5 ms·

Uber launches on demand Mariachi band for $100

125 points by iag 14y ago

iag 14y ago
This is simply brilliant. Travis you are the man!
pfraze 14y ago
Well, that is pretty awesome. Expanding the selection of orderable services is an interesting way for uber to grow.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
pud 14y ago
Uber is brilliant at this type of thing. Motorcades for Presidents day: http://blog.uber.com/2012/02/16/this-presidents-day-take-a-trip-in-the-ubercade/ http://blog.uber.com/2012/02/16/this-presidents-day-take-a-t... Roses for Valentines day: http://blog.uber.com/2011/02/10/valentines-day-go-from-zero-to-hero/ http://blog.uber.com/2011/02/10/valentines-day-go-from-zero-...
- untog 14y ago
  OK, I'm going to be the downer guy in this thread: I don't care about any of this. I want Uber to improve their app and make their pricing more transparent. Still waiting on that. Every marketing stunt they do backfires on me, because I see a company being distracted from their main product.
  - pbreit 14y ago
    You're right, that's a downer and a complete lack of understanding of what it takes to get the public's attention. The best, most perfect app in the world would not stand a chance against Uber's very good app and brilliant marketing. Every ride I've taken with Uber has been exactly the fee presented before getting in the vehicle and with no tip expected. I'm not sure how much more transparent that needs to be. If you are referring to people who unexpectedly paid more on NYE, I can only sympathize a little. It's NEW YEARS EVE!!
    - untog 14y ago
      You're right, that's a downer and a complete lack of understanding of what it takes to get the public's attention. I never claimed to be talking about what the public wanted- I was just stating my own opinion. I just tried the Uber app again, in case I'd missed a development. Nope- I "Set pickup location", then only have the option to "Request pickup here". It doesn't ask me where I'm going, let alone tell me how much it'll cost.
      - dandelany 14y ago
        I understand your complaint, but I don't really feel like it would be very feasible from a business perspective. Black cabs set their own prices. Uber trying to predict those prices is a lose-lose: anytime they underestimate the cost, users will be pissed they had to pay more than expected. Anytime they overestimate it, they risk the fact that some users who otherwise would have called a cab may decide to figure out another option due to high prices. Uber just isn't in the business of predicting cab prices, any more than a normal cab you hail on the street is. Yes, in an ideal world, they would estimate the cab price. But in an ideal world, iPods would come preinstalled with music and plane tickets could be purchased 5 mins before the flight at the same price. But these things just don't make business sense. I have a strong hunch that the time and effort put in by Uber to predict prices would only marginally increase their revenue, and certainly wouldn't increase their profits.
        untog 14y ago
        Black cabs set their own prices. I was under the impression that this was not the case with Uber- that they specifically reached out to black cab companies to partner with them and establish rates. I may be wrong, but it's a real shame if I am.
        dandelany 14y ago
        Ah interesting, looks like you're right, I wasn't aware of this (see pricing at https://www.uber.com/cities/san-francisco https://www.uber.com/cities/san-francisco for example). However, all the fares are per-minute when travelling < 11mph and per-mile when travelling > 11mph. This means that a significant amount of prediction would still be necessary, with quite a bit of error on either side, so I think my points still mostly apply.
igorsyl 14y ago
Is this available in SF only?
- ylem 14y ago
  From the link, it seems to be :<
nthitz 14y ago
Hope they pay those bands adequately!
oskarth 14y ago
I think this is just a premonition of what's to come. Fast forward a couple of years, add in a ban (semi-optional) on visual advertising a la Sao Paulo, mix with freebee creative advertising, season with flash mob and suddenly our future could become extremely odd and confusing. Anyone who's not a fan of absurdism will have a hard time living in a metropolitan city.
- Karunamon 14y ago
  I love this kind of thing - random absurdism in unexpected places. It pulls people out of their comfort zone in a non-threatening way where everybody gets a good chuckle. The look on the guy's face as the band steps out of the elevator? That's one of my favorite things to cause to happen to other people - it's just plain fun all around.
  - tomjen3 14y ago
    I disagree. There is a large mental overhead associated with these kinds of things and living in cities is all about choosing where to spend ones mental energy - since there isn't enough to see everything.
sixQuarks 14y ago
incredible marketing scheme! I love it.
frogtown 14y ago
This would have been so useful years ago. I think it was 1996 or so. Most of my friends were still in college but I had already had my startup running. It was early enough in the dot com era that my business was designed to make money, so I had a decent amount of cash in comparison to my universally impoverished university buddies. Anyhow, my best friends were throwing this weekend house party where all the local freaks, geeks, and hipsters would be in attendance. So when my best friend called me to convince me to come in for the party that weekend, for whatever reason, I had this dumb idea. Perhaps this was a harbinger of the pre-dot-com opulence to come and the idea, of course, was on a much smaller scale but nevertheless, for no reason whatsoever except that I had for the first time in my life a bunch of cash burning a hole in my pocket, I suggested we get a mariachi band for the party. My friend looked into it. He found a group. He told me the amount for the basic band. I forget what was going to cost $250 extra to bring along as a musician (maybe an extra trumpet) but it all seemed very worth it. We needed the proper instrumentation represented. When the band arrived with the party in full swing, they were pretty freaked out, since, this was not the normal kind of gig they played; no, not collage parties. So the woman dealing with the thing asked for half the cash up front. She also upped the price a bunch from the initial agreed upon amount but I didn't care. I was really just looking forward to seeing them play near the tapped keg around a bunch of mystified acquaintances. Now if I could have only gotten this done for $100, I would have filled the whole house with competing acts that night. Great work Über and thanks for bring back a fond memory.
- georgemcbay 14y ago
  "Now if I could have only gotten this done for $100, I would have filled the whole house with competing acts that night. Great work Über and thanks for bring back a fond memory." $100 here only gets you one song, though. This is a very good marketing idea, but not a cost effective way to hire a band for a real gig.
truebosko 14y ago
Don't need an on demand Mariachi band, just go for a walk in Manhattan and you'll be bound to have one show up before the days end :) (Atleast from my experience..)
- daeken 14y ago
  Out of curiosity, where have you had this happen? I've lived in the East Village (well, technically Alphabet City) for a year and a half and I've never experienced roaming Mariachi bands. I feel like I'm missing out.
  - three14 14y ago
    IIRC, I would tend to run into them on the A train or the 1, north of 59th.
RedwoodCity 14y ago
quatro de mayo?
arvinS 14y ago
How will San Franciscans combat offensive deployments of the Mariachi? Will this lead to retaliatory strikes of Chinese street opera?
- samstave 14y ago
  This shall not stand! QUICK send in the Streisand Squad!
robatsu 14y ago
Racist, at least by typically objectivist measures
somneri 14y ago
When did HN become product advertisement board? Whats next? A posting for all-new minty Pepsodent with added whitening?

125 points by iag 14y ago

iag 14y ago

This is simply brilliant. Travis you are the man!

pfraze 14y ago

Well, that is pretty awesome. Expanding the selection of orderable services is an interesting way for uber to grow.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

pud 14y ago

Uber is brilliant at this type of thing. Motorcades for Presidents day: http://blog.uber.com/2012/02/16/this-presidents-day-take-a-trip-in-the-ubercade/ http://blog.uber.com/2012/02/16/this-presidents-day-take-a-t... Roses for Valentines day: http://blog.uber.com/2011/02/10/valentines-day-go-from-zero-to-hero/ http://blog.uber.com/2011/02/10/valentines-day-go-from-zero-...

untog 14y ago
OK, I'm going to be the downer guy in this thread: I don't care about any of this. I want Uber to improve their app and make their pricing more transparent. Still waiting on that. Every marketing stunt they do backfires on me, because I see a company being distracted from their main product.
- pbreit 14y ago
  You're right, that's a downer and a complete lack of understanding of what it takes to get the public's attention. The best, most perfect app in the world would not stand a chance against Uber's very good app and brilliant marketing. Every ride I've taken with Uber has been exactly the fee presented before getting in the vehicle and with no tip expected. I'm not sure how much more transparent that needs to be. If you are referring to people who unexpectedly paid more on NYE, I can only sympathize a little. It's NEW YEARS EVE!!
  - untog 14y ago
    You're right, that's a downer and a complete lack of understanding of what it takes to get the public's attention. I never claimed to be talking about what the public wanted- I was just stating my own opinion. I just tried the Uber app again, in case I'd missed a development. Nope- I "Set pickup location", then only have the option to "Request pickup here". It doesn't ask me where I'm going, let alone tell me how much it'll cost.
    - dandelany 14y ago
      I understand your complaint, but I don't really feel like it would be very feasible from a business perspective. Black cabs set their own prices. Uber trying to predict those prices is a lose-lose: anytime they underestimate the cost, users will be pissed they had to pay more than expected. Anytime they overestimate it, they risk the fact that some users who otherwise would have called a cab may decide to figure out another option due to high prices. Uber just isn't in the business of predicting cab prices, any more than a normal cab you hail on the street is. Yes, in an ideal world, they would estimate the cab price. But in an ideal world, iPods would come preinstalled with music and plane tickets could be purchased 5 mins before the flight at the same price. But these things just don't make business sense. I have a strong hunch that the time and effort put in by Uber to predict prices would only marginally increase their revenue, and certainly wouldn't increase their profits.
      - untog 14y ago
        Black cabs set their own prices. I was under the impression that this was not the case with Uber- that they specifically reached out to black cab companies to partner with them and establish rates. I may be wrong, but it's a real shame if I am.
        dandelany 14y ago
        Ah interesting, looks like you're right, I wasn't aware of this (see pricing at https://www.uber.com/cities/san-francisco https://www.uber.com/cities/san-francisco for example). However, all the fares are per-minute when travelling < 11mph and per-mile when travelling > 11mph. This means that a significant amount of prediction would still be necessary, with quite a bit of error on either side, so I think my points still mostly apply.

igorsyl 14y ago

Is this available in SF only?

ylem 14y ago
From the link, it seems to be :<

nthitz 14y ago

Hope they pay those bands adequately!

oskarth 14y ago

I think this is just a premonition of what's to come. Fast forward a couple of years, add in a ban (semi-optional) on visual advertising a la Sao Paulo, mix with freebee creative advertising, season with flash mob and suddenly our future could become extremely odd and confusing. Anyone who's not a fan of absurdism will have a hard time living in a metropolitan city.

Karunamon 14y ago
I love this kind of thing - random absurdism in unexpected places. It pulls people out of their comfort zone in a non-threatening way where everybody gets a good chuckle. The look on the guy's face as the band steps out of the elevator? That's one of my favorite things to cause to happen to other people - it's just plain fun all around.
- tomjen3 14y ago
  I disagree. There is a large mental overhead associated with these kinds of things and living in cities is all about choosing where to spend ones mental energy - since there isn't enough to see everything.

sixQuarks 14y ago

incredible marketing scheme! I love it.

frogtown 14y ago

This would have been so useful years ago. I think it was 1996 or so. Most of my friends were still in college but I had already had my startup running. It was early enough in the dot com era that my business was designed to make money, so I had a decent amount of cash in comparison to my universally impoverished university buddies. Anyhow, my best friends were throwing this weekend house party where all the local freaks, geeks, and hipsters would be in attendance. So when my best friend called me to convince me to come in for the party that weekend, for whatever reason, I had this dumb idea. Perhaps this was a harbinger of the pre-dot-com opulence to come and the idea, of course, was on a much smaller scale but nevertheless, for no reason whatsoever except that I had for the first time in my life a bunch of cash burning a hole in my pocket, I suggested we get a mariachi band for the party. My friend looked into it. He found a group. He told me the amount for the basic band. I forget what was going to cost $250 extra to bring along as a musician (maybe an extra trumpet) but it all seemed very worth it. We needed the proper instrumentation represented. When the band arrived with the party in full swing, they were pretty freaked out, since, this was not the normal kind of gig they played; no, not collage parties. So the woman dealing with the thing asked for half the cash up front. She also upped the price a bunch from the initial agreed upon amount but I didn't care. I was really just looking forward to seeing them play near the tapped keg around a bunch of mystified acquaintances. Now if I could have only gotten this done for $100, I would have filled the whole house with competing acts that night. Great work Über and thanks for bring back a fond memory.

georgemcbay 14y ago
"Now if I could have only gotten this done for $100, I would have filled the whole house with competing acts that night. Great work Über and thanks for bring back a fond memory." $100 here only gets you one song, though. This is a very good marketing idea, but not a cost effective way to hire a band for a real gig.

truebosko 14y ago

Don't need an on demand Mariachi band, just go for a walk in Manhattan and you'll be bound to have one show up before the days end :) (Atleast from my experience..)

daeken 14y ago
Out of curiosity, where have you had this happen? I've lived in the East Village (well, technically Alphabet City) for a year and a half and I've never experienced roaming Mariachi bands. I feel like I'm missing out.
- three14 14y ago
  IIRC, I would tend to run into them on the A train or the 1, north of 59th.

RedwoodCity 14y ago

quatro de mayo?

arvinS 14y ago

How will San Franciscans combat offensive deployments of the Mariachi? Will this lead to retaliatory strikes of Chinese street opera?

samstave 14y ago
This shall not stand! QUICK send in the Streisand Squad!

robatsu 14y ago

Racist, at least by typically objectivist measures

somneri 14y ago

When did HN become product advertisement board? Whats next? A posting for all-new minty Pepsodent with added whitening?