Beta testers needed for new Band-Poster concept / looking for a way to stand out?

[trey]

Hello,

A friend told me about GigPosters and I'm thinking this is really neat so far. I'm pretty new around here so I'm just still learning how everything works. I've taken the effort to look at some other posts and replies so far, to try to learn the ropes and hope this is in the right forum and I'm blending in well, but if not please educate me! Any comments are appreciated.

I'm writing to see who'd be interested in giving a little feedback to some new technology I've developed for bands that lets them make more use of posters artwork. Without poster work, my concept cannot survive, so I want to give back to the community by trying to tweak it into a something that everyone likes. From the reactions I've seen so far, this really is something that will knock your socks off as well as the venues where your posters will be.

Now it's time to share this with the world. If you're looking for something that will help what you love and do, as I am with my stuff, in a win-win-win scenario you might want to check it out. I'm all ears and eager to get your feedback on what I've built and suggestions. If anyone else is willing to give it a shot, I'd be willing to let beta testers try it out for a a very very low price or via services exchange if you're one of the early birds.

If anyone is interested in learning more, please (please) message/email me. I think you will like this.
Thanks for your help,
-Trey

[squeegeethree]

Welcome Trey. I don't think you will be taken seriously without explaining your concept a little more. You also have some sticky hurdles to leap as the band might not own the rights to distribute a particular poster via your concept. Also you are probably not going to get far asking this crowd to pay for your service.

[40ozGraphics]

Yeah, GigPosters is pretty neat so far. Sounds to me like you want permission to use images from here to build your own "technology" and you're asking the original producers of these image to pay you for the privilege.

[lil_tuffy]

If you're looking for something that will help what you love and do
-Trey

I would like more info on how this will provide me with more beer and bj's.

[MrBlonde7]

you love doing a lot of bj's?

sweet.

[JustinHelton]

of course he does.

[trey]

Welcome Trey. I don't think you will be taken seriously without explaining your concept a little more. You also have some sticky hurdles to leap as the band might not own the rights to distribute a particular poster via your concept. Also you are probably not going to get far asking this crowd to pay for your service.

Hey I read the replies and am writing a reply. It's turning out to be longer than I was thinking, but just wanted to let you know I'm responding. Be right back, Thanks!

[trey]

Hi you all! Thanks for your replies, ok sorry this turned into a wall-o-text but I just wanted to be more thorough. Thanks for reading and your time.

squeegeethree, Thank you for the welcome, man I'm grateful to be able to post and get good feedback like this. I was thinking that when I hit submit too, it seems kinda spammy. The main reason I didn't say as much right away is because I'm just nervous being new here an all, but I really and truly want to help all the way around, and get the help I need on this. Your welcome makes me feel, welcome.
That's a good question I wondered about, about the ownership. Let me tell you a bit more about about me and what I've got, then I have a couple more questions, or just jump down to "Ok so here it is (after much delay) :" for answers.
While I try to maintain some privacy that my friends have asked for around this, I'll try to be open as much as possible so we can actually let people know enough to be able to help, because this baby want to get born. So feel free to ask questions and continue to let me know how things are since I'm still learning in the music world and on here. I'm a computer geek with a few "wannabe cool" (like me) geek friends who happen to be in bands. The only "rhythm" I have is the the "algorithm".
So I get this idea a loooong time ago before going to school and towards the end of almost dropping out I pick it back up and develop it since I kinda goofed off much in school tinkering on this and that and knew that I wouldn't be able to get a great job after graduating because my grades started to go bad. Thankfully I somehow managed to graduate, all dented up so I decided I could try to make money with some of the ideas that I came up with, as it was my real passion to the point that school seemed like and interference.
I just didn't fit in in the corporate world and am, er... ... "attention-defeated" (unless I really like something, then it's like a laser it seems) So I decided to embark on taking my hobby to the next level. I worked long hours, paper routes, delivery whatever it took, all kind of odd-jobs and even went to Alaska a few times and worked on a fish boat to raise money to self-fund and then worked on this in spare time until the point I thought I could actually start eeking out a little scratch of cash.
So I've poured my heart and soul into this project of mine and it's kind of morphed into something bigger that I think is a cool concept but one thing I didn't expect is what happens when I actually start to sell it. All the while I mostly looked at it from the coolness factor and developed it because I love coming up with ideas and trying to build them .
However things go I feel I have a moral obligation to do what's right for each person touched by it, especially since I've managed to fend off the "greedy investors" type who might have morphed my project into something else already. Not all investors are bad of course, but I just opted to go this route since it was my baby and didn't need an extreme amount of money to keep it this way.

Now that I want to earn a living with it and also want to help my band buddies and people like them in the process, I want to guide it in a direction that works for everyone. Like we're taught in grade school, you gotta play well with others to make and keep friends. I've always felt that way. I feel fortunate that I can keep this thing under it's own good terms because I chose to bust my butt instead of getting a bunch of investors involved to the point that I could not make and decisions. Thankfully, with good guidance, I can do whatever now pretty easily. So I need you guys and gals help with this, if possible, to keep this sorta something of a tool for my band friends, poster creators, the people who pass out posters, you know everybody instead of just a few people at the top.

Ok so here it is (after much delay) :
I've developed this 'platform' that helps a person interact with a digital sign from their phone. So think of the sign as a screen that has a digital poster on it, or maybe several digital posters, and every few seconds the content changes. When a bar patron or person on the sidewalk sees something that catches their interest, they can control the sign with their mobile phone.

You may have seen some apps that do this now, but at the time that I started developing this, smartphones where not even out yet. Fast forward some number of years and now I'm in a position where people want this tech (I've got some IP protections in place to fend off would be competitors.

40ozGraphics : Yes let me clear that up some. I see what you mean in just a few words. No I suppose that wouldn't work., but yea the poster creators shouldn't be getting charged to display their work. Thank you for helping me see that better. I guess I mean it's more of a platform that poster-creators would be able to use in addition to what they're already doing. So maybe the poster creator shouldn't pay anything for the CD since it doesn't cost anything now for a band to put up a poster. Yeah that seems better.
No I definitely do not want to use the creator's work for free. Anyone who puts their hard earn work into something should get compensated for it and it should be spread around instead of a few people hoarding it like a lot of companies try to do today.
What I envision is a band would have my tech on a CD with them when they go to the show, or maybe the venue would have one. The poster creator would use the CD as an add-on to their posters for the venue to use or maybe give it to the band as a bonus(?) I'm still feeling things out, but I'm thinking poster creators would want something that showcases their work at the venue where the band is actually playing, but use traditional posters at all other places, unless it was free to the poster creators if things evolved to that. Does that seem fair? It seems like the bands would need to pay for the right to post the poster artwork, but they're broke. How does it work right now, my friends and I haven't talked about that yet. If it was a fair amount to the poster creators for access to the platform then the poster creators could upsell maybe, so that I could make some money too, that would work out. What do you think?
The rules haven't been written on the use of this yet so feedback on this is appreciated. Ultimately, the poster artists will always be needed because that's the content that is needed to be displayed on the platform.

squeegeethree: Is a good approach to require that the band go through the poster creator in order for for the band to have the rights to display the digital version of the poster? I think that's a great idea and my software allows for just that, but let me know if you meant something else.
hehe my friends said bands don't have money; I hear you. I wonder if the pricing were extremely low for poster creators, would that help and then the poster creators would charge the band, or would they charge the venue since venues make good money on alcohol and patrons and can afford it more than the bands would? I've got a few ideas, but I'm not yet sure what the best approach would be just yet.


The things I do want to keep in mind are:

The poster creators must benefit from this. I don't like much things that try to replace workers with technology, so I' m being extra careful about how this is being rolled out so that the "power is with the people" so to speak.
Originally I wanted to have content that looked like web pages, but they didn't look right. Then while hanging out at a coffee shop a year or so ago Iit clicked in my mind that the "look" that I was after was right under my nose: gig posters that bands use to promote their events. I sat back smiling thinking wow that's really cool: As long as people have eyeballs to see with, posters and the graphics artists behind them are going to be needed.
Simultaneously I could do my part to help bands, and promote band poster artists' trade.
I want the venues and bands to request more poster work because it looks nicer and gives everybody something back, hopefully not disrupting the basic things as we move further into the 21st century: e.g. people used to use airbrushes but now use illustrator, but the core is artists are still in demand and that's what I like and want to keep.

The bands must benefit from it, and of course the venues too. Right now it seems like(from what I hear and have read) bands are not getting as much royalties as they hope for. So if this could be used in some way to help these guys in that way, that would be also really great. If for example the platform could show people how good the band is right on the display, maybe they would come back tomorrow or Friday night. If they're impressed because the patrons crossed paths with a great band, maybe they would give more money to the band. This is just a brain dump of some of the stuff in my mind. Please let me know if there's anything I should think about and do as I roll this out.
Btw let me know if this is making sense(or not) I've been up all night practically working on this stuff.
Thanks,
Trey



lil_tuffy, haha, although I can't say what I created would have a direct impact for what you're seeking there maybe benefits associated with it from the bands if you can get them to use it and maybe they liked it just that much, but standard disclaimers apply

[mikeage]

Give the elevator pitch.

[trey]

Give the elevator pitch.

Hey mikeage, thanks! yeah that probably was a little unfair to folks, esp. on a Friday night. ok let me give it another try, the 5 minute pitch :

What:
What I'm hoping to accomplish: Providing a turnkey digital signage-like platform , that has the additional capability of being controlled from an ordinary mobile phone that benefits all the players involved. Think of it as a remote control for a band poster slide show.
Who:
The players are : poster artists, poster printer shops, bands and the venues that the bands are playing in.
Costs: target is low for poster creators and bands. Venues pay more because they stand to benefit more, but not insanely more because we actually want the venues to be able to easily afford to use the platform. (no crazy licensing schemes allowed)

I propose to keep a requirement that for every poster that is on my platform a real, tangible poster is backing it up, so as to not diminish the income of people who print posters, or other folks, sorta like backing up money with gold bars.
Why: So we all make more money for our hard work!
The poster creators use the platform as a way to help promote the bands' events. The bands in turn get a little more money because they are reaching fans a bit better. With the extra cash, the bands get more posters made because everyone's getting them more if they are augmentated by use of the platform. The printers get more work due to the demand increase. The venues are looking better because they have a good way to show fresh posters for events. I get more money so I can continue doing the stuff I like too.
Let me know if I need to fix this up some more, I don't mind. I appreciate your input!