in a specific market within minutes, which he then uses to shape conversations with managers before pitching artists. The value, he says, is time saved and context added to numbers that would otherwise just sit as raw figures on Spotify, Apple Music, or Instagram.
Malak's conclusion: data can back up gut calls, and the two aren't necessarily opposed. Decisions carry risk regardless — the goal is simply to make that risk a calculated one.