Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hi all, I`m hoping for some helpful advice on my band. We`re about to launch in a month, and we`re hoping to get a promoter to put us on a national tour doing concerts.

First, some background. I have no idea how to play any instruments, and no musical training at all, but I`m very passionate about songs. I recently examined a Casio keyboard and it has a lot of stored sound-tracks.

I know there`ll be a learning curve, but I`m always interested in learning new things. So for the moment, I`m thinking I can use the Casio to handle the original songs we`ll play on our tour.

Another problem I need some advice with is that I don`t yet have any other members of the band. I`ve been reading, and have learned that a bass player and drummer are pretty important. When an audience comes to a concert they tend to look at those two instruments a lot.

What I was thinking was to put an ad on Craig`s List (no relation) for someone to partner with me on an equity basis. Since I have no money, I`m thinking they could help me learn how the Casio works, and in exchange they could get some of the money from the concert tour.

Is there a template I could use to put together a band? What I`m hoping is to copy something like "Journey," where I could create the same band but substitute myself for the various members of the band. Is there a legal reason why I shouldn`t consider playing all the different instruments and also be Steve Perry? Can`t I just sing the same stuff?

We`re thinking we`d like to start small, so mostly we`d play Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Gardens, and a couple of other concert halls in New York City. After that, we`ll try and book the main venues across the rest of the country.

I`m wondering....should I form an LLC? I looked at Legal Zoom but didn`t see anything about forming a rock band. Another question I have is whether or not I need to trademark the songs I`m going to make from the Casio. Since it`s a template, can I patent them?

One of the other problems I`m researching is how to get investors. I watched a concert the other day on TV and it looked like they were using about $500,000 for the equipment. Since I don`t know anyone in the music business, that`s just a guess. But I checked on eBay and a lot of the pictures there looked like what I saw.

I`m hoping someone else has put together their own concert rock band from scratch like this because I`m thinking about which model Casio to buy. There`s one that has 21 keys on the keyboard, and another that has 66 keys. Does it matter how many keys there are on one of these things?

Hoping for your helpful insights.....

Hi Kathy,
Thanks for your suggestion. I took a look at the video in the link and have a few questions. What`s a "chord?" I also don`t understand why toward the end of the video one of the people talks about the letter "D." He says that he`s always like "D" because it`s bright.

I don`t see how "D" is any different from "Q" other than in the alphabet. Is there something I`m missing?

Let`s hear some other comments. I really need to get up to speed on all this, and find out about a few more things. Is there a good way to contact concert promoters? Should I use a newsletter, a blog, Twitter, or bulk email?

I`m also working on my business plan. I estimate that in the first month the band should generate revenues of approximately $3-million USD. But I`m not sure how to assign "fixed costs" as opposed to "variable costs." Does someone understand this?

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Craig, you`re the greatest.

Craig,

While I admire your desire to do something "big", I think you need to learn to walk before you learn to run. I would offer you 2 suggestions.

1) Understand why you want to be a huge star in the music world, and ultimately what you want to accomplish. Is it a passion to perform? A love of entertaining? A desire to succeed at filling stadiums and making people flick their BIC`s? The hope that enamored women will throw their undergarments at you, scream your name, and place your posters on their walls? Perhaps you need to evaluate yourself and your goals to see where you should really go with this. Also, a little bit of research into how others, even Journey, became successful wouldn`t hurt. Why did they become successful? What did they go through? Analyzing those that have had success can often enlighten you as to the best way to approach it yourself. In other words .... do your homework, actually learn how to do it, and make yourself unique enough that people will say "Hey, that group Craig & The Curmudgeons really rock!"

2) Find local karaoke bars and perform to your hearts desire. Granted, the pay is not great, but the investment is minimal, and for 4 minutes at a time, you can actually be Steve Perry.



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M Hall
Website Critique Community
International Society of Curmudgeons

Wow! Thanks for all the great comments!

Roland -- I do believe you`ve got it. :-)
Joel -- Wanna join the band? It`ll be like, totally cool, dude!

Webline -- You`ve given me a lot to think about. I came up with this idea because I always liked the idea of having my own business. I`ve read the many topics about passion, and was thinking a lot about it. It turns out my passion is to be a millionaire and travel to exciting places.

You`ve given me an idea that I think I`ll build into my business plan. What do you think about a second business I could run at these concerts where I sell BIC lighters? I would only need to find an exporter from China, buy a container of them, then sell them at the door?

I like the idea for the name of the band, too: "Craig & the Curmudgeons!" What a great name. Do you know if I should trademark it? I understand that I can`t start a band until I first have a domain name, a trademark, and a patent. I just don`t know which one to get first.

I also intend to try the idea of karaoke to get the word out. That`s like Twitter and Facebook, right?

Another question I could use some help with. I`d like to take PayPal payments for the concerts. I`ve heard that this isn`t so easy to do, but is there a way I could put a laptop computer out in the entry hall and use that for PayPal?