tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-107504822024-02-20T06:38:25.536-07:00House of Blues Concerts DenverRoss Hollman's unofficial HOB weblog, covering everything House of Blues Concerts in Denver. Even though I work for House of Blues Concerts, not everything accurately reflects the views of my employer, my management, my co-workers, or anyone even remotely affiliated with my company. Things that I say here are not to be construed as "House of Blues Concerts Policy".Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07149366013937654586noreply@blogger.comBlogger31125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10750482.post-1144892543078315662006-04-12T19:42:00.000-06:002006-04-12T19:42:23.086-06:00Just 50 more laps<p>Someone that I know that works in car racing told me recently that if they had had just 50 more laps, they would have done even better. I’m sure that the statement was absolutely true, but the reality is that the number of laps at any given track is determined months and years in advance of the race actually being run. The statement made me think about the kinds of issues that all kinds of businesses face: trying to win based on the constraints that have already been set.</p><p>So how do you win if you can’t get 50 more laps?</p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07149366013937654586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10750482.post-1144892276441359342006-04-12T19:37:00.000-06:002006-04-12T19:37:56.440-06:00everystockphoto<p>I use tons of stock photos in my presentations, so I was excited to find everystockphoto, which does not host any stock photos, but rather aggregates stock photos from various different services. Please stop filling your PowerPoints with endless bullets and start using everystockphoto to tell your story with pictures — you can’t beat the price.</p><p><a href="http://www.everystockphoto.com/index.php">Link</a></p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07149366013937654586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10750482.post-1144892150612282962006-04-12T19:35:00.000-06:002006-04-12T19:35:50.613-06:00Mark Cuban's success motivation<p>It’s just this simple: <strong>Don’t Lie to Yourself</strong></p><p>Read the rest of Cuban’s post, become enlightened, stop lying to yourself.</p><p>QED</p><p><a href="http://www.blogmaverick.com/entry/1234000527073594/">Link</a></p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07149366013937654586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10750482.post-1144892071209633952006-04-12T19:34:00.000-06:002006-04-12T19:34:31.216-06:00Are Payless Shoes disposable?<p>I don’t shop in Payless Shoes, but I get that they essentially rip off uber-trendy designs and sell them ridiculously cheap. Here’s something to consider: If you needed trendy shoes for a particular event and didn’t necessarily ever care about wearing them again, is it better to spend $14 at Payless or to spend a lot more?</p><p>I bet your answer is totally different depending on whether or not you’re male or female.</p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07149366013937654586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10750482.post-1144891914594488432006-04-12T19:31:00.000-06:002006-04-12T19:31:54.600-06:00What to do when you can't earn a MBA<p>Rajesh Setty has published a free e-book entitled <u>When You Can’t Earn an MBA. . .</u> Aside from the fact that you can’t use “an” in front of a word that starts in a consonant, the e-book is a worthwhile read.</p><p>Those of you that read this blog frequently have read a lot of my previous posts about MBAs and would encourage you to read this e-book if you’ve enjoyed (or violently disagreed) with any of my previous posts.</p><p><a href="http://www.lifebeyondcode.com/ebooks/NoMBA.pdf">Link</a> — e-book download</p><p><a href="http://blog.lifebeyondcode.com/blog/_archives/2006/3/2/1792993.html">Link</a> — Rajesh’s post explaining why he wrote it</p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07149366013937654586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10750482.post-1144891657106523472006-04-12T19:27:00.000-06:002006-04-12T19:27:37.106-06:00Can't and won't<p>Seth Godin has a terrific post on can’t vs. won’t. Here’s an easy lesson: take the last statement that you made where you said “can’t” and replace “can’t” with “won’t” and reevaluate the statement.</p><p>What if we were just honest about what we won’t do vs. what we can’t do? I try to do this every day.</p><p><a href="http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2006/03/cant_vs_wont.html">Link</a></p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07149366013937654586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10750482.post-1144891524879441322006-04-12T19:25:00.000-06:002006-04-12T19:25:24.886-06:00You know these things, but you don't do them<p>Seth Godin’s absolutely right:</p><blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"><p><em>1. treat different products differently<br />2. treat different customers differently</em></p></blockquote><p dir="ltr">Perhaps it’s just to simple.</p><p dir="ltr"><a href="http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2006/04/two_things_you_.html">Link</a></p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07149366013937654586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10750482.post-1144891018587305412006-04-12T19:16:00.000-06:002006-04-13T00:48:01.320-06:00Can't access some of the saved content on BloglinesSo this really sucks. It’s bad enough that Bloglines is not effectively pulling new posts, but now I can’t access some of the saved posts that I’ve got in various folders — this totally blows.Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07149366013937654586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10750482.post-1144890848660713952006-04-12T19:14:00.000-06:002006-10-23T12:59:28.413-06:00Summer employment<p>If you’re looking to work at Coors Amphitheatre-Denver this summer, allow me to provide you with some contacts:</p><ul><li>Security, usher, ticket taker, cleaning, or parking — Argus Event Staff (303) 799–1140.</li><li>Concessions, bartending, or waiter — Aramark Concession (303) 846–3645.</li></ul><p>Aramark and Argus are our 2 biggest subcontractors and employ the vast majority of the staff that work our events. In addition both Aramark and Argus provide services at many other entertainment venues in the Denver Metro area, so they are great places to start if you are looking to get into the entertainment business. I actually started working for Argus when I was in college.</p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07149366013937654586noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10750482.post-1144890692471490292006-04-12T19:11:00.000-06:002006-04-12T19:11:32.493-06:00What are you doing right now?<p>Excellent question. We spend an awful lot of time dewinterizing the amphitheatre — think about the amphitheatre as about 100 times the work that you do in dewinterizing your house (if you live in a climate where you winterize and dewinterize).</p><p>We do the following (and this is a very abbreviated list):</p><ul><li>All of the plumbing and toilets get taken apart during the winter, so we get everything put back together, turn all the water back on, and make adjustments to ensure everything flows correctly and is at proper pressure. For those of you that use urinals and have been splashed when you flush, you will appreciate the time that we take.</li><li>We hand-inspect every seat in the building and replace broken parts, tighten bolts, replace springs, replace seat numbers, and do whatever maintenance is necessary. For those keeping score, that’s 6,823 seats that we hand inspect and hand repair.</li><li>Unpack everything that we stored for the winter. Folding tables, folding chairs, box suite furniture, tents, equipment, vehicles; everything gets unpacked, cleaned, serviced, and ready to work.</li><li>All of the signs get uncovered, cleaned, and repaired if necessary.</li><li>We check every light bulb in the building and replace all of the bulbs that are burned out.</li><li>Painting</li><li>Cleaning</li></ul><p>It takes a lot of work to get buildings the size of ours going for the season.</p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07149366013937654586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10750482.post-1143922215975605572006-04-01T13:10:00.000-07:002006-04-01T13:10:15.983-07:00Big Champagne<p>If you’re in the music business and not paying a lot of attention to the data that Big Champagne provides, perhaps you should consider whether or not you should be in the music business.</p><p><a href="http://www.bigchampagne.com/">Link</a></p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07149366013937654586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10750482.post-1143920873291718802006-04-01T12:47:00.000-07:002006-04-01T12:47:53.333-07:00RSS competing with CDs?<p>Check out the post on The Work Better Weblog. I think the artist and people that seek to have/purchase/sponsor artist content need to realize that although the labels tend to own all the rights to the songs, the stories about the songs, stories about the band, stories about anything are free game.</p><p><a href="http://workingpathways.com/workbetter/archive/rss-feeds-replacing-cds-its-starting/">Link</a></p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07149366013937654586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10750482.post-1142809516338842382006-03-19T16:05:00.000-07:002006-03-19T16:05:16.350-07:00Class Action law suit against the music industry<p>Check out this description:</p><blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"><p><em>The suit also alleges that the record labels sought to shut down online music pioneer Napster at the same time they were introducing their own joint ventures to sell online music. MusicNet and pressplay "were not serious commercial ventures, but rather attempts to occupy the market with frustrating and ineffectual services in order to head off viable Online Music competitors from forming and gaining popularity after Napster's demise," according to the suit.</em></p></blockquote><p dir="ltr">More details in the full post on Ars Technica.</p><p dir="ltr"><a href="http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060313-6368.html">Link</a></p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07149366013937654586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10750482.post-1142809230618882592006-03-19T16:00:00.000-07:002006-03-19T16:00:30.633-07:00Arctic Monkeys make it big using the internet<p>Unlike traditional bands, the <a href="http://www.arcticmonkeys.com/">Arctic Monkeys</a>, an indie UK band on an indie UK label, developed a following online that helped them sell 360,000 copies of their debut album in the first week, which is a UK record for the fastest selling indie debut album. Notably Arctic Monkeys released many of their songs on MP3 for free and encouraged fans to share the songs including sharing the songs on P2P networks. Not surprisingly, the band also used a <a href="http://myspace.com/arcticmonkeys">MySpace site</a> to connect with fans and further encourage the spread of their music.</p><p>Is this a sign of the new way of breaking bands? I sure hope so.</p><p>Read the full story on Monkey Bites.</p><p><a href="http://wiredblogs.tripod.com/monkeybites/index.blog?entry_id=1438139">Link</a></p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07149366013937654586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10750482.post-1141619731547496072006-03-05T21:35:00.000-07:002006-03-05T21:37:26.126-07:00I'm trying to understand this MySpace Music thing<p>Ok, I get a lot of what’s going on with MySpace Music and I get a lot of what’s not going on as well. As part of my <a href="http://strategize.blogspot.com/2006/03/grand-myspace-experiment-begins.html">MySpace experiment on Strategize</a>, I’m playing around a lot with MySpace Music because music is my business.</p><p>Here’s what I think about:</p><blockquote dir="ltr" style="margin-right: 0px;"><p><a href="http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=593089">Stars Hide Fire</a> has some really good music. Their profile on MySpace has 77,00 views. Their 2 songs have 29,000 combined plays. They have 6,210 MySpace friends. Does this mean that someone in the live music business on the East Coast should be paying attention to booking these guys? After all, with as many friends and views and plays as this band has on their MySpace site, which doesn’t even count their <a href="http://www.starshidefire.com/">website</a>, shouldn’t this be a good regional booking if not a good national club booking?</p></blockquote><p dir="ltr">The problem with the logic above is that it does not seem like anyone is running any sort of correlation data for MySpace metrics against live music sales. I’m not talking about measuring the power of nationally touring acts like <a href="http://www.myspace.com/greenday">Green Day</a>, I’m talking about measuring the power of MySpace for emerging, regional, and local bands in a quantifiable way. What people like me want to know is how many friends or profile views or song plays it takes to indicate a successful band.</p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07149366013937654586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10750482.post-1141618661600318092006-03-05T21:17:00.000-07:002006-03-05T21:17:41.636-07:00Snaptune<p>Snaptune allows you to record music from FM radio to a PC. This isn’t hard to do with other services and configurations, but Snaptune adds song metadata, does not record repeated songs, and if you use a USB FM tuner, can even change stations based on how you program it.</p><p>This is probably going to drive the RIAA crazy.</p><p><a href="http://snaptune.com/">Link</a></p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07149366013937654586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10750482.post-1140820301788282492006-02-24T15:31:00.000-07:002006-02-24T15:31:41.796-07:00Google Web Page Creator<p>100 megs of storage and the ability to build pages with a web-based tool — the name says it all.</p><p><a href="http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3586916">Link</a></p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07149366013937654586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10750482.post-1140820031250960872006-02-24T15:27:00.000-07:002006-02-24T15:27:11.286-07:00Malcolm Gladwell's blogging<p>Not sure if this is new news to anyone else, but it is to me.</p><p><a href="http://gladwell.typepad.com/gladwellcom/">Link</a></p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07149366013937654586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10750482.post-1140125195257799982006-02-16T14:26:00.000-07:002006-02-16T14:26:35.300-07:00Sprint reports 1 million song downloads<p>Ok, at $2.50 per song, I find it a little hard to believe that Sprint users have already downloaded 1 million songs to their phones.</p><p>Check out the article on cellular-news through the link below.</p><p><a href="http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16161.php">Link</a></p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07149366013937654586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10750482.post-1140107725381095052006-02-16T09:35:00.000-07:002006-02-16T09:35:25.426-07:00Podbop<p>Podbop is a service that brings together upcoming concert events with available MP3s from bands that are performing. All of the information is organized by city, and once you’ve done a city search, Podbop provides a RSS feed that you can subscribe to for each particular city search. What’s cool about the RSS feed is that any available MP3 files from bands that are performing are included within the RSS feed so that you do not have to click through a bunch of links to get at them. The cities that I have looked at seem to include information not only for national touring acts, but also for local bands performing at smaller venues, which is really cool.</p><p>Check it out.</p><p><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/Techcrunch?m=622">Link</a></p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07149366013937654586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10750482.post-1139785177751844212006-02-12T15:59:00.000-07:002006-02-12T15:59:37.800-07:00I'll be at CIC on ModayI’m flying in tomorrow morning and leaving tomorrow night, but I’ll be around most of the day tomorrow. If you’re going to be there to and want to chat, shoot me an e-mail and I’ll do my best to meet up with you.Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07149366013937654586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10750482.post-1139621642265190422006-02-10T18:34:00.000-07:002006-02-10T18:34:21.496-07:00Beatport<p>I bet that you’ve never heard of Beatport. Beatport is a local Colorado company serving paid downloads to the somewhat niche market of dance music. You will find remixes of popular artist tunes and original content all available for sale. It used to be that you couldn’t get a lot of the great dance music and DJ remixes in an easy way, but Beatport has changed all that.</p><p>No special software downloads required, everything works directly in the browser and works perfectly with Firefox. As you would expect with any digital music store, you can play track samples, some songs are available as singles, and some songs are only available as part of an album purchase.</p><p>I was checking out “Their Low The Singles 1990–2005” Parts I & II by The Prodigy, a band I still enjoy listening to — haven’t seen those albums on iTunes.</p><p>Beatport offers a variety of delivery methods: instant delivery (mp3 or mp4 tracks), mail delivery (mp3, mp4, or wav CDs).</p><p>Oh, and Beatport averages something like 75,000 downloads per week.</p><p><a href="https://www.beatport.com/">Link</a></p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07149366013937654586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10750482.post-1139527210357922002006-02-09T16:20:00.000-07:002006-02-09T16:17:19.330-07:00Job Opening -- Accounting Clerk<p>Accounting clerk will assist the Business Manager in day to day tasks that include journal entries, general ledger account analysis, weekly deposit preparation, account payable duties and administrative support.</p><p>Strong excel skills are a must. Previous accounting experience a plus but not required. Candidate must be detailed oriented. Degree in or pursing degree in accounting preferred.</p><p>Please visit the link below for the full description and the e-mail address to which you can submit a resume.</p><p><a href="http://hob.com/venues/concerts/coors_denver/jobs.asp#AccountingClerk">Link</a></p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07149366013937654586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10750482.post-1139526908833657162006-02-09T16:15:00.000-07:002006-02-09T16:18:53.076-07:00Seasonal job opening -- Assistant Ticket Manager<p>House of Blues Concerts Denver seeks an Assistant Ticket Manager. Responsibilities include but are not limited to managing event day and seasonal Box Office staff; creating and/or updating daily, monthly and annual accounting reports; creating and/or maintaining event ticketing system information; filling house ticket requests; document organization management. </p><p><strong>Qualifications</strong></p><p>1-2 years Box Office experience required. Ticket system (Ticketmaster preferred) and intermediate Excel knowledge required. Successful candidate must have basic accounting principles, be comfortable handling cash, and have the ability to provide excellent customer service while working in a fast-paced environment. Must be able to work Night and Weekend hours. This position is seasonal full time from March 1 - October 1. <br />Part-time opportunities possible the rest of the year. </p><p>Please visit the link below for the full description and the e-mail address to which you can submit a resume.</p><p><a href="http://hob.com/venues/concerts/coors_denver/jobs.asp#AssistantTicketManager">Link</a></p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07149366013937654586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10750482.post-1139457789219936732006-02-08T21:03:00.000-07:002006-02-08T21:03:09.223-07:00Bob Lefsetz and I agree that Apple is not killing the record business<p>I wrote <a href="http://strategize.blogspot.com/2006/01/apple-is-not-killing-albumcd-business.html">my original post</a> on this topic last month on <a href="http://strategize.blogspot.com/">Strategize</a>. Here’s what my post boiled down to:</p><blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"><p><em>Here’s the simple fact of the matter: if record labels were scouting talent and investing in and backing artists that could produce more than 1 good song, people would do the math and probably buy a CD.</em></p><p><em>Here’s what’s going to happen: the record labels are going to cause me to turn into a consumer of singles rather than a consumer of full albums. Sure it will be a little difficult for me to change my buying behavior, but I bet it won’t take too long — chances are good that I’ll probably even wind up saving a bunch of money over the course of a year. Oh, and by the way, I haven’t heard a single in a long time that was worth $2.99.</em></p></blockquote><p dir="ltr">Bob Lefsetz has this to say in his 2 posts today:</p><blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"><p dir="ltr"><em>Sometime in the nineties it became about the track, not the act. THAT’S what’s killing the labels, not the purchase of single hits at the iTunes Music Store.</em></p><p dir="ltr"><em>Suddenly, the labels are gonna wake up, and I mean SUDDENLY, and they’re barely going to be able to give away a CD. THEN what are they going to do? Sell singles on iTunes and DECIMATE their bottom line?</em></p></blockquote><p dir="ltr">It’s a little eerie isn’t it? Especially when you consider that Bob and I have never talked, let alone met each other. Sure, you can say that we both see it the same way because we’re both in the industry, but at the end of the day, everyone else is smart enough to see it too.</p><p dir="ltr"><a href="http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2006/02/08/the-itunes-fiasco/">Link — Lefsetz “The iTunes Fiasco”</a></p><p dir="ltr"><a href="http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2006/02/08/the-album/">Link — Lefsetz “The Album”</a></p>Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07149366013937654586noreply@blogger.com0