Fanfarlo might be my new favorite band. Occupying a space somewhere between The National and Beirut, the music is just plain pleasant to listen to. Plus, their lead singer, Simon Balthazar, looks very similar to Ira Glass, how could they possibly fail?!
Oh, and did I mention that their debut album, Reservoir, is only $1? Yup. Marketing genius. You can buy their album through July 4th on their website for just one dollar.
This is the power of the internet. A relatively unknown band can release an album and then offer at as a loss leader for a limited time to build a base and get some buzz. I mean, I’m taking the time to write about it, aren’t I? How many others are doing the same? A quick Google search shows 1,670 hits for “Fanfarlo Reservoir $1″. On the first three pages, every entry is a blog post. I think their tactic is working.
Though, as my wife pointed out, it’s a foregone conclusion that the band can’t suck. This is true, but not as true as you would think. Because, niche as it may be, there is a market for sucky music. Remember, all it takes is 1000 true fans.
Though, these guys definitely don’t suck. So I think they’ll have no problem coming up with 1000. In fact, I think they’ll collect quite a few more than just 1000. I believe we’ll be hearing quite a bit more from Fanfarlo in the future.
Many of you know that recently I got a new mountain bike. It’s amazing. Vicious Cycles definitely knows what they are doing. Reynolds 853 for the front triangle and a Titus aluminum rear triangle. It’s a work of art.
Well, when I was building the groover (that is the name of the bike) up I decided it was time to send my fork off to be rebuilt. In the 5 years I’d owned it I’d never sent it away. So I asked around and mailed it to the name that came up most often. Suspension Experts in Asheville, NC. The service was quick, I was happy and I started riding my new bike. Then I noticed the oil. I stopped riding my new bike. There was fork oil leaking out of the bottom of the left leg of my fork. Right next to the disc brake mount. Right next to the disc brake pads. Oil + brake pads = no stop. I called the guys at Suspension Ex, they were really apologetic and said to send it back right away, on their dime, and they’d get to it fast.
The fork came back from them, clean and appearing to be fixed. 2 rides later, same story, a steady stream of oil from the bottom of the left leg. Not good. The only reassuring thing about the situation was that there isn’t anything important in that leg. Since I own an old coil spring Manitou Black at least I didn’t have to worry about having blown out the rebound damper (which is on the right side). Again, Kevin (the president of Suspension Ex) apologized profusely and had me mail it back, again on his dime. After I was sure they’d gotten the fork I called Kevin to ask about it and he explained some of the problems, he also said that if something happened this time he was going to build me up a completely new fork (of considerable upgrade) at his cost and mail it to me. There was no way he wanted a fork leaking oil with his name on it. When I picked up my fork from the bike shop on Friday, I was told that the entire cost of the original rebuild had been refunded by Suspension Ex, simply for my trouble. I wasn’t annoyed, I wasn’t angry, I didn’t ask to be refunded and I certainly didn’t expect it. This is a great example of a simple thing that a small company can do to make evangelists out of their customers. I know that from now on, I’ll never send a fork anywhere else. Even after I move to Europe. I also know that from now on, anytime anyone mentions anything even remotely wrong with their fork I’ll be pushing Suspension Ex.
So, thanks a lot Kevin and the other guys down there in Asheville for the really great experience even if it was a pain in the ass to all involved.
Being an entrepreneur, in my opinion, is some of the best fun you can have without the aid of jello and a very large, very high-speed fan. One thing that I think a lot of people overlook when thinking of business is that business can be a creative endeavor. What would creative business look like? Well lots of different things. But no matter what it looks like, entrepreneurship is the creative arm of the business world. Think about it; the idea of creating something new is the central pillar of creativity. But what is entrepreneurship but creating something from, effectively, nothing. The processes might be a little different, but in the end, creating art and creating businesses have much in common. In both cases you are forced to bring something new to the table, and in both cases you are forced to make decisions about the direction of your creation. In the end, even the outcome is similar; if you are good, you’ll be able to scape a living out of either.
In the past, I’ve been fortune enough to be involved in a few small businesses. As an investor in one and an investor/operator in the other. But they have always been small and, in both cases, the cash flow has been very small. The idea of business creation is almost constantly at the front of my mind and yet, I haven’t done anything new in ages. Almost always there but almost impossible to put into practice. This is a common problem and one that I, and anyone else in a similar position, needs to kick as fast as possible. You can have the most wonderful idea in the world but without execution it’s not worth a dime to anyone.
I have my idea, and this time I’m going to run with it. What’s your idea?
Licensing images for the internet has always been a gray area. As the Bohemian says, “it has always been the industry standard to price an image based on how many people would see it”, and this is valid. Think about a small image on the back page of a local newspaper. Now think of the cover of the NY Times, to be reprinted for many countries all around the world. The number of eyes feasting on your image would be slightly different wouldn’t it? Now think about websites, until relatively recently it was difficult to track the actual traffic of a site, even more difficult to track (accurately) the number of views an image received. So it has always been a difficult thing to price. How much is an image on the homepage of a website worth?
One company has now decided to take matters into their own hands. In the spirit of Google PPC ads, GumGum is allowing content providers (photographers like you and me) to upload images to their servers. Content users (the online sites of newspapers and magazines, blogs and corporate giants) can search this database of images, decided what they like and then license the content on a per-view basis. No views, no charge. Providers can set the CPM rate (it looks as it $ .20 is the norm so far) and get paid by how much their image is actually getting used.
I’m skeptical. It sounds like a very big idea, and I may prove to look the idiot but here are my qualms.
First, Similar to Google ads, providers have no say where their images are used. This may not be such a big deal, you say, until your images land on a site advertising something you are very against. Like a pro/anti abortion site. Or on the website of the political party you oppose. Or worse yet, on the homepage of the KKK. I would be surprised if anything remotely this sinister was going on, but it is worth considering.
Second, Does a service like this lower the actual value of images? Is this just an extension of the micro-stock phenomenon? Let’s delve into the numbers for a moment. CPM means “cost per thousand” (M is the roman numeral for one thousand). So for an image placed on a page that receives 100,000 page views the photographer gets a measly $20. It may not be “rights free for a dollar” like much of the micro-stock world ,but it isn’t far off. And where is GumGum’s cut? They aren’t very clear about that either. I’ve emailed GumGum to try and get a few answers, I’ll update if they decide that I’m worth getting back to.
Anyone out there jumping at the chance to upload on GumGum? Anyone just want to go back to the old days where people paid for good photography and didn’t think it was something that should be free?
