Harry Moore launches Lowtide after steering A$50M in Aussie ticket sales

Harry Moore, the Australian booking agent who guided Lonely Lands Agency (LLA) to more than A$50 million in local ticket sales across the 2024-25 period, is back running his own business. The launch of Lowtide was confirmed this week out of Melbourne, with a roster that already includes Tones And I, Ocean Alley, Hockey Dad, The Cat Empire, Brad Cox, Boy & Bear, and others. For an industry that has watched consolidation and agency mega-shops swallow up more acts, Moore is intentionally going the other direction: keep the client list small and put artists at the center of every touring decision.

"I want to create a culture that positions artists and their needs at the forefront of the approach to their touring," Moore tells Billboard. He contrasts the archetypal agent who "fixes dates to hit budgets" with one who "moves like a business strategist" alongside the artist and management. Lowtide is his attempt to build the latter model. It is a clear anti-thesis to a volume-and-quota culture that has, in the past, pushed agents to book tours that generate activity but not necessarily durable careers.

The roster Moore carries reflects this philosophy: Tones And (the global "Dance Monkey" explosion gave her one of the biggest outbound sales stories of the late 2010s after her independent run), Ocean Alley (a psych-rock band that's regular on major tours of the eastern states), The Cat Empire, Boy & Bear, and the country twang of Brad Cox. These are acts that might appear on festival posters and also will do head cleaner and grow in a longer arc. Moore's strategy is to be a career architect, not a platform flier.

The new shop emerges from the breaks of the Lonely Lands Agency (LLA), a company formed in 2019 by artist Tash Fille, and UNIFIED Music Group CEO Jidall the Law, and Lemon Tree Music co-founder Regan Lawrence. According to Billboard, LLA is no longer an than operating brand. Comerford and L must announced their own new separate shop, CORE, the same week. That means the Australian booking agency reconfiguration bursts into a new world of relocated small fry: Moore's Lowtide sits alongside CORE as independent operators, rather than one famous giant.

Moore's stance on the industry's outward rare parts is unusually strategic. "At certain times," he says, "saying no and letting an opportunity go is the most powerful step towards growth." That's a level of maturity you don't often here from a place trying to land first dates for an artist. It also suggests a new punching power for the independent agent: one who can tell a promoter "not this tour" while still hustling for the right slots.

The quote about venues and promoters is a tell for the health of the ecosystem: "We need venues and promoters to survive and thrive so artists can do the same." Lowtide plans to be what Moore calls "a fair operator" when it comes to the rest of the sector. That is heavy in a market where artist advances and the cost at the venue side can turn a hit tour into a margin race. By acknowledging that venues need to make money, he's positioning Lowtide as a partner to live music scene infrastructure, not just a seller of client dates.

The industry and second look: A booking agency inside all new, but a boutique one that deliberately embraces "quality over quantity" and uses the phrase "saying no" as a strategy - that is a line against the old method. In an sche-world where platforms (Ticketfee, venue) can push demand algorithms, independent shop with a careful, long view can actually matter. For up-and-coming artists watching LLA split, the chronicle is a split universe. Moore's Lowtide roster is already a group of household names in the Australian music circles, and the fact that they left with him (or chose him) says something about his relationship with them.

For executive and investors running music businesses, this move adds a wrinkle to Cages for trends. If the A$50 million in sales came through a team that operates with over half a billion, now the same agent owns the other half strictly through the path of lower fees and intentional client selection. That's a bet that works. The careful readers at packed collective the bands, not to push a tour risk, but the slow burn of a respected artist. With CORE forming as at another and LLA no longer active, the ecosystem is spinning off office of high-level talent. Lowtide's 5A + plus roster launches a challenge to the big facilities: don't resign themselves to the sum of their parts.

Eventually, the told is one of trust: "My philosophy for Lowtide is artists first, with a quality-over-quantity approach; music is so personal, the business side of it should be too," Moore says. For anyone reputable to want to be managed, the booking conversation turns a bit more philosophical. One small shop from Melbourne may be the force that makes others change their habits and postpone the date. Moore is banking that the exact opposite of many agents: the "no" is his biggest export. And with a record of over-$50 million already on the clock, people may want to listen.