8 ms·

RoadPony is a new way to support musicians by crowdsourcing concerts

143 points by corkinn 6y ago

corkinn 6y ago
Hey all, Just wanted to get some feedback on a project I just launched called RoadPony: www.roadpony.com It's a platform make it easier for performers to book shows in areas where they have the best opportunities for solid attendance and income. It's also a platform that will allow fans to show performers their interest in the performer and entice them to come to their area to play. The current version is just to gauge interest with lite features. Artists can create a profile with links, photos, bio, and music. And they can see who favorited their profile and who and where they are requested to play. Fans can create a profile to favorite and request artists in their city and state at a specific venue. If there’s enough interest, we’ll build out the campaign element. Let me know if you have and questions, issues or suggestions!
- xwdv 6y ago
  You need a way to tie in selling merchandise. A lot of bands are basically T-Shirt companies and the music really is just the lead generator. Was in a band once.
  - bigiain 6y ago
    > A lot of bands are basically T-Shirt companies It works that way for Harley Davidson too... ;-)
  - redis_mlc 6y ago
    This is literally true in the US, for the following reasons: 1) small bands normally get no ticket revenue, or even pay to play. The usual number I hear is $500 if you're an opening act, although you could outbid the previously-booked act. 2) normally their earnings would be from their T-shirt stand at the concert. But venues are even clawing that back now, or allowing only 1 design to be sold by the band.
- Spivak 6y ago
  I’m surprised that it’s “perks” and not “get a ticket to the show” which is pretty much the only perk I would be interested in. Swag might be a nice extra but if I’m trying to get a performer to come to my town it’s to see them perform. Clearly I’m at least willing to front one ticket. Why would I put up less than the cost of a ticket in exchange for a t-shirt or something for the privilege of buying a ticket when I could put up the cost of a ticket and a t shirt which surely would be more enticing?
  - boomboomsubban 6y ago
    It says >When the time comes, you and all other bidders can attend the show Which I think implies anyone in the bid gets a ticket? I have no idea how you would get multiple ticket's though.
  - issa 6y ago
    In recent years artists have turned to selling VIP access as a major source of income on tour. In a lot of music scenes, this is normal and fans are really into it.
  - corkinn 6y ago
    The current plan is to make the lowest bid amount the price to entry. So you'd be guaranteed a ticket if you placed that bid.
- tacosaretasty 6y ago
  Awesome concept, I’d love to be able to look up a zip code or location to see what performers are being requested where. You then kind of have a backdoor discovery function for both potential fans and artists. I’d also suggest showcasing a few artists on the homepage so you naturally start diving into the site. I agree with the top comment mentioning the big challenge will be getting to critical mass as a platform to be really interesting. NGL it’ll probably take a lot of capital. That said it’s a cool project and I wish you success!
  - corkinn 6y ago
    Thanks for checking it out! The search by area idea makes a lot of sense. Finding artists on the site currently seems to be one of the biggest challenges for users who are testing RoadPony. We do have plans for showcasing artists in the future!
- adzm 6y ago
  So this is a pay upfront kind of deal right? But would that mean I'd have to have money tied up in a bunch of potential events that may be very unlikely? I'm curious how this all works in this respect.
  - corkinn 6y ago
    Correct. The current plan is that the money would not be removed from your account or wherever until the city was confirmed by the band. If you have any ideas that would make users who are pledging more comfortable with putting up the funds, I'd be interested in hearing them!
- bluetwo 6y ago
  Not to be mean but having a nice page with a "sign up for updates" box isn't "launching". It is step 1 of most "startup" essays.
- Agentlien 6y ago
  I would love for this to work well, but it really needs a better way to know who is already on the platform. Right now all I can do is search and every artist I tried simply results in an empty results page and a suggestion I contact them. This makes it feel like there's no interest in the platform from the side of performers and you're asking me to volunteer to change that. It would be much better if I could look at a list of already registered artists with a form to submit a wish for missing artists, with an implication that you'd contact them. Either you have a network in the industry and are more likely to reach them than a random fan, or you don't and this seems unlikely to take off. You should of course save statistics of fans requesting an artist and where in the world they are, to facilitate convincing them. Maybe even, as another commenter suggested, make this data visible on the site to show users how much interest there is for certain performers.
  - corkinn 6y ago
    Thanks for the input! We've been asked for a viewable list of performers a few times and it's definitely something we plan on adding. I agree, searching randomly can be tedious. Especially if the bands you're looking for aren't signed up yet. We do plan on reaching out to our network of artists to create profiles to make this more user-friendly for the fans. Also, the wish list idea is great!
- hnruss 6y ago
  I played in some local bands for fun years ago and went on some self-funded tours. I also booked and promoted shows (mostly for my own bands). The way that we got most of our gigs was through networking with other bands, bookers, promoters, etc. After we got to be well-known, bands from out of town contacted us for help with local gigs, and we’d book it with a friendly local venue and promote it ourselves. It was a lot of effort, but it was a really good time. There are an endless number of bands like that. They don’t need a bounty, they are going to go on tours regardless. What they do need is a good local band that they can open for and a good venue to play at. After a few tours to the same cities, maybe they can headline. Booking a tour is a royal pain. Every venue has a different contact system and different requirements for how to get booked, and you have to book it 6 months to a year in advance. If you don’t play your cards just right, you do not get booked— or worse, you get booked with a band that doesn’t show up and without promotion. Honestly, the best shows are house parties anyways.
  - corkinn 6y ago
    Hey thanks for the feedback! I've been in this boat as well as a touring performer myself. Bands may book tours regardless of the "bounty", but you could apply this same method on top of using RoadPony. Only now, you would have a better idea of how many people you and the local band you booked could bring out and if those people are interested enough in seeing you, they'll place that bounty, which you will collect. Now that you've applied your method using RoadPony as a tool, you know you'll be getting this revenue and about how many fans will show up before you even book the show. Open to any thoughts on this!
    - hnruss 6y ago
      If RoadPony can find a niche in the crowdfunding market, I think it could work. Give bands some benefits or features that existing crowdfunding platforms don’t, and they’ll use it.
- heleninboodler 6y ago
  I think it's a pretty neat idea. I would think about how you could integrate with Bandcamp, as the bands you'll attract are a huge part of their band user base: bands whose fan base is small enough that a group pooling their money could influence the tour route, but who are rabid enough about supporting the band that they'll actually try to organize something. I'm not totally sure how you handle the venue choice, but a crowdsourced database of venues to play at could be useful. If I'm acting as the booking agent, get me to add venue details (capacity, age restrictions, photos, contact info) to a public directory that other users could tap for their own booking. Maybe get small venue owners or booking agents to add/claim/curate their own entries. This is kinda random, but I also think it would be a cool and unique gesture if the organizer could be given a way to arrange to "feed the band." This is just a very band-centric touch based on the fact that a touring band is always gonna be happy to be given a meal, but if the organizer had a checkbox that, for a fixed additional overhead cost, they could arrange to have a meal delivered, I suspect both bands and fans would think that was awesome. Even if it's just a big pile of big burritos.
  - corkinn 6y ago
    We do have lite Bandcamp integration now. But that's just allowing performers to embed their music into their profile so fans can listen. Did you have any specific suggestions in mind regarding Bandcamp? In the current request form, a fan is asked to request the band in a City, State and at a Venue. Additional venue details like you mentioned is a great idea from the agent's/person booking the show's perspective, but I'm not sure fans would have this information readily available. As for the organizer idea - we kind of had something similar planned for when the band posts their potential tour stop onto RoadPony. We'd offer them a space to request any specific tour amenities - "we'd love a place to crash in Cleveland, Louisville, and Nashville". Or whatever they may need help with along the way.
    - heleninboodler 6y ago
      My suggestion with Bandcamp was going to be embedding the music from there, since it's not limited to snippets like spotify, so thumbs-up there. I'm not sure what else you could do for integration unless they have a way for you to learn about fan-band relationships and you could use that data.
- quicon 6y ago
  I love the idea. I can only register if I am in USA?
  - corkinn 6y ago
    Thank you! Yes, currently it's limited to USA for registration. We plan to expand this soon!
- amiKY 6y ago
  Hi Corkinn, I really liked the look of your website. A few companies experimented with this model in the early 2010s, Queremos! In Brazil (https://techcrunch.com/2012/09/10/queremos/ https://techcrunch.com/2012/09/10/queremos/ ), Songkick had their own product with Songkick Detour, then there is Alive in Japan (which I own). As far as I know no one managed to get the model to work in a big way and everyone had to abandon it or pivot to make decent revenues (including me). I really enjoyed my crowdfunding platform journey, however having now toured hundreds of bands I can see flaws in the business model that I was naive to as a first time founder with limited experience of touring bands. I do respect what you are trying to do and getting bands playing in the right places is a valuable problem to solve. However I don't think crowdfunding/crowdsourcing is the solution. I'd be happy to share my personal experiences working in this sector if it might be of help. Best wishes
  - mtalantikite 6y ago
    Came here to say the same thing. I wrote an app that was exactly this almost 10 years ago now, but couldn’t get it to go anywhere. I remember all the other companies you listed as well. Touring is logistically complicated and there’s likely a software solution that could help ease the pain for tour managers and venues, but crowdfunding a show to show interest in a city is maybe the least of the worries of an artist planning a tour. But I’d be happy to be wrong and hope the founder has success!
  - corkinn 6y ago
    Hey thanks for the insight! I have seen similar platforms but not these specifically. What I have noticed with the services I was able to read up on was that they seemed convoluted as far as usability for the performer and the fan and what the service was trying to accomplish. I don't know if that can be attributed to their lack of success but it was something that I notably wanted to avoid. The main issue RoadPony is intended to solve is simply - where are we, as performers, in demand. I think additional logistics of the tour, the actual booking of the show, etc. will always have its nooks and crannies that need to be worked out on a person-to-person basis. To start, all we'd like to do is just show the performers the most viable areas to perform in and as a bonus, guarantee them money and an audience (assuming invested fans will show). It's a tool rather than a one-stop-shop solution. I am very interested in hearing about your experiences if you're willing to share!
smoldesu 6y ago
Come to Brazil: The SAAS
dlg 6y ago
This looks very nice. Eventful, founded by Brian Dear (a regular HN poster) had this as a feature before it was acquired if I recall correctly. I think the feature had a decent level of success, so it’d be worth talking to him/getting him to post about learnings here.
- corkinn 6y ago
  Would love to talk with him if I could get a hold of him!
nickthemagicman 6y ago
Just wanted to say that this a great idea and cool project!
- corkinn 6y ago
  Thank you!
fukmbas 6y ago
Doubtful
- Spivak 6y ago
  It’s basically just a bounty program to get artists to do a show with tickets going to the fans putting up the bounty.
Ebert 6y ago
Works like a charm! The solution worked for me thanks to the community and the members for the solution. https://www.myccpay.review/ https://www.myccpay.review/
jrx 6y ago
Seems like an awesome idea, but the first thing I see when looking at it is that's one big chicken and egg problem - it'll be an awesome platform if it gathers a critical mass of bands and users, but before then probably will feel like a dead place for a long time. What's your plan for overcoming that?
- corkinn 6y ago
  Thanks! And yes, that is one of the major hurdles right now. Currently, we're working on tapping into our personal, music industry networks to start the first round of performer signups. Right now, we're basically in a "gathering feedback to see if this is worth pursing" stage. So if we decide there is enough interest, and once we build out the campaign element, and can prove that this model works with some successful campaigns hopefully it will get some legs over time. I would prefer we had a stone cold plan for growth but right now we're taking it day by day and seeing what feedback we can get as we move forward. I would appreciate any ideas you might have!
Ecto5 6y ago
Just wait for 4chan to get wind of this. The last time did not go well for Justin Beiber [1] [1] https://www.wired.com/2010/07/4chan-has-nearly-voted-justin-bieber-to-north-korea/ https://www.wired.com/2010/07/4chan-has-nearly-voted-justin-...
- microtherion 6y ago
  I remember voting to send Pitbull to Alaska (to his credit, he went): https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-19060579 https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-19060579
- recursive 6y ago
  The vast majority of bands are not like Justin Bieber. If most bands could even get people to care about them one way or another, they'd probably be happy. There are very few Nickelbacks and Biebers.
issa 6y ago
I remember another attempt at this model not too long ago, but I cannot remember the name or what the outcome was.
breakfst 6y ago
Will be hard to pre sell tickets on this platform then convert to a venue’s ticket. Most of them have exclusive ticketing deals that won’t allow this or severely limit % that can be sold. That’s why the focus is on “perks”
- corkinn 6y ago
  I think one way to get around this would be to show the venues the money has already been made. This includes the price of tickets. If there are ticketing deals involved, it could be something like a straight cash exchange: We have 100 people who gave money for entry. Here's x amount money for 100 tickets. Open to any suggestions you might have!
siquick 6y ago
Interesting idea It's hard to get something like this to take off without seeding content. It would probably be a good idea to just create a load of artist accounts with artwork/Spotify links etc, and encourage people to upvote them (or whatever your mechanism is). Then after theirs enough fan interaction, contact the artists and let them know of the activity, and let them claim the account. Pretty straight forward to get the artist data from Spotify API/Last.fm/Discogs etc. Good luck, always happy to see new ideas to help musicians.
rapnie 6y ago
The idea may be promising. But once again this product is a "About Us: We are anonymous. Sign Up: We have no privacy policy". I always wonder why startups find that unimportant.
- corkinn 6y ago
  You're right. It would be beneficial to add some human identity. I also understand the concern about the missing privacy policy. I'll plan on adding this!
Agentlien 6y ago
I would love for this to work, but I'm wondering how well itt actually might? Performers likely know already where their fans are, especially if they're on services such as Spotify which aggregate location data of listeners. This reminds me of this one guy in high school who went to a concert abroad to see Alter Bridge and managed to catch up with them as they were about to enter the venue. He tried convincing them to come play in Sweden. They promised to do so if he gathered enough interest and gave him a huge lot of stickers with their logo that he put all over town.
- totomz 6y ago
  Do you know Rockin1000 [0]? In 2015, a thousand of (mostly italian) musicians played simultaneously "Learn to Flight" as a way to ask the Foo Fighters to visit the town of Cesena, Italy. Dave Grohl then agreed to have their last tour date in Cesena :) [0] https://youtu.be/JozAmXo2bDE https://youtu.be/JozAmXo2bDE
  - Agentlien 6y ago
    I hadn't heard of that. That's really cool! By all accounts I've heard Dave Grohl seems to be a really nice person.
damagednoob 6y ago
The current cycle for touring bands is this: 1. Create an album 2. Organise tour dates for just after the album release 3. Release the album 4. Go on tour 5. Rest 6. Repeat For a US tour, you're not criss-crossing the country, going from New York to Los Angeles to San Francisco, e.t.c. Tour managers exist because they literally have to solve the Travelling Salesman problem for their clients. Tour buses are a thing because you're just driving to the next town/city along the way. I'm not sure where RoadPony fits into this touring cycle or helps tour managers in their decision making. It seems to me that it will promote one off gigs without taking care of the logistical problems that bands face.
- krisoft 6y ago
  > I'm not sure where RoadPony fits into this touring cycle or helps tour managers in their decision making. It provides strong confirmed information on where the fans are. With it the tour manager can know for certain how big a crowd they can expect in each city before they even start planning. Its up to them after this to decide where to go and where not to go to make the tour viable. > It seems to me that it will promote one off gigs... Why do you think so? I don’t see the fan pledges as binding on the band. If a band runs an album release campaign and when the numbers are in they can see that they have 10 fans in Miami and 10 fans in Anchorage and nothing else that just means that they are not ready for touring yet so they won’t. The kind of information RoadPony can provide is especially usefull on the margins. You don’t need to be a genius to know that huge band in a huge metropolis will find enough interest. But it might show if the time is right for a smaller band to start touring, or might show which smaller cities are viable tour stops for the huge band.
  - damagednoob 6y ago
    You're right. The about page offers more information specifically aimed at performers which addresses my concerns about 'routes': https://www.roadpony.com/about/ https://www.roadpony.com/about/
  - leehuffman 6y ago
    Again, tour managers don’t route tours. This entire thread is classic HN... interesting perspectives, but mostly a bunch of ‘smart’ people trading notes/ideas on topics/industries they know nothing about and/or read about once and now feel confident speaking on incorrectly. > It provides strong confirmed information on where the fans are You mean like promoters who put up guarantees? Pretty sure it’s not difficult to figure out which markets acts should travel to... follow the money...
hnruss 6y ago
I’m not sure about the bounty idea, but I’ll tell you what does work if you want your favorite undiscovered band to play a show in your town: offer to book and promote the show for them, especially if they’re already planning a tour in the area. I’ve done that multiple times and it worked out quite well. (Of course, that’s only a good idea if you know what you’re doing.)
ZoomZoomZoom 6y ago
Here's an idea: One of the problems bands solve while planning tours is organizing shared gigs with some local band[s] of choice. It usually helps to establish your position on the scene (if artist X plays on a gig with artist Y you're safe to assume they share some musical similarities). This way bands share and expand their audiences. Oh my, is it hard to find suitable local bands ready to play on given dates! If a platform could track bands that are ready to play in a specific location on certain dates and offered this to other bands (possibly, only to a whitelist of bands/genres), that would be great. The more I think of it, the more I see it could be useful not only to touring bands. At the moment, most multi-act gigs are organized by venues, some system which promotes inter-band planning could give more control to performers.
Layvier 6y ago
I thought that Soundcloud would have tried that a long time ago. There's so much potential for emerging artists, and giving data to the venue about how many people will an artist bring/where to promote the event seems really needed. Good luck with that project, love the idea !
- corkinn 6y ago
  Thank you. I appreciate the feedback!
11thEarlOfMar 6y ago
You can't minimize the role of the producer/promoter. Someone has to manage the business and financing aspects of signing up the venue. RoadPony should also provide this service and enable venues to sign up and possibly promote the show. You've got to take tickets, provide security, housekeeping, etc. It's actually a key element in automating this approach to live music. Bands that can do a one night show can fill in gaps in venue calendars.
dfxm12 6y ago
Concerts have fans and performers, but they also have venues. The venues need to be a part of this as well. What's your pitch to them? Why would they give you a cut? Who gets what cut of the pre-purchases? I think an app should focus on connecting bands and venues, not bands and fans. One uncommon, but useful problem to solve is when a band, say they're travelling from DC on Friday night to Gainesville, FL for a Sunday show, wants to perform somewhere in between the two dates (maybe their show in Asheville, NC got cancelled for some reason). There's a club in Wilmington, NC that wants some live music on Saturday. In that way, you help everyone. Even if we're not talking about touring bands, clubs can post open nights, bands can say we're available in this radius, etc.

143 points by corkinn 6y ago

Hey all, Just wanted to get some feedback on a project I just launched called RoadPony: www.roadpony.com It's a platform make it easier for performers to book shows in areas where they have the best opportunities for solid attendance and income. It's also a platform that will allow fans to show performers their interest in the performer and entice them to come to their area to play. The current version is just to gauge interest with lite features. Artists can create a profile with links, photos, bio, and music. And they can see who favorited their profile and who and where they are requested to play. Fans can create a profile to favorite and request artists in their city and state at a specific venue. If there’s enough interest, we’ll build out the campaign element. Let me know if you have and questions, issues or suggestions!

xwdv 6y ago
You need a way to tie in selling merchandise. A lot of bands are basically T-Shirt companies and the music really is just the lead generator. Was in a band once.
- bigiain 6y ago
  > A lot of bands are basically T-Shirt companies It works that way for Harley Davidson too... ;-)
- redis_mlc 6y ago
  This is literally true in the US, for the following reasons: 1) small bands normally get no ticket revenue, or even pay to play. The usual number I hear is $500 if you're an opening act, although you could outbid the previously-booked act. 2) normally their earnings would be from their T-shirt stand at the concert. But venues are even clawing that back now, or allowing only 1 design to be sold by the band.
Spivak 6y ago
I’m surprised that it’s “perks” and not “get a ticket to the show” which is pretty much the only perk I would be interested in. Swag might be a nice extra but if I’m trying to get a performer to come to my town it’s to see them perform. Clearly I’m at least willing to front one ticket. Why would I put up less than the cost of a ticket in exchange for a t-shirt or something for the privilege of buying a ticket when I could put up the cost of a ticket and a t shirt which surely would be more enticing?
- boomboomsubban 6y ago
  It says >When the time comes, you and all other bidders can attend the show Which I think implies anyone in the bid gets a ticket? I have no idea how you would get multiple ticket's though.
- issa 6y ago
  In recent years artists have turned to selling VIP access as a major source of income on tour. In a lot of music scenes, this is normal and fans are really into it.
- corkinn 6y ago
  The current plan is to make the lowest bid amount the price to entry. So you'd be guaranteed a ticket if you placed that bid.
tacosaretasty 6y ago
Awesome concept, I’d love to be able to look up a zip code or location to see what performers are being requested where. You then kind of have a backdoor discovery function for both potential fans and artists. I’d also suggest showcasing a few artists on the homepage so you naturally start diving into the site. I agree with the top comment mentioning the big challenge will be getting to critical mass as a platform to be really interesting. NGL it’ll probably take a lot of capital. That said it’s a cool project and I wish you success!
- corkinn 6y ago
  Thanks for checking it out! The search by area idea makes a lot of sense. Finding artists on the site currently seems to be one of the biggest challenges for users who are testing RoadPony. We do have plans for showcasing artists in the future!
adzm 6y ago
So this is a pay upfront kind of deal right? But would that mean I'd have to have money tied up in a bunch of potential events that may be very unlikely? I'm curious how this all works in this respect.
- corkinn 6y ago
  Correct. The current plan is that the money would not be removed from your account or wherever until the city was confirmed by the band. If you have any ideas that would make users who are pledging more comfortable with putting up the funds, I'd be interested in hearing them!
bluetwo 6y ago
Not to be mean but having a nice page with a "sign up for updates" box isn't "launching". It is step 1 of most "startup" essays.
Agentlien 6y ago
I would love for this to work well, but it really needs a better way to know who is already on the platform. Right now all I can do is search and every artist I tried simply results in an empty results page and a suggestion I contact them. This makes it feel like there's no interest in the platform from the side of performers and you're asking me to volunteer to change that. It would be much better if I could look at a list of already registered artists with a form to submit a wish for missing artists, with an implication that you'd contact them. Either you have a network in the industry and are more likely to reach them than a random fan, or you don't and this seems unlikely to take off. You should of course save statistics of fans requesting an artist and where in the world they are, to facilitate convincing them. Maybe even, as another commenter suggested, make this data visible on the site to show users how much interest there is for certain performers.
- corkinn 6y ago
  Thanks for the input! We've been asked for a viewable list of performers a few times and it's definitely something we plan on adding. I agree, searching randomly can be tedious. Especially if the bands you're looking for aren't signed up yet. We do plan on reaching out to our network of artists to create profiles to make this more user-friendly for the fans. Also, the wish list idea is great!
hnruss 6y ago
I played in some local bands for fun years ago and went on some self-funded tours. I also booked and promoted shows (mostly for my own bands). The way that we got most of our gigs was through networking with other bands, bookers, promoters, etc. After we got to be well-known, bands from out of town contacted us for help with local gigs, and we’d book it with a friendly local venue and promote it ourselves. It was a lot of effort, but it was a really good time. There are an endless number of bands like that. They don’t need a bounty, they are going to go on tours regardless. What they do need is a good local band that they can open for and a good venue to play at. After a few tours to the same cities, maybe they can headline. Booking a tour is a royal pain. Every venue has a different contact system and different requirements for how to get booked, and you have to book it 6 months to a year in advance. If you don’t play your cards just right, you do not get booked— or worse, you get booked with a band that doesn’t show up and without promotion. Honestly, the best shows are house parties anyways.
- corkinn 6y ago
  Hey thanks for the feedback! I've been in this boat as well as a touring performer myself. Bands may book tours regardless of the "bounty", but you could apply this same method on top of using RoadPony. Only now, you would have a better idea of how many people you and the local band you booked could bring out and if those people are interested enough in seeing you, they'll place that bounty, which you will collect. Now that you've applied your method using RoadPony as a tool, you know you'll be getting this revenue and about how many fans will show up before you even book the show. Open to any thoughts on this!
  - hnruss 6y ago
    If RoadPony can find a niche in the crowdfunding market, I think it could work. Give bands some benefits or features that existing crowdfunding platforms don’t, and they’ll use it.
heleninboodler 6y ago
I think it's a pretty neat idea. I would think about how you could integrate with Bandcamp, as the bands you'll attract are a huge part of their band user base: bands whose fan base is small enough that a group pooling their money could influence the tour route, but who are rabid enough about supporting the band that they'll actually try to organize something. I'm not totally sure how you handle the venue choice, but a crowdsourced database of venues to play at could be useful. If I'm acting as the booking agent, get me to add venue details (capacity, age restrictions, photos, contact info) to a public directory that other users could tap for their own booking. Maybe get small venue owners or booking agents to add/claim/curate their own entries. This is kinda random, but I also think it would be a cool and unique gesture if the organizer could be given a way to arrange to "feed the band." This is just a very band-centric touch based on the fact that a touring band is always gonna be happy to be given a meal, but if the organizer had a checkbox that, for a fixed additional overhead cost, they could arrange to have a meal delivered, I suspect both bands and fans would think that was awesome. Even if it's just a big pile of big burritos.
- corkinn 6y ago
  We do have lite Bandcamp integration now. But that's just allowing performers to embed their music into their profile so fans can listen. Did you have any specific suggestions in mind regarding Bandcamp? In the current request form, a fan is asked to request the band in a City, State and at a Venue. Additional venue details like you mentioned is a great idea from the agent's/person booking the show's perspective, but I'm not sure fans would have this information readily available. As for the organizer idea - we kind of had something similar planned for when the band posts their potential tour stop onto RoadPony. We'd offer them a space to request any specific tour amenities - "we'd love a place to crash in Cleveland, Louisville, and Nashville". Or whatever they may need help with along the way.
  - heleninboodler 6y ago
    My suggestion with Bandcamp was going to be embedding the music from there, since it's not limited to snippets like spotify, so thumbs-up there. I'm not sure what else you could do for integration unless they have a way for you to learn about fan-band relationships and you could use that data.
quicon 6y ago
I love the idea. I can only register if I am in USA?
- corkinn 6y ago
  Thank you! Yes, currently it's limited to USA for registration. We plan to expand this soon!
amiKY 6y ago
Hi Corkinn, I really liked the look of your website. A few companies experimented with this model in the early 2010s, Queremos! In Brazil (https://techcrunch.com/2012/09/10/queremos/ https://techcrunch.com/2012/09/10/queremos/ ), Songkick had their own product with Songkick Detour, then there is Alive in Japan (which I own). As far as I know no one managed to get the model to work in a big way and everyone had to abandon it or pivot to make decent revenues (including me). I really enjoyed my crowdfunding platform journey, however having now toured hundreds of bands I can see flaws in the business model that I was naive to as a first time founder with limited experience of touring bands. I do respect what you are trying to do and getting bands playing in the right places is a valuable problem to solve. However I don't think crowdfunding/crowdsourcing is the solution. I'd be happy to share my personal experiences working in this sector if it might be of help. Best wishes
- mtalantikite 6y ago
  Came here to say the same thing. I wrote an app that was exactly this almost 10 years ago now, but couldn’t get it to go anywhere. I remember all the other companies you listed as well. Touring is logistically complicated and there’s likely a software solution that could help ease the pain for tour managers and venues, but crowdfunding a show to show interest in a city is maybe the least of the worries of an artist planning a tour. But I’d be happy to be wrong and hope the founder has success!
- corkinn 6y ago
  Hey thanks for the insight! I have seen similar platforms but not these specifically. What I have noticed with the services I was able to read up on was that they seemed convoluted as far as usability for the performer and the fan and what the service was trying to accomplish. I don't know if that can be attributed to their lack of success but it was something that I notably wanted to avoid. The main issue RoadPony is intended to solve is simply - where are we, as performers, in demand. I think additional logistics of the tour, the actual booking of the show, etc. will always have its nooks and crannies that need to be worked out on a person-to-person basis. To start, all we'd like to do is just show the performers the most viable areas to perform in and as a bonus, guarantee them money and an audience (assuming invested fans will show). It's a tool rather than a one-stop-shop solution. I am very interested in hearing about your experiences if you're willing to share!

smoldesu 6y ago

Come to Brazil: The SAAS

dlg 6y ago

This looks very nice. Eventful, founded by Brian Dear (a regular HN poster) had this as a feature before it was acquired if I recall correctly. I think the feature had a decent level of success, so it’d be worth talking to him/getting him to post about learnings here.

corkinn 6y ago
Would love to talk with him if I could get a hold of him!

nickthemagicman 6y ago

Just wanted to say that this a great idea and cool project!

corkinn 6y ago
Thank you!

fukmbas 6y ago

Doubtful

Spivak 6y ago
It’s basically just a bounty program to get artists to do a show with tickets going to the fans putting up the bounty.

Ebert 6y ago

Works like a charm! The solution worked for me thanks to the community and the members for the solution. https://www.myccpay.review/ https://www.myccpay.review/

jrx 6y ago

Seems like an awesome idea, but the first thing I see when looking at it is that's one big chicken and egg problem - it'll be an awesome platform if it gathers a critical mass of bands and users, but before then probably will feel like a dead place for a long time. What's your plan for overcoming that?

corkinn 6y ago
Thanks! And yes, that is one of the major hurdles right now. Currently, we're working on tapping into our personal, music industry networks to start the first round of performer signups. Right now, we're basically in a "gathering feedback to see if this is worth pursing" stage. So if we decide there is enough interest, and once we build out the campaign element, and can prove that this model works with some successful campaigns hopefully it will get some legs over time. I would prefer we had a stone cold plan for growth but right now we're taking it day by day and seeing what feedback we can get as we move forward. I would appreciate any ideas you might have!

Ecto5 6y ago

Just wait for 4chan to get wind of this. The last time did not go well for Justin Beiber [1] [1] https://www.wired.com/2010/07/4chan-has-nearly-voted-justin-bieber-to-north-korea/ https://www.wired.com/2010/07/4chan-has-nearly-voted-justin-...

microtherion 6y ago
I remember voting to send Pitbull to Alaska (to his credit, he went): https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-19060579 https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-19060579
recursive 6y ago
The vast majority of bands are not like Justin Bieber. If most bands could even get people to care about them one way or another, they'd probably be happy. There are very few Nickelbacks and Biebers.

issa 6y ago

I remember another attempt at this model not too long ago, but I cannot remember the name or what the outcome was.

breakfst 6y ago

Will be hard to pre sell tickets on this platform then convert to a venue’s ticket. Most of them have exclusive ticketing deals that won’t allow this or severely limit % that can be sold. That’s why the focus is on “perks”

corkinn 6y ago
I think one way to get around this would be to show the venues the money has already been made. This includes the price of tickets. If there are ticketing deals involved, it could be something like a straight cash exchange: We have 100 people who gave money for entry. Here's x amount money for 100 tickets. Open to any suggestions you might have!

siquick 6y ago

Interesting idea It's hard to get something like this to take off without seeding content. It would probably be a good idea to just create a load of artist accounts with artwork/Spotify links etc, and encourage people to upvote them (or whatever your mechanism is). Then after theirs enough fan interaction, contact the artists and let them know of the activity, and let them claim the account. Pretty straight forward to get the artist data from Spotify API/Last.fm/Discogs etc. Good luck, always happy to see new ideas to help musicians.

rapnie 6y ago

The idea may be promising. But once again this product is a "About Us: We are anonymous. Sign Up: We have no privacy policy". I always wonder why startups find that unimportant.

corkinn 6y ago
You're right. It would be beneficial to add some human identity. I also understand the concern about the missing privacy policy. I'll plan on adding this!

Agentlien 6y ago

I would love for this to work, but I'm wondering how well itt actually might? Performers likely know already where their fans are, especially if they're on services such as Spotify which aggregate location data of listeners. This reminds me of this one guy in high school who went to a concert abroad to see Alter Bridge and managed to catch up with them as they were about to enter the venue. He tried convincing them to come play in Sweden. They promised to do so if he gathered enough interest and gave him a huge lot of stickers with their logo that he put all over town.

totomz 6y ago
Do you know Rockin1000 [0]? In 2015, a thousand of (mostly italian) musicians played simultaneously "Learn to Flight" as a way to ask the Foo Fighters to visit the town of Cesena, Italy. Dave Grohl then agreed to have their last tour date in Cesena :) [0] https://youtu.be/JozAmXo2bDE https://youtu.be/JozAmXo2bDE
- Agentlien 6y ago
  I hadn't heard of that. That's really cool! By all accounts I've heard Dave Grohl seems to be a really nice person.

damagednoob 6y ago

The current cycle for touring bands is this: 1. Create an album 2. Organise tour dates for just after the album release 3. Release the album 4. Go on tour 5. Rest 6. Repeat For a US tour, you're not criss-crossing the country, going from New York to Los Angeles to San Francisco, e.t.c. Tour managers exist because they literally have to solve the Travelling Salesman problem for their clients. Tour buses are a thing because you're just driving to the next town/city along the way. I'm not sure where RoadPony fits into this touring cycle or helps tour managers in their decision making. It seems to me that it will promote one off gigs without taking care of the logistical problems that bands face.

krisoft 6y ago
> I'm not sure where RoadPony fits into this touring cycle or helps tour managers in their decision making. It provides strong confirmed information on where the fans are. With it the tour manager can know for certain how big a crowd they can expect in each city before they even start planning. Its up to them after this to decide where to go and where not to go to make the tour viable. > It seems to me that it will promote one off gigs... Why do you think so? I don’t see the fan pledges as binding on the band. If a band runs an album release campaign and when the numbers are in they can see that they have 10 fans in Miami and 10 fans in Anchorage and nothing else that just means that they are not ready for touring yet so they won’t. The kind of information RoadPony can provide is especially usefull on the margins. You don’t need to be a genius to know that huge band in a huge metropolis will find enough interest. But it might show if the time is right for a smaller band to start touring, or might show which smaller cities are viable tour stops for the huge band.
- damagednoob 6y ago
  You're right. The about page offers more information specifically aimed at performers which addresses my concerns about 'routes': https://www.roadpony.com/about/ https://www.roadpony.com/about/
- leehuffman 6y ago
  Again, tour managers don’t route tours. This entire thread is classic HN... interesting perspectives, but mostly a bunch of ‘smart’ people trading notes/ideas on topics/industries they know nothing about and/or read about once and now feel confident speaking on incorrectly. > It provides strong confirmed information on where the fans are You mean like promoters who put up guarantees? Pretty sure it’s not difficult to figure out which markets acts should travel to... follow the money...

hnruss 6y ago

I’m not sure about the bounty idea, but I’ll tell you what does work if you want your favorite undiscovered band to play a show in your town: offer to book and promote the show for them, especially if they’re already planning a tour in the area. I’ve done that multiple times and it worked out quite well. (Of course, that’s only a good idea if you know what you’re doing.)

ZoomZoomZoom 6y ago

Here's an idea: One of the problems bands solve while planning tours is organizing shared gigs with some local band[s] of choice. It usually helps to establish your position on the scene (if artist X plays on a gig with artist Y you're safe to assume they share some musical similarities). This way bands share and expand their audiences. Oh my, is it hard to find suitable local bands ready to play on given dates! If a platform could track bands that are ready to play in a specific location on certain dates and offered this to other bands (possibly, only to a whitelist of bands/genres), that would be great. The more I think of it, the more I see it could be useful not only to touring bands. At the moment, most multi-act gigs are organized by venues, some system which promotes inter-band planning could give more control to performers.

Layvier 6y ago

I thought that Soundcloud would have tried that a long time ago. There's so much potential for emerging artists, and giving data to the venue about how many people will an artist bring/where to promote the event seems really needed. Good luck with that project, love the idea !

corkinn 6y ago
Thank you. I appreciate the feedback!

11thEarlOfMar 6y ago

You can't minimize the role of the producer/promoter. Someone has to manage the business and financing aspects of signing up the venue. RoadPony should also provide this service and enable venues to sign up and possibly promote the show. You've got to take tickets, provide security, housekeeping, etc. It's actually a key element in automating this approach to live music. Bands that can do a one night show can fill in gaps in venue calendars.

dfxm12 6y ago

Concerts have fans and performers, but they also have venues. The venues need to be a part of this as well. What's your pitch to them? Why would they give you a cut? Who gets what cut of the pre-purchases? I think an app should focus on connecting bands and venues, not bands and fans. One uncommon, but useful problem to solve is when a band, say they're travelling from DC on Friday night to Gainesville, FL for a Sunday show, wants to perform somewhere in between the two dates (maybe their show in Asheville, NC got cancelled for some reason). There's a club in Wilmington, NC that wants some live music on Saturday. In that way, you help everyone. Even if we're not talking about touring bands, clubs can post open nights, bands can say we're available in this radius, etc.