RE: Looping/music/audience/commerce

[jprice@intcpi.com (John Price)]

Please try to understand my perspective and not see this as an attempt to 
disparage others. These are just my thoughts & opinions that are in more 
of a commercial and market oriented perspective

Ive always been something of a salesman of sorts - a marketing major in 
school.

I'm also assuming a manfacturer. Wants to expand its client base to the 
largest realms possible. 

It seems that the rule of a larger audience often times means bringing in 
just a little bit o cheese for the sake of higher returns and greater 
recognition but hopefully not sacrificing the seriousness of a product 
line or user base.

Id imagine a manufacturer would need to decide the following basic 
Questions:

Who is the target market you're going after ??? where  is this mkt - 
Europe, & or Specific parts of Euro - UK, Belgium, Germany, or Africa, 
France, Italy or The States ??? Do you really want a Niche or a broad 
based appeal for your product ?? How much R&D ru willing to invest ??? How 
solid is the market and what type of product will appeal to the broadest 
market possible ?? What Pricing and distrubutions structures are the most 
favorable ???

Some Answers.
Dance-Hip-Hop, ... Solid and always growing. Simplicity and sync. Cheaper 
and Cheaper pricing and Honest and fair ( virtually impossible IMHO ) 
asian and or mexican manufacturing facilities.

Statement: Looping doesn't have a larger audience because its simply tied 
to artists that don't move a lot of "product" to a large and mass 
audiences. Don't sacrifice the current giants - they have a place and an 
important one which is to keep you credible with your constant and 
existing niche customer base.

A lot of times I get the impression that whenever I see a post saying "how 
come no one else is hip to this "?? I get the feeling of LD preaching to 
the converted or soon to be converted. 

Now, obviously, any products success is all about an issue of timing, 
perception and shrewed marketing manueveers ...ahemmm... ( theres that 
dirty word again! )

You have to have a need ( a market ) or actively create a need around 
something or someone who is visable and viable beyond just the conceptual 
phase of expanding a concept amongst an already sold audience. 

Looping needs to be presented as simple, straightforward, 
Non-Esoteric/Non-Cerebreal and rewarding for anyone who may want to 
explore its potential.

This approach automatically but not necessarily leads you toward 1st., the 
non-musicians, dj's or intermediate level musicians along with the sight 
reading or technique oriented types you will always have as sort of a 
captive consumer.

Looping also needs to be presented in a similar approach to that which is 
used on a casio keyboard(IMH-Marketing Opinion) and hawked the way Nike 
and Addidas sneakers are sold. Label - Streetwise and cool. Just slant it 
toward 3 levels of involvement

Heres a Brainstorm with a lot of certain holes in it:

Get rid of the term looping and come up with a catchier simpler phrase. 
Too many uninitiated people when u mention the term looping go, Huh ???  
and you usually end up taking more than 30 seconds explaining it ( 
obviously because there are many answers and variation on it )

Try to accurately redefine a varied and wide ranging technique that's 
built around an attractive name and product line.


1.) Standalone portable Device with huge LEDs for the everyday user from 
ages 4 and up who wants instant and immediate gratification  - give them 
loopable presets and some type of  idiot proof interface where they can 
feel like they have a lot more control over what they actually have been 
given. Market it as "Jamout or Zone Out in a Box" or something along that 
line. Give it built in speakers, give it flashing strobe lights too. Price 
it no higher than $200.00
2.) An Intermediate Level (Portable) Unit  SCSI (optionable) , MIDI ports 
included.  Have Preset loops that are loadable and changeable ie. - rock, 
Hip-Hop - Techno, House, Country, Metal, New age Jazz, etc, grooves, 
sounds that are layerable but limitable to the loops you can stack and 
even make em savable on a PC. ... like have it w/a built in overdrive, 
chorus or flanger and analog type pedal 1sec. Delay effect. Allow it to 
record up to 8 seconds or more of sound and play back in reverse. Put a 
multiply mode in it too. Encourage 3rd party SW developers to support you 
with various add-on devices. Price it no higher than $499.00

It'll be like a drm machine and quasi sampler/sound canvas all in one. 

3.)Get together Somethin akin to a jamman or say an echoplex or the BOSS 
sp202 with all the sophistication and wizardry a pro would expect. Give em 
lots o knobs and the ability to digitally save and store edit parameters 
along with full midi functionality Multiply, reverse and ring mod. and 
random playback or random morphing that would be adjusted & real-time 
synced to any bpm ya want. Also, remember Its gotta be pitched >from a Fun 
and ease of use perspective ie. " You'd be amazed at how fast you'd be 
making music. "         Plus from a manufacturers and marketing 
perspective the upgrades and product life extentions will be endless with 
tons of cool variations and offshoots until another larger manufacturer 
copies what youre doing to the tee.
Make all your product like samsonite luggaage !
3.) oops, I don't know how to make my page numbering function stop !!! 
4.) Someone earlier mentioned Bjork as a spokeperson - it doesn't 
necessarily need to be Bjork (though it wouldn't hurt) - it can be people 
associated w/her or people affiliated with her camp and others of mass 
note or production noteworthy types. 
5.) Remember Hip-Hop Sells and sells Big - Puff Daddy would do wonders for 
a loop based product line and feed into a market that would only want more 
and more and more.
6.) 
7.) Paul Schaefer  would be another good mainstream endorser along with 
kevin eubanks of leno fame to have your product displayed front and center 
- all those options would up your public name recognition along w/ key 
mind value in the public perception. It wouldn't hurt to have someone Mix 
it up with big or widely recognized people in key mags like musician, Gtr 
player, or just about anyone of those DnB mags you can get >from a local 
book or record chain. Matthew Sweet endorses Roland products in their 
local user mag. Maybe a bi monthly or quarterly periodical which is either 
paper and or web based devoted to looping would help ( from a 
manufacturers perspective )

Of this much, Im certain- Word of mouth won't bring looping any further 
than where it currently stands today. Web Posting and Web Broadcasting in 
RA wont do it either unless its tied to or part of a focused artist and 
manufacturer's thrust.

I'm just waiting for the all in one box or interface that can can work 
like a regular music instrument giving ya real time grooves sync, MIDI and 
expressive/active control over  100% of ya sound.

Maybe I should just start manufacturing my own products...nahhhh... too 
techie :)

JP