COOP3RDRUMM3R & Dylan Taylor

Drum Roll Please…This week I am going to talk about two YouTube drummers, COOP3RDRUMM3R and Dylan Taylor. Months ago, I featured Cobus Potgieter and Luke Holland. Every time I am on YouTube I watch drum covers. These guys, when it comes to their videos, are hands down the best of the best in video quality, technique, and inventiveness.

Bad Rabbits

Drum Roll Please…This week I’ll be featuring one of my favorite bands, Bad Rabbits. I came across Bad Rabbits about 3 years ago. I was looking on the vans Warped Tour page and scrolling through the lineup. I started checking out bands I had never really of and when I heard Bad Rabbits boy was my mind blown away. At that moment, I knew that I had found a gem.

BLOG Post 2 for BPD

Drum Roll Please…last week I discussed by business plan and conducted some research about experts on writing business plans. This week I am going to discuss what I took away from that research and how I applied it to my business plan. The key things include: targeting your audience & continuing research.

Dr. Steve Gedeon & Angelo Meneguzzi

              Drum Roll Please…This week I will be talking about business plans. Yes you heard me correctly, business plans. The cool thing about business plans is the passion that lies behind the idea. I believe that it’s the passion followed by the numbers that sell an idea.  But, let’s look into what two experts have to say about business plans.

Risen Drums Getting Popular!

Drum Roll Please…this week I am going to talk about one of my favorite percussion companies, Risen Drums. Risen Drums has come a long way from the last time that I spoke with founder, Keith Anderson. About two years ago when I was in my Introduction to Management class at Full Sail University, I had to interview a manager for a presentation assignment. I chose Keith Anderson because of the passion that he has for his company and for percussion.

            Our conversation began with me saying how much I appreciated the brand, Risen Drums, and how more people should be aware of this company. I asked him about their marketing efforts and his response was that they relied on word of mouth for the most part. He didn’t want to force growth on the company because business was good. Therefore, no marketing efforts were really displayed by Risen Drums. However, there has been significant change.

            Steve Goold purchased a masterpiece from Risen Drums, the Glo Kit. It’s a white acrylic kit that changes colors due to the LED lighting system within the drum set. 

The kit is now on tour with Owl City because Steve was hired as their drummer for the tour. This is why Risen Drums has had to open up a second shop in Minnesota due to more orders. The kit has been on the Tonight Show as well! This is all new for Risen Drums. I wish I could ask Keith as to whether or not he ever saw this coming. Due to this masterpiece, traffic to their website and brand awareness has increased significantly.

The brand has become a lot more recognizable. Their social media accounts are more active and interactive. Their Instagram is always being updated with their unique designs. Risen Drum’sFacebook account pushes out a lot of status updates that interact with those that like the page and their YouTube account has some new videos. However before all of that involvement, something happened that hinted the company to interact more with the world and push their brand out to the masses and that something was Steve Goold. Aside from their social media accounts, their company blog has also been used to push out some amazing company news and updates. They have become more recognizable in the custom drums industry and therefor are easy to find through search engines.

Check out Risen Drums! I promise you are in for a treat!

            

Digital Marketing in the Percussion Industry

Drum Roll Please…This week I am going to talk about different percussion companies that are doing interesting things when it comes to digital marketing. So let’s get started. Recently the NAMM show was held in LA. This is one of the biggest music industry expos in the world where every music company brings their “A” game.

            Companies like Vic Firth and Vater Percussion use those that they sponsor to their advantage. You have several artists making YouTube videos to share their experiences at the show with the world. This is great because not only do the brands become more recognizable but also viewers get a chance to see certain artists that are associated with certain brands. For example, Vater Percussion sponsors Adventure Drums. His channel is dedicated to teaching drums in a fun quirky way. He has two different videos from NAMM with two different characters that he uses on his channel. 

Aside from that, artists sponsored by Vic Firth were at the booth talking with consumers and other industry professionals representing the company and sharing their own updates as well as the company’s updates. 

 NAMM is a place where the public can only become aware of what is going on through digital media. Whether it is Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, NAMM’s official site or other blogs and websites, digital media and marketing was the only way to let the public know about the latest in the music industry when it came to sharing the news about NAMM.

            Another example of digital marketing can be found in custom drum companies such as SJCCustom Drums. SJC built certain kits to display at NAMM for the world to see. The trick was that through social media and digital marketing they were able to sell those custom kits so quickly. People hopped on them right away because they knew that these kits weren’t just any SJC but they were special because they were specifically made to display at NAMM and show off their “A” game.

            It is safe to safe that these days digital marketing is the primary way to reach percussion consumers because it is the easiest way to reach so many of them at once. Those passionate about percussionist know where to find the latest news and let me tell you it is all through digital media! Thanks for reading!

The Drumstick Industry and the Law

Drum Roll Please...This post is centered on the drumstick industry and the law. After tenuous research, I have come to find that drumstick companies haven’t created any buzz whatsoever when it comes to legal issues. I have researched such legal issues as trademark infringement, product liability, or contract infringement. It’s pretty funny how companies like VicFirth, Regal Tip, Pro Mark, Zildjian and others have avoided legal issues through the power of protecting their brands and product line.

This month, I have been learning about Entertainment Law. The first week’s lecture was based around terminology, liabilities, and contracts. One of the topics discussed was product liability.  Companies usually protect themselves by putting warnings and disclaimers on their products.  I own a fresh pair of “?uestlove” Signature Series Vic Firth Sticks which are still within the packaging; however, it does not contain any warning or disclaimer.  I also have a pair of Regal Tip Brushes still with the packaging and have also found it does not contain any warning label or disclaimer on the packaging. This stirs my curiosity.

After having played drums for almost 5 years, I have encountered certain issues when playing with any pair of drumsticks.  These issues include the obvious breaking of the sticks, as well as blisters and calluses on my hands. The blisters have been caused by improperly holding the sticks.  However, I wonder can the company still be held liable by the percussionist if the drumsticks are not identified with a disclaimer reflecting, WARNING: This product may cause blisters, splinters, and any other wood related injuries. Beware of the sticks breaking while being used. I can also recognize liability when it comes to children using the product. Putting an age limit would help protect the company if a child were to hurt themselves using their product. I guess it goes to show that when it comes to these products such as drumsticks, mallets, brushes, hot rods etc. a warning is not necessary (I am currently laughing).

My research leads me to conclude that no one has poked their eye out with a drumstick yet, therefore, these companies have been safe from lawsuits. Looking forward into my future I definitely plan to legally protect myself a little bit better than these companies when it comes to liability. Thanks for reading and as always keep on drumming. 

(The click-through links provided are click through links to the warranties and disclaimers for  use of their websites for the companies listed above)

Ludwig's Vistalite History

Drum Roll Please…. This week I want to talk about acrylic drum sets. I have always been obsessed with the look of an acrylic kit. However, I never actually researched how acrylic drum sets came to be. So let me tell you a story about Ludwig.

Risen Drums

Drum Roll Please…This week I want to feature a company that truly motivates me to play percussion. I stumbled upon this company about 3 years ago when I was just searching on Google for custom drums. There are many companies that have saturated the custom drum market, as well as many go-to companies because of the awesome branding and marketing they have done. However, this one company caught my eye, Risen Drums.

Self-Taught Success Feat. Cobus Potgieter & Luke Holland

Drum Roll Please...What’s the difference between teaching yourself how to do something and having someone else teach you? Well, to me there is a significant difference. You see I am a self-taught drummer and I am glad I have taught myself how to play. The reason is because I believe learning on your own is what drives passion. Some people need to teach themselves how to do certain things because when it comes to that one thing they don’t want someone holding them accountable for it. They want to hold themselves accountable.  I fell in love with drums and have been further developing my skills slowly. It all comes with time! However, I have a couple of people I look up to as a reference of what I want to be able to do one day! Something that my mom always says is “no matter how old you are you will never stop learning”.  With that said, I am going to introduce to you two drummers I follow on a constant basis.

Cobus Potgieter

            This is a self-taught drummer all the way from South Africa. He influences me due to his outlook on learning percussion. He always wants to learn something new about percussion. He has a hunger for just wanting to dig deeper into something he loves. Aside from his hunger, you can always see the passion he has to play drums in every one of his videos. He is just so thrilled sitting on that throne! I know Cobus would directly agree with my mom’s quote because he is always learning something new everyday from either other percussionists or himself. It is that desire to learn more that has brought him so much success, such as his own instructional DVD which is all about learning how to play drums by ear and learning all of his techniques! He has his own documentary and has raised tons of money on Kickstarter from all of his supporters in order to record his own album with other artists around the world! This guy leaves me speechless with his passion and drive!

Luke Holland

            What I love about Luke Holland is his technicality! This guy started teaching himself how to play drums at age 10 and has become a monster behind the drum set. What this guy has to offer is so much technique and complex fills that leave your mind blown! At the age of 18, Luke already accrued over 10 million views on his YouTube account. This guy’s success through YouTube opened the door to his professional percussion career.  In 2010, Luke was asked personally by Adam Grey of Texas in July to fill in for him at on of their shows. He is now touring the globe with The Word Alive and has many more opportunities ahead of him! Luke Holland shows me that dedication and love for something can drive you to wherever you want to go! Luke and Cobus are the same in that area. They both wanted something more from drums. That more was sharing their talent with others.

            These two percussionists are amazing at what they do! Their hearts for music and drumming are in the right place. They continue to inspire many percussionists through constant interaction on social media. They are a clear example of how far passion can take you. They display, through their skills, how so much love for something can take you wherever you want to go! 

Brad Davis & Adventure Drums

         Drum Roll Please…this week I bring to you Brad Davis and his company, Adventure Drums. First off, I would like to say that Brad is one interesting character! It’s the fact that he is silly, creative, loud, and awkward that attracts me to his videos and company. Brad’s 20 years as a musician has given him enough background to be able to communicate to several audiences in a fun, new, and quirky way.

The Percussion Arts Society

            Drum Roll Please…This week’s post is all about PAS, the Percussive Arts Society.  As percussionists we have to be aware of certain organizations that exist to teach us about an industry we are so passionate about. PAS is an organization with over 7,000 members and 50 chapters located across the United States with another 28 international chapters. Our industry is filled with passionate drummers.  We just have to network with them; but, first let’s learn a little about PAS.

Mark Applebaum Gone Mad!

Drum Roll Please...allow me to introduce the “Mad Scientist of Music” Mark Applebaum. Mark Applebaum breaks the rules when it comes to music. It is his questions and boredom that drives him to surpass the boundaries that people such as Beethoven and Bach placed before him. That is the area where I can personally relate to Mark, as I want to become the “Mad Scientist of Drumsticks”. I want to be able to break the boundaries of drumsticks like Ahead did with their carbon fiber drumsticks or like Vic Firth did with different tip designs. I have many questions, all which still have yet to be answered as my research continually progresses. But what surprised me most about Mark is his boredom with music. How can that be?