The Tote Closes, Melbourne SLAM Parliament house!

February 24, 2010 – 16:32

Tuesday 23rd was the day Melbourne’s live scene rose up and SLAMmed parliament house! A great rally from the State Library to Parliament house and it almost streched from end to end! I would say somewhere between 10-20k people where there, showing the support for Melbournes Live scene.

The rally, which I am sure you all know, was about the Brumby Governments liquor licensing laws that have jumped up recently, mainly due to voilence in the CBD, but also due to the state budgetry requirements - Nothing, I note, to do with live music venues, and any reasonable study would conclude Live music was the problem, but to quote xxxx “Music is the solution”

I was most interested to learn that Melbournians “care” so much about live music, and it is obvious that there is wide support for the industry in Melbourne. Muso’s, Publicans and Music Lovers appeared in droves to support the rally! Famous and semi-famous Muso’s where able to be spotted in the crowd along with the huge line up on the AC/DC tribute stage!

Let me firstly state that I am in no way supporting the Brumby decision to raise fees, and feel they are targeting the wrong venues with their laws.

The follow is controversial and does in no way reflect my opinion, it is simply objective and analytical.

I would now like to analyse “The Tote” closing and suggest some potentially unpolular ideas as to why it closed.
Firstly “The Tote” is a business, and businesses have a bottom line. Market forces, which we are so fond of in Australia, create and destroy markets for a product, in this case a venue that provides alcohol and entertainment to the public.
Melbourne, being the cultural and music capital of Australia has many of these venues, so the public has a lot of choice, not only in the where to go for live music, but also what else they could do with their hard earned cash.
I see trends in Society away from Pubs towards Bars and Clubs, I see trends away from “rock” towards electronic music, as well as trends towards the “latte lifestyle” especially in these inner city suburbs.
What I am suggesting is “The Tote” closed potentially due to lack of demand for its product, and that it was simply a lack of Demand for a product that is in oversupply in Melbourne.
The next point about the product “The Tote” offered; is it’s quality. As a venue “The Tote” was a bit scruffy, and in need of haircut, much like quite a few of the bands that played there I am sure. When you see new venues opening and surviving in the current climate, like Red Bennies, xxxx New Venue in Fitzroy, you have to wonder if it was the demand for the Quality of the product that was “The Tote” in combination with the higher fees that set it to close.
So blame the tools (Govt) or the management (supply) or the customer (demand) is the message I get from the closure, who do you think is to blame?

Some controversial ideas to think about.

By Craig Lambie | Posted in The Business of Music | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

First Meeting - Success

February 24, 2010 – 14:15
The first GigTxt Meetup was a huge success.
100% of RSVPs showed up.  Sometimes having a fee “makes” people want to come.  A colleague of mine even suggested the higher the fee, the more likely people are to “want” to come, it is even a marketing method for certain events.  Maybe the Music part of the Arts could learn from this, it works in Theatre, Comedy and other areas…. why do Musicians continue to give away their talent, they are one of the few who do.
All participants left the session with a better understanding of what to look for when accessing fans, how to understand them, and why it is worth taking a minute to work it out.
The idea was to come out of the session with a “fan” profile.
We had a promoter, a singer/songwriter and a networker at the event.  This worked out to be a good number, and I have reduced the spaces to just 8 total from now on, as any more it would be hard to “work” together and get anything done, it is a good “teacher/student” ratio.
Promoter
Started to understand the who/why of their fanbase, and decided to record some basic demographic information at the next event in order to make better decisions going forward.
Singer/Songwriter
Established social networking was not enough and will start playing some Gigs to get a good picture of their fan base.  Firstly he will attend a few gigs, one or two a week; starting to network with Venues and other artists that are a similar genre and share a similar audience, then he will start to understand who his fan base could be.
Overall the Meetup was a success and I will be running another one, with a look to increase the frequency once demand has increased.
By Craig Lambie | Posted in Marketing Help, The Business of Music | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Future Topics

February 11, 2010 – 13:37

So yesterday I was asked a question I always get asked…. “How do I do xxx on my computer/web/phone?”

And I realised once again that so many people simply don’t understand the “basics” of what they want to achieve in the world of IT, and one of strengths in my Career as an IT Geek is the ability to communicate with “lay” people and Uber Geeks, and everyone in between, to get the message across in a fashion that is understood by both parties.

So, given that I thought of a Topic/s that will be dealt with in the future Meetups.

  • Creating a Technical Specification for how you want your website to look/feel so your Developer knows exactly what you want.
    • Writing the Spec
    • Reading the Spec
    • Presenting the information
    • SEO considerations
    • What is important to the User, WebBots etc
  • Setting up a WordPresss Blog, Blogspot
  • Creating an online profile - Facebook, MySpace, Hi5, Bebo, YouTube (which one, and why, then how) (PreReq - Customer Profiling Meetup)
  • Setting up a System for Contact Management/ CRM, Discuss paid options, cloud computing options
  • Writing a business plan for your arts/music business, setting goals and achieving them

I am sure to come up with many more, and I invite you to write suggestions in the comments for future topics.

By Craig Lambie | Posted in Marketing Help, The Business of Music | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Who are your Fans/ Customers/ Patrons? And why you should know.

January 28, 2010 – 17:37

So I was sitting down with a client/ Muso friend the other day over a beer and a coffee… in that order haha! crazy but true!  We did a Fan Profile, and I wondered how many Musos have done this…. Sat down and worked out who listens to their music, and why.  Then looked at ways to better target them, that is better ways for you to spend your precious time and hard earned cash to get more of them.

So I decided to A. Create a Meetup about it and then B. to write this blog entry on it, so here goes, comments and suggestions are welcome.

Who are your Customers?

Do you know who your customers are?  (Note: As this is a business discussion I am going to call them customers, yes they are fans if your a band/artists/comedian, or patrons if your a venue, but at the end of the day, if your thinking about your Art as a business (now there is another blog topic), then they are customers through and through, so no more “fans/customers/ patrons”… just customers.)

Those people that pay (or you want to pay) their hard earned cash and give up their time to come along to see You, buy Your product (be it beer or CDs), listen to Your music, do you know who they are?

Doing a customer profile will help you to understand who your customers are and therefore make decision making easier like:

  • Where to advertise
    • Street Press
    • Posters
    • Magazines
    • Online (websites/social)
    • at all…
  • How much to spend on that advertising
  • How to communicate your gigs/ products/ releases to them (ie. Via Email, Text, IM, Social Networks)
  • Which online tools they prefer (ie. Facebook, Myspace, Twitter,YouTube, Email, IM)

Measurement

Measuring your results will help you to make these decisions to.  For example, if you get little or no result from sending a Gig out on Facebook, then stop spending so much time on it.

Some ideas on how to measure response to advertising… Add an incentive to your advertising, for example “Mention this poster/email for a discount” or “show this SMS for a discount” or “Print this Email and show at door for x off the cover”, “get a free live track”, “get a Autographed Poster”, “First beer on the house”, “Drink card”, or “Drink Discount”

This is especially true for the more expensive advertising methods like Street Press/Posters… if you are spending on these, then you should have a good idea what sort of return you are getting, in pure business speak we call it ROI, that is Return On Investment, or Cost/Benefit analysis.

For every promotional action you take, you need to do a Cost /Benefit analysis on it.  This might not seem to be very “Rock n Roll” like; what is the C/B of smashing up a Hotel room?  Well there is very little Benefit for almost every single artist out there, mind to be honest I can see how it is good PR for some more famous Artists, it is probably not something to aspire to, and given the Music Business is made up of a lot more than Rock n Roll it is probably not a worth strategy for anyone really.

What Info do I need to know about my Customers?

Some of the basic information you should know about your customers is this:

  • Age breakdown
  • Disposable Income
  • Average Nights out per week/month or even year for the older folks..
  • Geographic location (postcode home/work)
  • Relationship Status
  • Profession/ Occupation

This is the basics, and you should be able to estimate these from just looking at them.

Some other things worth asking:

  • What Magazines/Street Press/ Newspapers do they read
  • What other styles of music are they into
  • Who are their favourite Artists
  • What Social Networks do they use? Facebook/ Myspace/ Twitter/ Youtube/ Hi5/ Friendster
  • What Social Bookmarking sites do they use? Delicious/ Digg/ StumpleUpon
  • How long do they spend on the Web each Day/Week
  • How “tech savvy” are they? Little/ Average/ Geek/ Uber Geek

So, with that in mind, please come along to the Meetup with a few ideas on these and be prepared to come away from the Meetup with a much clearer idea of who Your customers are, and how to better target them.


By Craig Lambie | Posted in Marketing Help | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

About, Why and When - GigTxt’s First Blog Post -

January 28, 2010 – 12:52

Hello World!

Funnily enough this is the first project for any developer in a new programming language space, so… had to write that.  This is not about programming though, so lets move on.

Firstly I wanted to tell you a bit about what this Blog will entail, why you should read it and how often I plan to add info.  If you have read the “About” page, then don’t bother reading this first post…. It is essentially the same :)

About

This blog will be about Marketing in the Music and Entertainment Industry, and using Technology to enhance the process, making your life as easy as possible.

Why?

No matter if you are an indie band or Rockstar, Marketing Manager or Producer; I always hear the claim “me and IT don’t mix so well” so the idea is to bridge the gap, offering you advice on how to use Tech in your Marketing processes, Understanding Social Networking, and at the end of the day Managing the process of doing what you do, to allow for more free time to do what you want to do!

This will also be the place where the results of the Monthly GigTxt sponsored “MeetUps” will occur.  Where each month I will be facilitating a meeting/workshop for Music and Arts business professionals to “do” some work, whether it is creating a check list for a future project to ensure it runs smoothly, or discuss some options on the process of “becoming famous”, also things like setting goals, creating a formal business plan etc.  I will also be inviting along special guests at times that can help with different tasks, for example a successful Manager to talk about Management and how to create a successful smooth running tour, or a Business Planner to discuss creating a business plan.

When?

Updates on the blog will be at least monthly, along with the meetings, with different topics covered in detail throughout the month.  For example I might post something on here leading up to the Meetup to give you some ideas on what is going to be covered, and what “homework” you might need to do before coming.

That’s all for the first Entry… Next time “Why should I know my Fans, Patrons, Customers? - Focus your Time/Energy on the RIGHT tasks”

By Craig Lambie | Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Comments (0)