Would you buy these products post-performance?

[Tao4Now]

A venue that has access to pro-quality video and audio services has proposed a set of products to coincide with their summer concert series.

1) Online photo purchases: When a band performs at the venue, the venue will have a pro photographer shoot the set. Every photo taken will be placed online and sold to anyone for $1.99 each. But you must buy at least five, so the band member's/fan's total would always be at least $9.95. Past quality has been very good to excellent, but none of the photos would be color-corrected - they're raw right out of the camera.

2) Online Streaming Video: When a band performs at the venue, they'll have a six-person video crew shoot the set. The entire 40-minute set will be placed online and streamed (not downloaded) for 99 cents each. But you must buy at least ten performance blocks minimum, so the buyer's total will always be at least $9.90. Past quality from the crew has been very good to excellent, though it uses live switching, and audio straight from the sound board (untweaked). The sets will have at least 12 minutes of commercials inserted, and the venue will mask a "lower third" (promoting the venue) directly on the stream.

3) Online Merch Sales: Alongside the free, 1-song online video posted of every band that performs at the venue, bands with merch can have that merch sold online with "buy now" buttons. The venue will add $3 to the regular price of the merch as their cut, but transmit all the orders for the band to fulfill, inlcuding shipping. The minimum price of any item placed for sale (CD, DVD, t-shirt, sticker pack, button pack, etc.) would have to be $10 or more.

Are any of these deals something that you as a band member would want? How about as a music consumer or fan of a particular band or bands?

[jmattbassplaya]

I like the option, but I wouldn`t buy a bunch of stuff I don`t want just to get the one thing I do want. I know why they would do it this way, but as a consumer I personally would never fall for it.

[groooooove]

its too expencive. whos gonna pay that much for pictures.. or pay at all to stream a video..

sometimes venues offer for $15 or so to give you a soundboard recording. thats usually worth it.

[Tao4Now]

Originally Posted by jmattbassplaya

I like the option, but I wouldn`t buy a bunch of stuff I don`t want just to get the one thing I do want. I know why they would do it this way, but as a consumer I personally would never fall for it.

I believe the reason for bundling is to avoid costly per-transaction credit-card fees on low-total transactions, or at least that was what I was told. I've negotiated merchant terms from a credit card company before, and I take them at their word.

If the terms are 9% and 25 cents per transaction, the CC company takes 34% of a one-dollar purchase, and 11.5% of a ten-dollar transaction. CC fees on low-total transactions will completely obliterate your margins.

Unless you have the bargaining power of, say, iTunes. They've got a real sweetheart deal, but it's because of their massive volume that they're able to negotiate those kinds of terms.

For our purposes here, though, I'm more curious about how bands and fans feel from a consumer perspective. After all, if nobody buys the product the way it's packaged, then margins don't matter at all. Thank you very much for weighing in and for your comments.

[Tao4Now]

Originally Posted by groooooove

its too expencive. whos gonna pay that much for pictures.. or pay at all to stream a video. sometimes venues offer for $15 or so to give you a soundboard recording. thats usually worth it.

Wow, do they really go that inexpensively? I've been shopping the wrong venues!

In my experience, a professional photographer will cost you upwards of $400/hr. That's not just for the shoot, but for toning and reproduction, which is the real time-sink (note that in the above offer, those services are not included - presumably you could pay extra for those).

Of course, you can get an amateur with a prosumer camera to do it less expensively, maybe even for free, but you won't get professional results.

Your comments on streaming are particularly insightful. I wonder how they plan to compete with "free?" Thank you for your knowledge!

[Drop-the-One]

Originally Posted by groooooove

its too expencive. whos gonna pay that much for pictures.. or pay at all to stream a video..

sometimes venues offer for $15 or so to give you a soundboard recording. thats usually worth it.

that's totally worth it!

way cheaper than renting an adat and snake lol. Though you could do more with it.

[Drop-the-One]

Originally Posted by Tao4Now

Wow, do they really go that inexpensively? I've been shopping the wrong venues!

In my experience, a professional photographer will cost you upwards of $400/hr. That's not just for the shoot, but for toning and reproduction, which is the real time-sink (note that in the above offer, those services are not included - presumably you could pay extra for those).

Of course, you can get an amateur with a prosumer camera to do it less expensively, maybe even for free, but you won't get professional results.

Your comments on streaming are particularly insightful. I wonder how they plan to compete with "free?" Thank you for your knowledge!

the $400... how many actual produced photos do you usually get in that?

[Tao4Now]

Originally Posted by Drop-the-One

the $400... how many actual produced photos do you usually get in that?

At that price you usually get all of them, minus the ones that are unusable. A photog might use bracketing schemes for white balance or exposure, so oe out of every three shots might be right in a case with controllable conditions.

In a performance shoot, you can easily end up with a couple thousand raw shots or more. With performance lighting, you'll have a lot of variables to contend with, like constantly changing light conditions. You'll probably throw out three out of every four or even more, leaving you with 400-500 good photos, and 50 or so great ones, and five that are really superb.

[jmattbassplaya]

Tao, it says you're Knoxville based - any chance you're playing near UT campus? I'd love to come check your band out sometime.

[smogg]

I would gladly pay $10 a set for a commercial free non venue masked video if I could download it so I could burn my own DVD's from it.

[Jehos]

The big problem I see is that people would be more willing to pay for photos and videos of famous signed bands, but you may not be able to sell those. As a band member I'd be willing to pay some decent money for photo, video, and audio recordings of my band performing, but not every performance--I'd only buy them when I need new promotional material.

I agree with the comments above that you're going to have a hard time selling 5 photos if I only want one, just because you're trying to save money on the credit card transaction. I don't care about your credit card bill, I'll just pass if I only wanted the one photo and you make me pick 5.

[MatticusMania]

Originally Posted by Tao4Now

Wow, do they really go that inexpensively? I've been shopping the wrong venues!

In my experience, a professional photographer will cost you upwards of $400/hr. That's not just for the shoot, but for toning and reproduction, which is the real time-sink (note that in the above offer, those services are not included - presumably you could pay extra for those).

Of course, you can get an amateur with a prosumer camera to do it less expensively, maybe even for free, but you won't get professional results.

Your comments on streaming are particularly insightful. I wonder how they plan to compete with "free?" Thank you for your knowledge!

Ive found pro/semi-pro phtogs who would shoot an entire show for $100. And Ive gotten some very nice photos taken of an 8 hour show from a guy who worked for free! Check out the quality, first page of the new chicks at shows thread. The guy did excellent work!

[Tao4Now]

Originally Posted by jmattbassplaya

Tao, it says you're Knoxville based - any chance you're playing near UT campus? I'd love to come check your band out sometime.

I'm hoping to start a new project soon - retro-Appalachian-indie-folk. If it gets off the ground we'll be plying our trade in the Old City and haunting the WDVX foyer for sure.

[Tao4Now]

Originally Posted by smogg

I would gladly pay $10 a set for a commercial free non venue masked video if I could download it so I could burn my own DVD's from it.

Interesting. I don't see how they could make money that way though. From their standpoint, they are paying the four-camera video crew, plus the live-switching editor, plus the sound engineer. Ten bucks doesn't even cover a camera guy for an hour.

I know they've offered master DVDs of performances in the past, with lower third masking, for 50 bucks. I think they are thinking that you can replicate that all you want since it has their branding on it.

Is ten dollars the absolute maximum of the worth to you? I think I personally would pay more, but then I'm probably looking at loading it in an editing program and using it to cut together an electronic press kit or something.

[Tao4Now]

Originally Posted by Jehos

The big problem I see is that people would be more willing to pay for photos and videos of famous signed bands, but you may not be able to sell those. As a band member I'd be willing to pay some decent money for photo, video, and audio recordings of my band performing, but not every performance--I'd only buy them when I need new promotional material.

The venue in question has state of the art lighting and audio. They pull out all the stops and really do a good job of capturing the dynamics. They've had a few better-known names (Marcy Playground, Jimmy Van Zant, Adler's Appetite, LA Guns) play there, but they seem to really want to capture young, unsigned bands and market their services directly to them.

If I'm reading you correctly, if you felt like your promo materials were already sufficient, none of this would be of interest to you, correct?

Originally Posted by Jehos

I agree with the comments above that you're going to have a hard time selling 5 photos if I only want one, just because you're trying to save money on the credit card transaction. I don't care about your credit card bill, I'll just pass if I only wanted the one photo and you make me pick 5.

Exactly what I was thinking too. The end user doesn't give a flip about why they have to buy a package. In the iTunes age, we are used to getting exactly what we want, and no more.

If I stop by Mickey D's for a burger, I shouldn't have to buy a drink and fries if I don't want them, just to get the burger.

[Tao4Now]

Originally Posted by MatticusMania

Ive found pro/semi-pro phtogs who would shoot an entire show for $100. And Ive gotten some very nice photos taken of an 8 hour show from a guy who worked for free! Check out the quality, first page of the new chicks at shows thread. The guy did excellent work!

I checked those shots out, and they aren't bad, but they're not what I would consider professional quality. I pulled some of the photos that this venue is doing into a Photobucket account. Check them all out here:

http://s394.photobucket.com/albums/pp22/tao4now/

Here are a couple of samples:

[Nigel Rahmshard]

i like the cat that lives near me that records shows and posts them on his web page for free. A good way for bands to get their music out there. http://southernshelter.com/