5 ms·

Considering that the biggest expense of a wedding is the venue, then services (band, photographer), I could see the direct correlation to real estate. I'm not

Considering that the biggest expense of a wedding is the venue, then services (band, photographer), I could see the direct correlation to real estate. I'm not sure you could get the venue owners to drop rates, because it sure doesn't seem like many have much of a demand shortage. Wedding venues seem to be booked way far out in advance, and don't seem to have any issues with vacancies. And I'm sure they are well aware of each others' rates. Anecdotally, I also see large disincentives to lower costs for the other major services. Musicians who play weddings do so because the gig pays well, not because playing crappy covers is what they really want to do. Pretty sure the same goes for photographers - if the wedding business wasn't so lucrative, they'd probably just go do something else with their lives. They're all professional, but I'm not sure many would identify as a "wedding singer", just "musician" or "photographer". But, I'd guess they too are very aware of each other's rates, which gives them no reason to work for less money. Not sure what there's to "disrupt" here other than culture. And if there's one true rule I've learned: Culture eats strategy for breakfast.

AnimalMuppet 8y ago
Seems like maybe the best way to disrupt weddings, then, is to have some lower-cost venues that are close to on par with the current ones - kind of like the way the PC disrupted the minicomputer market. They weren't as good, but they were good enough, and a lot less money.
- mr_tristan 8y ago
  "AirBnB for event space" sites already exist, like https://www.peerspace.com https://www.peerspace.com. All of them just generalize for "event" planning. But most of the spaces are for smaller events, because that's what's unused. Once you get to 100+ attendees, options drop dramatically. When I did a cursory search for "average us wedding size", I got a number of 120. So, I'm just not sure where this source of "good enough" venues are going to come from, that aren't already in use.
  - AnimalMuppet 8y ago
    I was thinking that the disruption would be the creation of new venues. It seems that there's a market for less-expensive venues that can hold from 120 up to perhaps 200 (?) people. There's unserved demand there. The trick is to create spaces that work, that are attractive, that aren't as expensive as the existing options.
WhompingWindows 8y ago
I've gigged as a pianist and it's really not worth it, financially speaking - I only do it for the fun/joy of making music. Have you considered the cost of gear, the rehearsals, transit, tear down/setup, down-time without music, and dealing with shitty clients who expect more than the verbal agreement? When you deal with all of that, the money is not good, it's just about bringing joy with my piano music, having an audience that is often very complimentary and provides meaning to the 1000's of practice hours I have put in. Financially, I make the same in a single 8 h day of coding that I do in my average "2 h" gigs, which really take 5 hours or so all inclusive, and which only occur 5-10 times per year. If I quit my full time position and tried to get more gigs, I'd get maybe 2 or 3 times more, and my income would go down about by 50k or around 75%.
- mr_tristan 8y ago
  Lemme clarify that "pays well" meant "pays well in comparison to their other gigs". Which is still pretty bad, in comparison to doing pretty much anything else. Just a sad fact that almost all musicians make absolutely nothing. Given that music is already the #2 cost for weddings, I'm not sure how you "disrupt that" other than not hiring musicians.
  - dagw 8y ago
    I'm not sure how you "disrupt that" other than not hiring musicians. I haven't been to a lot of weddings, but non of the weddings I've been to the past few years had a band. So maybe that's already happening.
- dagw 8y ago
  Most professional musicians aren't comparing wedding gigs to high paying programming jobs. They're comparing wedding gigs to other gigs, and there weddings seem to be the best paying gigs around.

AnimalMuppet 8y ago

Seems like maybe the best way to disrupt weddings, then, is to have some lower-cost venues that are close to on par with the current ones - kind of like the way the PC disrupted the minicomputer market. They weren't as good, but they were good enough, and a lot less money.

mr_tristan 8y ago
"AirBnB for event space" sites already exist, like https://www.peerspace.com https://www.peerspace.com. All of them just generalize for "event" planning. But most of the spaces are for smaller events, because that's what's unused. Once you get to 100+ attendees, options drop dramatically. When I did a cursory search for "average us wedding size", I got a number of 120. So, I'm just not sure where this source of "good enough" venues are going to come from, that aren't already in use.
- AnimalMuppet 8y ago
  I was thinking that the disruption would be the creation of new venues. It seems that there's a market for less-expensive venues that can hold from 120 up to perhaps 200 (?) people. There's unserved demand there. The trick is to create spaces that work, that are attractive, that aren't as expensive as the existing options.

WhompingWindows 8y ago

I've gigged as a pianist and it's really not worth it, financially speaking - I only do it for the fun/joy of making music. Have you considered the cost of gear, the rehearsals, transit, tear down/setup, down-time without music, and dealing with shitty clients who expect more than the verbal agreement? When you deal with all of that, the money is not good, it's just about bringing joy with my piano music, having an audience that is often very complimentary and provides meaning to the 1000's of practice hours I have put in. Financially, I make the same in a single 8 h day of coding that I do in my average "2 h" gigs, which really take 5 hours or so all inclusive, and which only occur 5-10 times per year. If I quit my full time position and tried to get more gigs, I'd get maybe 2 or 3 times more, and my income would go down about by 50k or around 75%.

mr_tristan 8y ago
Lemme clarify that "pays well" meant "pays well in comparison to their other gigs". Which is still pretty bad, in comparison to doing pretty much anything else. Just a sad fact that almost all musicians make absolutely nothing. Given that music is already the #2 cost for weddings, I'm not sure how you "disrupt that" other than not hiring musicians.
- dagw 8y ago
  I'm not sure how you "disrupt that" other than not hiring musicians. I haven't been to a lot of weddings, but non of the weddings I've been to the past few years had a band. So maybe that's already happening.
dagw 8y ago
Most professional musicians aren't comparing wedding gigs to high paying programming jobs. They're comparing wedding gigs to other gigs, and there weddings seem to be the best paying gigs around.