By this point in time I must seem to be the guy who insists on flailing the long-since deceased steed, but I have always been one to say what I think. Evidently I don’t think about a lot of different things because I sat down at the computer with the intention of revisiting a subject I have expounded on several times in the past. But instead, I’ll just touch on it and move on. I got a letter from a reader last month that mentioned coverage of a certain product in another magazine and the e-mail ended by noting that the content seemed more like an ad than an article. I was at a trade show and had a marketing guy tell me that editorial and advertising are the same thing in his eyes. I mentioned some other scribes from corporate-owned publications to a friend in the manufacturing community who called them the Ben Dover Brothers. At the same time there are a few very big companies who you will not see advertising in FOH because they are pissed at me for our coverage of certain corporate events. Oh well, let ‘em be pissed. If they care about reaching you, the faithful FOH reader, they’ll be back. If they don’t care, then I trust you can figure out who walks the walk and take that into account the next time you buy gear. OK, rant over.
The live event audio world has changed a lot in the last few years, and those changes are — I believe — going to continue and even accelerate in the coming months. Think about it. If someone had told you a year ago that by the time you read this that the biggest threat to our day-to-day operations would come from Microsoft, Intel, Yahoo and Google, as they horn in on our already crowded wireless mic bandwidth, that truly pro digital consoles would be available in the 10 grand range and that the most rapidly adopted console in the touring industry would be produced by a company known for studio recording software, you would have thought them mad. I know I would have.
We are in a period of “consolidation,” which is a nice way to say that it is getting harder for smaller players to compete, and some folks are not going to make it through this period of adjustment. And I am referring to manufacturers, rental companies and other service providers. Where once upon a time a company could find a niche and grow enough to fill that niche and then maintain that for a long period of time, today’s business mantra is “grow or die.” Much of that is due to companies going public and shareholders demanding growth to fuel higher value for their investments. But even among many privately-held companies, that mindset has taken hold.
So how do we get through this “consolidation” period when the weak are being culled from the herd and your competitor will slit your throat to increase his market share? There are a few things I can think of, and I’m sure you can come up with others. We’ll start a thread on the FOH Online Forums if you want to share any of them.
Know your market: If you are thinking about hanging out a shingle and starting your own company in a town that already has three companies fighting over limited work then — unless you have something very different to offer — you might think about moving. Don’t try to operate like a rock ‘n’ roll touring company in a city that hosts mostly medium-sized corporate gigs or community events. You get the idea.
Stick to your guns on price: When you cut your price to the bone in order to get the gig, you hurt yourself and every other live audio provider in the area by decreasing the perceived value of your services. I used to work for a publishing company whose stated strategy during a business downturn was to gain market share, even if it meant cutting prices and losing money, and then raise prices when the business climate improved. Today, they are owned by a group of investment bankers and have only succeeded in driving down the perceived value of magazine advertising among many companies out there, and they did not really gain any market share. Lesson: it is easy to lower prices, but it’s damn hard to raise them.
Be decent: Don’t stab the other guy in the back for a buck. Don’t badmouth the competition. (Yeah, I know I kinda did just now, but I didn’t name names. Progress, not perfection…) Be the kind of person that people trust to do right by them. That applies if you are a green stagehand or the owner of a large service company. Be the guy people WANT to work with.
It is already a little crazy out there, and I really think it is going to get crazier for a little while. Let’s try to remember that we are all in this together.
Email Bill at bevans@fohonline.com.
