Indie Organizers: Your Friends, Your Launchpads to Stardom, and the Only Ones Who Pay You
- Madi Task
- Jul 25, 2025
- 4 min read
Updated: Dec 5, 2025
No one knows about the heartwarming yet harsh reality of indie music organizing more than Lauren of Two Rooms LA. Last month we covered her concert series-turned-community-hub, but Lauren’s story tells a tale that inspires us to roll up our sleeves and get after it as we enter a new summer of music.
What she originally described as “a new era of music in LA” and “a new era for Lauren” hasn’t come without its challenges and lessons. From the start, Lauren wanted Two Rooms to be led with kindness and empathy, though in an industry where breaking even is cause for celebration, human decency often gets overlooked. As someone who works in talent buying and is passionate about it, Lauren sees a path no one else does. Two Rooms is how she’s bringing it to life.
“We’re in an era where that business model is getting so cramped that we can’t use it
anymore. It just isn’t viable.”
Between streaming platforms, post-pandemic live shows, and the rise of TikTok artists, the industry has transformed in only ten years to something unrecognizable.
“We have to get creative about the way we are making money,” she explains. “If there’s any way that we can help people in the process and focus on another revenue stream, all the better.”
After all, how many “traditional” routes exist in the industry? And if they do, are they worth it? Landing a full-time position in music right after college can often mean signing up for exploitation, as Lauren experienced first-hand. What entry-level roles can’t offer in salaries, they claim to offer in experience, exposure, and connections that (fingers crossed) pay off after that mystical “one day.”
Thinking back on her first job after college and how it felt to leave, Lauren gave props to Gen Z for their gusto towards workplace boundaries and knowing your worth. It taught her a stark realization about toxic jobs.
“I think these toxic workplaces, across all industries, when they are hiring, they are a little desperate because people leave them so often. The turnover rate is crazy. So you’re recognizing, okay, that person is desperate. I don’t have to take the first offer—even when it seems like a really good offer.”
Conversations like this might float into Two Rooms, where event-goers chat about the unspoken nitty-gritty details of their artist life. Things like contract negotiations, the value of exposure, and knowing how and when to say no to an opportunity. In general, Lauren wishes she had more mentorship coming up, and now tries to provide as much as she can.
“One of my friends was saying the other day, it’s weird that we don’t have a Secretary of the Arts—like in government—because the arts account for as much of the economy as agriculture does. And we don’t have one.”
Lack of mentorship and advocacy aren’t the only hurdles in the space though. Like many industries, music is predominantly male-dominated. From your neighborhood jam session to top label executive boards, the boys’ club mentality prevails. For Lauren, a mixed Asian American woman, finding her place between masculine and feminine in business scenarios has been a balancing act.
“I think I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t take advice from men on how to negotiate anymore,” she admits.
“Because it doesn’t work for us. If we pretend to be more masculine, people see through that. If we pretend to be more feminine than we are, that’s another gender dynamic. But I think that weaving in between—and just being authentically yourself and being honest about how things are done—I think that has been a strategy that has worked well for me.”
When it comes to booking acts for Two Rooms, Lauren’s template is refreshingly straight-forward. She introduces herself, the organization, then wastes no time hitting the other points everyone’s waiting to hear: the flat-fee payment, pre-show deposit, food availability, and whether or not there’s a backline.
“I think a lot of our industry gets by by being shifty. And if they’re hiding something—like they can’t pay you on time or anything like that—they will hide it. They will run from you. They will avoid your emails... and I’ve just started being completely honest. I know it’s not exactly ‘breaking the rules’ to be honest,” she laughs, “but it’s like against all the advice I ever got. And every artist that I’ve worked with trusts me. That has helped me build social capital in Los Angeles—which is almost as important as money.”
Lauren knows how to finesse a situation when it comes to her business, regardless of bias working against her. She’s used male pronouns and fake names when blind-emailing people, a strategy growing in popularity among young businesswomen. And if someone seems way too misogynistic, she’ll save herself the headache and pass it off to male colleague.
Despite the hardships, it’s not a life Lauren second-guesses for herself.
“Every culture created music independently of one another. That means we need it to exist,” she explains. “Art—even now—the existence of it is political. We need it to connect to each other. We need it to express ourselves. Everyone is listening to music their whole day through now. And artists are the people who give that to us. If we don’t take care of them, they will stop making music. And we can’t have that."
"I am trying to break that cycle of exploiting the people who give us what we need to be human.”
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