Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Tera Schmeling on February 20, 2008 at 2:47pm

My shop is in Eugene Oregon...its called Brewed Awakening...its a great little retail store...we are the same as you, busy from 7 am - 4-5 p.m. but evenings aren't wonderful - weekends however are really busy but we also serve food on the weekends. Omelets, scrambles, French toast etc. We utilize our retail store when we do trainings through our other company which is called Cafe Technologies (www.cafetechnologies.com). Our focus is to help people open coffee shops all across the U.S. We carry espresso machines, coffee brewers, start up accessory packages and trainings (either at our location or at the customers location). Its great because I meet a lot of people from all over. This industry is awesome! Lots of great people and everyone is so nice! Its great when people truly just want to see you be successful...thats what its all about! If you ever have any silly little questions about trying things let me know! I've been doing this for 11 years so if I know any tricks I'll share them! Also if you need any equipment or anything like that I'd be happy to help! How long have you had your shop?

Permalink Reply by Heather Yarbrough on February 20, 2008 at 4:23pm

Sounds good, thanks Tera!
It was 2 years in September...I'm up to paying myself a whole $4.00 an hour, but at least I'm not going backwards! I don't know how people do it by themselves without a significant other's income!
Thanks!

Permalink Reply by Tera Schmeling on February 20, 2008 at 5:26pm

Well congratulations! The 2 year mark is the make it or break it time...once you get to 3 I'm sure you'll be able to give yourself and BIG raise!!! You deserve it! You'll never work harder and get paid less unless your a mommy! But more money is to come I promise! And the relationships you have built I'm sure are worth more than money I'm bet!

Permalink Reply by Trevor on February 20, 2008 at 8:32pm

Hey, just to throw in my two cents. Before I started my own shop I used to run a music venue in Indianapolis and got to experience first hand the catch22 that is live music. In my shop though we've been doing music since we opened two years ago and my advice to you would be this. Be consistent. If you are going to do music make an effort to make it predictable. Pick your slower of the weekend nights and make that your live music night. Every week. Set high standards. Don't let anyone play unless you've heard them and set a standard for what kind of music your going to let play in your shop.
Also, pick a genre. I've noticed especially that music that is typically classified as coffee shop music (ie folk, acoustic, rock, blues, jazz) tends to be cross generational. Which is what I want personally in my shop. I don't want music that is only going to bring in one age group and scare away another. You can't please everyone but you can come close.
As far as payment goes, that can be tricky. You don't want to take advantage of musicians however you don't want to lose either. There are some exceptions but a majority of the time we do not pay the musicians that perform here. We pass a tip jar and will provide the artist/band with meals and drinks while they are here, within reason. Depending on the situation sometimes I will give them a little money for travel. I don't take a percentage of their merch. Also, I sometimes will require a drink purchase rather than a cover for customers. So they would show their receipt to gain entrance. This works for me because we do music upstairs so I can still have regular customers come in the shop while I have live music going on.
Regarding open mic nights, we originally had them somewhat sporadically but as they gained popularity we now have them on the first Saturday of every month. We've been getting a great turnout for these and we'll have people drive an hour or more to come play. The town I am in is pretty small but word has gotten out that we are kind of an oasis of culture in a sea of podunk towns.
With that all being said I have been able to bring in some good artists because I make an effort of getting people that are on tour while they are on their way to Chicago or on their way out of Chicago. We've had people like Jessica Sonner (just finished touring with third eye blind), Meiko (she's on the grey's anatomy sound track), and Dave Barnes to name a few. I bend head over heels to make the artists welcome while they are here so that if nothing else they have an enjoyable experience and will tell other artists.
As far as booking goes, for a while I had to be pretty proactive in finding musicians but I am to the point now that 3/4 of them contact me. Myspace is a godsend in this regard and most of my booking is done through there. I get a few bands from the local university and have found a couple very talented musicians through are open mic nights that play here on a regular basis. I have found that there are some musicians who no matter how often they play the same venue will pack the house. I started booking the shows here myself then went to an employee booking shows off the clock and then went back to booking them myself. It is a lot of work but I love music too much not to do it and it definitely does help my business.
Sorry this got so long I had no intention of rambling but realized I couldn't fit it in one paragraph. Hopefully this helps you out. If you have any direct questions for me I would be more than happy to talk to ya more. I would think in South Bend you have some good opportunities to make a live music environment work. Its just like good coffee. You spend a lot of time teaching your consumers and then eventually those consumers become your biggest fans who teach the next wave of consumers for you. There is nothing better than an amazing cup of coffee and brilliant live music.
cheers
~Trevor

Permalink Reply by Rich Westerfield on February 20, 2008 at 8:48pm

I'll never do an open mike night here again. Simply an awful thing to try and coordinate. And we'd get the same hacks week in and week out - people so awful they'd drive away the paying customers.

We do offer live entertainment on most Friday nights. We seed the tip jar $20 and they keep all merch revenues. We have a BMI license, but not ASCAP, so we're very strict on performing covers. We've had emo, steel drums, ska, tango, reggae, folk, country, jazz and electronica. It all works as long as we have the band's cooperation in promotion.

Not all the bands make money, especially not the ones traveling gig to gig with no local following, but, if we like the music and they really want to play here, go for it. We usually enjoy the company as well as the music. If Craig Carothers ever passes thru your town, book him. It's worth it. Best act we've had, even if he only drew a half dozen folks.

Permalink Reply by Heather Yarbrough on February 21, 2008 at 4:40am

That's really awesome feedback, guys, thanks a lot!! I'll definitely take all of that into consideration and hopefully we can get something moving this summer that will actually be successful!
Thanks again!
Heather

Permalink Reply by Chris O'Connor on February 25, 2008 at 3:07pm

If you are going to have live music in your shop you are responsible for having the required BMI and ASCAP music licenses. It seems strange that the venue owner/operator is responsible for the licenses and not the performer(s) but that's how it is. The annual fees are a nuciense but minor compared to non-compliance fines. The same holds true if you play cds or the radio in your cafe. You know they are onto you when you get a phone call that goes something like this...

CALLER: "Hi. I was just wondering if you ever have live music at your place?"

YOU: "We sure do! The best in town plays here every (fill in the blank)!"

CALLER: "Can you accommodate a group of say 30 - 40 people?"

YOU: "Sure! We seat 45 inside plus another 12 on the patio!"

CALLER: "OK, thank you." Click

If you get a call like that use *69 to get the caller's number. I'll be you a con leche that when you call the number the call will be answered by either BMI or ASCAP.

Chris

Permalink Reply by Tera Schmeling on February 25, 2008 at 3:21pm

Good advice Chris!!! I've never heard of that!

Permalink Reply by Anni Caporuscio on February 25, 2008 at 6:37pm

Hi. I live on a rural island in Hawaii and have a little cafe. We have had an Open Mic night going for over two years. We do it every Thursday night and people absolutely come out in droves. When I lived in CA I used to beg to never work Open Mic or poetry nights, but here it's the coolest damn thing in town. I don't know how, but here's what we do:

I have a book guy for all my entertainment, just like was commented by Anthony Epp. He does all the promotion to the point that I don't know what's going on. If he needs me to show up and shake hands or make a special drink he let's me know, but I focus on morning volume and coffee, it's great. The bands do half of the promotion, and my guy does his usual thing. We give the band a percentage of the door, and my guy gets a percentage, and the shop gets some, too. It's not much. Free coffee when they play.

I have a host for Open Mic night, who is charismatic and a great musician. He keeps the schedule going, he gets to know the musicians, he keeps the crowd interested. He also helps at the counter when it gets busy.

It's been going on long enough that everybody knows it's happening, so, I'd say consistency works in our favor.

We make jokes about people buying stuff, and that seems to help. Everybody knows we're a small little shop and they want to support local business. Having baked goods seems to help as people in my town have the munchies at night :)

But, even if we don't sell a ton of stuff, we get cool points. People come through and see how fun it is and see what we're about and they come back in the morning and buy coffee. Because we support local arts, people will come back and spend money at other times. Every positive effort we make towards our community may not reap money at the time, but it comes back later in higher sales, higher transactions per day, great reputation, etc.

Ask me more questions if you like, it somehow is working for us.

Permalink Reply by Muddycup on February 27, 2008 at 6:30pm

we do 6 open mics at our locations every week and live music every weekend, its a tip jar situation, the musicians promote them selves and I have staff do the online calendar for each store. I basically provide the venue and the space they do the rest. Like someone said you can burn yourself out running around.
www.muddycup.com

Permalink Reply by David Smith on February 28, 2008 at 8:30am

Stumpjack Coffee is in a smallish city of around 12,000 with a city of 35,000 5 miles away. We do live music fairly regularly, usually once a weekend (Friday or Saturday night) and occasionally both nights. We get musicians both locally (there is a very nice talent pool locally) and from well outside the immediate area. The word-of-mouth in the musician's community has been great for us, as we've had a bunch of artists call or email us saying they heard about us from other musician friends.

We also make it very clear that we're a tightly budgeted coffee shop and that any pay is based upon the size of the crowd that attends the gig (although we do say that if it's a peanuts-sized crowd we will pay the artists at least $40 regardless...have to at least cover their gas if they're coming from out of town). Plus, they of course get whatever they want to drink (we serve coffee, wine and microbrews). And we put out a big clear glass tip jar that we seed ourselves with a few bills. Sometime during their performance, like if they take a break or it's an opportune time between songs we remind everyone who's here about the tip jar (I just grab everyone's attention and make the announcement)...as well as announcing about any CDs, T-shirt or other stuff the musicians are selling.

We don't do a $ cover charge but we do have a one drink minimum cover, which I am not at all hesitant about reinforcing with folks...we are a business, after all, and it's just polite to get something anyway if you're hanging out at a place. It also never hurts and isn't considered pushy to just go around from time to time and simply ask people who look like they're empty if there's anything you can get them.

Live music nights have saved us from time to time when the rest of the week has been slow. It's important to get the word out there about what you're doing as far as events like music gigs. We make sure to get our schedule to the local newspaper and local business association, along with following up with the paper with a press release for specific artists (with pictures and contact info in case they want to interview the artist). Also, posters are always a cheap, good idea...and announcing it on our blog and then shooting out an email each week to our email list. Use MySpace too and remind people all the time to check your myspace event calendar. Remind the musicians that it's also their responsibility to promote themselves and get the word out thru their own myspace and email lists. Some nights we pack the place and some nights it's, shall we say, very "intimate." But we always have fun and clap and shout and have a great time regardless of the size of the crowd. That's important for the artists, the people watching and listening and for us too...to have a good time.

There are other little things we do that don't take much time or money to promote the music nights. We try to make sure that we take a lot of pictures during the night, of the musicians and the audience (whether the audience is large or small), and then post those pics on the blog linked to our Flickr site. That way people get to see themselves in the photos and show their friends too what they did over the weekend. We often get nice comments from people who check out the pics, and if they weren't at that particular show they sometimes make a point to be at the next one, or at the return booking of a certain artist. The photos are fun and make for good PR and conversation...you know you're gonna show your friends your picture on the coffee shop's site from Saturday night's show.

Once in a while if the crowd is big we might add to the tip jar/CDs-for-sale announcement that we're going to do a quick drawing for something (a pound of coffee, a hat or Tshirt, whatever) and when people come up for their next drink to write their name on a slip of paper and we'll do a quick drawing between songs if the musicians are into it. Sometimes it's not a good vibe for that kind of thing...depends on the artist, whether or not they're more loose and fun-lovin' or more serious and focused...you have to judge it according to them I think, because they are the real focus for the night and you want them to be happy and appreciated. But if you deem it okay to interrupt the set with something like that (again, if the musician is cool with it and has fun with it) then that can be a fun thing too...and you know that whoever wins whatever it is they win is going to tell everyone what a great time they had at your shop.

Long post that could be even longer, but someone needs coffee now. Hope that offered some small thing of value to the discussion.

Permalink Reply by Tera Schmeling on February 28, 2008 at 9:17am

In my experience once you find one musician to play the rest seem to follow. Musicians have a tight network of friends and fellow musicians...have you checked with any of the local colleges or schools and talked to their music department? You could always place an add looking for musicians but doing the little things that don't incur a cost to you is best. Maybe you could even put up a sign in your cafe near the register that says looking for musicians to play I bet some of your regular customers would even get in contact with you...you may not even know how many musicians you already know. It seems like musicians are always wanting a place to play and a place to be heard...once they know you are willing they may come out of hiding.

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