issue with supervolcano

hey guys i just wanted to keep everyone posted with whats going on....a few hours after the meeting on Tuesday, I discovered that Supervolcano is beginning to get involved with Heavy Rotation Records. While they aren't signed to HRR yet, they have submitted songs for the HRR showcase in Feburary and are booked to do a free show a Cafe 939 on November 14.

I just want to know everyone's thoughts on this.....I know one of our rules for these bands was that they couldn't be signed to HRR and while technically Supervolcano isn't, they are beginning to get involved.

Last night i met up with 3/4 of the band and they are all still very interested in doing the battle of the bands with us.

Also, I talked to Phil and he gave me numerous resources as far as merchandise companies and am in the process of contacting them all. i'll keep you updated

TC

Branders

Branders.com is a great website for promotional tools.

Check it out- let's see if we can get some use out of it!

-JW

Battle of the B.E.A.T.

Hi Everyone-

Excellent meeting today! I feel like we are finally getting everything together. It's exciting! Thanks for thinking up an awesome name, Karim.

Tex, Brian Dunne sounds great, I'm glad he agreed to play. I think he's a nice addition to our lineup. I'm sorry I forgot to mention your studio tonight at the meeting. Thank you for the offer, that is definitely an option that we should consider!

Kristin, when you set up the MySpace can you please put all of the log in info up on here? Thanks for offering to do that, too! =) Let us know when you speak to your flier friend.

Tara, let us know about Philip's t-shirt deal!

Nicky, can you let us know when you confirm Johnny?

Middle East just called me and told me that we can have the room December 9 or 10. It's a bit to late, as we are now confirmed with Bill's. Bummer! I think Bill's is a good spot, though. It's more convenient, which is a huge factor (especially in the winter!!).

FYI: Tomorrow night is the Music Business Orientation, and it would be great it you could all make it out. It is at 6PM in David Friend Recital Hall, and I will be speaking about the B.E.A.T.. Please try and make it if you can (I know it's tought with MidTerms). It's important that we show a strong presence within the Music Business Department, and I let Marty know those of you who were there at last week's event- he was very grateful and happy!

Thanks again.

Jessie

Brian Dunne

Hey everyone. I told Cougar in the Workplace that they are off the bill and already got ahold of Brian Dunne. He said he'd love to play. In all honesty, he's probably a better act for a battle of the bands anyway.

If you're interested, you can check out his music, pictures, etc. at www.myspace.com/briandunnemusic.

hey guys

it's going to be really hard choosing the bands! I talked to Jonathan Carr a couple days ago and he's is very interested in the battle of the bands....his myspace page is www.myspace.com/jonathancarr88    check his it out.....he's also doing a cafe show on Tuesday night if anyone is interested in going.... it should be good.

Also I have confirmed every member of Supervolcano finally lol. 

their myspace is www.myspace.com/superdupervolcano 

for anyone who hasn't heard their music or wants to hear more

I have contacted a few members of the BIRN to see if they are interested in possibly hosting our show as well as having the bands be interviewed on a show....i'll keep everyone posted with that.

as far as a name for this event i have no idea....did anyone come up with anything?? once we have a name and location we can start promoting this to berklee and hopefully other schools

TC

Hey guys,

Ok, so i just got a response from Scott (the alumnus I was telling you about) last night. I asked him for pretty much any help and advice that he could give us on a group and individual basis. Below is the the response he gave me. I think there are some good ideas in here, and we should benefit a lot. Also, maybe Jessie can add him to the blog, so he can give us some more feedback along the way (scott@bostonrockacademy.com).

Karim -

Glad my presentation was helpful. Occasionally I say something worthwhile, I guess.

And, glad you like Bandzoogle. It really is a good product that more musicians should know about. But then, that's my job ...

For the BEAT project, a few things come to mind. Battle of the Band (BotB) style events are pretty common. So the obvious advice would be to make yours stand-out or be different. Traditional "gimmicks" include getting guest/celebrity judges, cool sponsors/prizes, and so on ...

Since you're short on cash, my suggestion would be to see if money spent on the event could count as some sort of non-profit (deductible) donation. Have the entire event benefit some relevant charity that has a tie-in to Berklee or some relevant music issue. A quick suggestion would be MusicCares. They're the Grammy charity. Maybe they could help you with a judge, or a cool prize...

Alternately, check with Berklee alum and kajillionaire, Ernie Boch. His"Music Drives Us" foundation gives out grants to worthy causes. He's also good for a prize, as would (probably) Mike Dreese (Newbury Comics, CEO).

If the bands are all Berklee students, see if you can get a cool campus based prize. Maybe a $500 scholarship? Lunch with Roger Brown?

Also - try and make a big prize out of a lot of smaller prizes. For example, $10 from Subway, $10 from Starbucks, $10 gas card, and you've got a Musician's Post Gig Survival Kit. It's cheesy, but each piece is pretty easy to get, and together they're kinda cool.

Anyone that donates a prize will want/expect some kind of publicity. Make sure you get their name and logo splashed across anything and everything.

For promotion - first off, identify your audience. If the bands are all made up of Berklee students, then are non-Berklee folks interested? Also -if you get sponsors (like those listed above), do they have mailing list that they can send your message out to?

Reach out via Twitter. Free, easy searches, etc. Take a little work to generate a solid list, but the response rate is surprisingly strong.

If you have (some) cash, here's a couple suggestions:
Postcards: 5,000 4x6 cards are $137.00 from www.flyerstudios.com
Posters: 300 11x17 posters, $60.00 from nimbit

Get something slick, and pass out/post all around town. Get the band's name/photos on there, and give some to the bands to help promote. It's in their best interest to bring their fans. Traditional BotBs will have judges plus an audience vote which counts toward picking the winner.

Lastly, and this is probably impossible, but booze is a big draw. If you're crowd is 21+, offer cheap beer. Works every time ... and it's a solid profit margin.

That's all that comes to mind ... if I think of anything else, I'll let you know. And if you have questions, send 'em through ...

--Scott

Studio

Hey Jessie. I have a home recording studio that I started last fall. I don't know what the details surrounding the winning band's prize are, but if ya'll want to consider my studio, I'm open to the idea. You can check out the myspace at www.myspace.com/renaissancerecordings for sample recordings. I should have new ones up early next month.

Hi!

Last night's 'Evening with Entrepreneurs' was fantastic! Thanks to those who made it out (Tara, Morgan, & Tex). Karim and I had dinner with the panel before the event began and were informing Music Business Professor, Joe Miglio, about our current project. He was very interested and offered to help and guide us in any way that he can. I suggested that he check out this blog! So, if anyone has any questions that Joe may be able to help out with, please post them. I'd like to create a few concrete questions for him at our meeting on Tuesday, he is so generous to offer his help, and as budding entrepreneurs, it's important for us to take advantage of sound advice when we are offered it.

Kristin, see if Ricky Duran can create a MySpace asap. If he cannot, and you are committed to taking him on as your project, offer to do it for him. Also, we may have to make it 6 bands (I'm aware that is a lot), because Karim and Tex were very proactive and reached out to their prospective bands immediately after we met on Tuesday and both bands were interested. I think six is fine, we can pull it off, and it will create more of a space between each instrumental band.

Also- let's make a list of possible studios that could provide us with studio time to award our winning band with. Please post them on here, and let's keep it as close to campus as possible.

Thanks to all who are contributing!

-Jessie

Hello All:

Last night I went to a show at Bill's Bar with a group of friends (including Tara, Jessie, and Morgan) and there was one band in particular that I really enjoyed.  Immediately all three of us knew we should consider this band for the Battle of the Bands.

The front-man is Ricky Duran- a 3rd semester student.  I'm not sure of the names of the bass player and drummer, but I'll get that info asap.

They also don't have a myspace yet, since they're fairly new, but they stated they had an album coming out soon.

I will talk to Ricky and see if I can get some recordings to play for you guys at the next meeting!!

See you all next week!

-Kristin 

Hey Everyone-

To my disappointment, I wasn't thinking and scheduled a class during the time that the B.E.A.T regularly meets this semester.  However, I've made it clear to Jessie that I still want to be involved, and I'll definitely be helping out with the event!  The blog is a great way for me to see updates and what the club is working on.  Good luck guys- I miss everyone!

Morgan

'Evening for Entrepreneurs'

Hey Everyone-

Great meeting last night!

Karim, let us know when you get a quote for t-shirts.

Let's start contributing some names! We obviously want them to be catchy, to the point, and memorable. The sooner we have one, the better!

I've been thinking about our band line-up, and I am not sure if it's a good idea to have two instrumental-only bands. Facts are facts- and most people are drawn to band's that are fronted by singers. It would be a good idea for us to really think about this, I think that we should probably drop one.

Tonight is the 'Evening for Entrepreneurs', 6:30PM in David Friend Recital Hall. I need you all to make the effort to be there.

Thanks!

Jessie

Hey guys,

I really apologize for missing our last meeting. I had way too much work to do for the next day, and I don't live that close to campus. Anyhow, I hope to be seeing all of you this coming Tuesday night. In the meantime, here is some information I would like you to look through:

1. I have two candidates that I am considering for our project. One of them is a Berklee freshman. Since I am a Peer Advisor, I figured why not ask my advisees, since most of them are new to Boston anyway, and naturally wouldn't have much of a reputation in MA. Here is what Eitan, the interested advisee has to say about himself: " I am a hard working singer/songwriter who strives to sing about things of interest and substance. Although I have played a few gigs and made a couple recordings I never really could figure out how to break into the music scene. I'm a first semester student and I am a good distance from home. I really want to play for people and spread the music I have worked so hard to create but I do not have the marketing resources to do so. I believe I have a promotable talent but I just can't seem to market it myself." I think he would be a great option. If not, I have been working with one of my friends in Arlington, and he doesn't go to Berklee. I can attest that he has no recordings, because we're working together to get his first one done. Also, he has very little performace history, for he has only played with a few cover bands at a few weddings. He also has no online presence. Either one you vote on works for me!!!

2. Although it feels a bit weird sponsoring another group's event, M.E.I.S.A. is throwing a Music Business Autumn Affair, with a guest speaker. It will be on Wednesday October 29th, from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM at David Friend Recital Hall. It might be worth checking out as a group. We might be able to connect with some other Business majors, and get some insight for our project. I also spoke with one of their directors, and he invited us to go with them on their NY trip to visit a few companies. We agreed I'd run it by you and give him exact information on who wants to go if we decided we were interested.

3. Don't forget to check out the Evening with Entrepreneurs panel on Wednesday the 22nd, at 6:30 PM at David Friend Recital Hall.

4. What do you guys think about working on a website for B.E.A.T. that would have information about the show as well?

I believe that's all for now, but I'll be back with more soon!!!

the B.E.A.T.

Hey guys!

Welcome to the B.E.A.T.'s official blog. I hope that you all contribute your ideas and thoughts, so that we can stay better connected throughout the week.

For tonight's meeting, you should be bringing in a few candidates for our band competition, make sure you have the following info...

-Performing History
-Online Presence
-Released/Recorded Music
-Fan Base
-Background
-Viability

We need 5 bands to make this happen, so let's get the best that we can find!

See you all tonight, 6:00PM 136 Mass Ave. Rm 301

-Jessie