Ask HN: What are you working on?

Re:Ask HN: What are you working on? by Zak on Monday July 13, 2009 @12:56AM (#701117)

I'm quite familiar with club owners, and I'm well aware that they have no idea why lighting control matters[0] even if it's explained to them in painful detail. I'm honestly not sure how best to go about marketing such a product. I suspect I'll do better to market directly to people who will be using the product and make them handle selling it to club owners.

What was your product?

[0] I'm not sure if it actually does matter in the sense of making an event more popular, which matters to both profit and lifestyle oriented owners. It can make a huge difference with a live band, but a lot of times it's below the audience's conscious awareness.

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Re:Ask HN: What are you working on? by bmelton on Monday July 13, 2009 @04:14PM (#702380)

I may be speaking out of turn, since I have no special expertise with either club owners or club lighting, but you might try taking it to the channel to market. If you can find club lighting supply houses (which I am only guessing exist) -- and allow them to make hearty margins, they'll push your software for you as part of their new installs / sales.

Again though, I don't know the market or niche, so take this suggestion with LOTS of salt.

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Re:Ask HN: What are you working on? by Zak on Monday July 13, 2009 @07:59PM (#702781)

It's not a bad idea. At the consumerish end of the market, people often buy club lighting from Guitar Center[0], which sells a large selection of generally low-end to midrange DJ and club equipment. An aggressively-priced low-end version could sell very well there.

The higher end of the market is served by specialized lighting dealers. Professional lighting equipment is very expensive, such that prices are not usually listed. A lower-end professional console goes for around $10k (based on used prices I've found for an Avolites Pearl Tiger).

LightJockey, the market leader I mentioned in my original post costs about $1300 and sits somewhere between consumer and professional. It is not available at Guitar Center, so that's a potential means of displacing it in the market. All I need to do is make a superior product, and I'm sure I can do that.

[0] A US chain store that sells and services musical instruments and related equipment.

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Re:Ask HN: What are you working on? by bmelton on Tuesday July 14, 2009 @01:23PM (#704121)

I bought my first Les Paul at Guitar Center, so I'm familiar.

I think if you could get them to push for you, and maybe MusiciansFriend.com (a similarly sized competitor, a la New Egg vs. Tiger Direct), you'd be in decent shape, distributor-wise.

Either way, best of luck. Let us know how it goes.

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