At the Restaurant Show

This past spring, Magnatune launched a new side-business called MoodMixes, which provides restaurant music and in-store music.

Because our musicians sign with us directly, we're able to offer restaurants and shops a much lower price than if they play any old music they want, because they then have to pay the high ASCAP/BMI fees (which they don't have to pay if they use us).

Also, in case you haven't noticed, lots of shops and restaurants aren't very good at picking appropriate music for their environment, while we've been sifting and categorizing the best of indie music for nine years now (which is why some of you become paid Magnatune members).

Last week, we exhibited at the national restaurant show:

here is a picture of me standing in front of our booth:

We were the only music company present, other than the collecting society's booth. What's surprising is how apathetic small restaurant owners are about their music. They don't seem to care that much either about having good music, or dropping their bill from several thousand dollars per year to several hundred.

My perception is that restaurant owners have their small circle of trusted suppliers, for everything from bottled water to furniture, and that's how they feel comfortable buying things.

So... one of my major initiatives for MoodMixes is recruiting resellers, as to that end we're paying a 30% commission to people who sign others up to our music service. We did manage to interest about a dozen major restaurant and bar consultants, and that's probably the best outcome of the show.

Comments

[sergio miller]

John
Trade shows are a bear but as an artist and art director I see that your booth failed to translate the message you are trying to convey. There are a bunch of other things you or the company you hired to do the graphics could have done to make your message loud and clear. Please don't take it personally, the album cover is almost as important as the music in marketing, don't you agree?
Anyway I'm a subscriber and love your service.
All the best for you and your business.
Sergio

[John Metzger]

A great initiative. Yes, the music in many fine restaurants surprises, and largely disappoints. And in some cases, hearing the same thing every time you go to your favourite restaurant, must also irritates the staff. A great business initiative... wishing you plenty of success!

Cheers,
John

[John Buckman]

There are a bunch of other things you or the company you hired to do the graphics could have done to make your message loud and clear.

Ok, I'll bite -- what should we have done with the graphics to make the message loud & clear?

-john

[Adina]

Dear John

Music market (and not only music) is moving to two extremes: low end and high end. No place for mid-end products. Mood mix is in mid-end and will have a hard time to have success. Maybe you should rethink the strategy. With magnatune you point at a high end elite segment of people fascinated by the non–main stream music and this is good. Maybe you should change the message also in moodmix to something else.

And maybe develop also the business in licensing in movie industry and distributing to audiophiles segment. There is a lot of demand there and few suppliers.

Adi

[anon]

"Ok, I'll bite -- what should we have done with the graphics to make the message loud & clear?

-john"

Suggestion #1 - Use a much bigger font for "half the price", and change the color to Shocking Pink!!

[db]

Hello John,

"what should we have done with the graphics to make the message loud & clear?"

My first thoughts about the graphics were:

"Half the price..." -> What's this? Cheap background music?
"No fees..." -> Well this music must be really cheap.
"Diverse Music..." -> various artists... sounds boring...
"Guaranteed..." -> No thanks!

The music at Magnatune isn't cheap. In my opinion Magnatune offers rare music jewels. In fact it offers some of the best music I've ever heard.

Maybe the first message should have to do something with music. I hope you had the possibility to play some of Magnatunes great music to get people in contact with the goods you offer. Had you mentioned to the people that over 3000 restaurants, shops and hotels play Magnatunes music because it is exellent? And of course the price is exellent too!

I hope you know what I mean.

Greetings from Germany, db

[UglyDuck]

It does look a bit sad.

I've been to a few trade shows at Earl's Court and demoed at one. One thing that works wonders is getting them to download an app so they can see how it works first. It's super resourceful and you get this instantaneous connection to the service which they take with them. It's better than a business card. I can imagine that if I were to start up a business, I would come to Magnatune for music, but that's because I know Magnatune is awesome. People going by don't know that though.

Graphics-wise, I would have gone with an image of a lobby pianist in black and white. Strong image of music in a public place, very classy. And "We Are Not Evil" is just such a kicker of a phrase, and there's nothing that hits quite as well with Mood Mixes.