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From: The Troubadour <mike.agranoff@folkproject.org>
Sent: Friday, August 7, 2020 2:38 PM
To: 'Board FP' <fullboard@folkproject.org>
Subject: Update to my Troubadour Booking Report and apologies to Mark
PLEASE NOTE: My internet has been down since the storm on Tuesday. I am sporadically monitoring emails from the homes of friends. If you need to contact me for items of a time-sensitive nature, please call or text me at 201-650-6928
First, I need to clear up a misunderstanding, and would like to extend my apologies to Mark Schaffer for the wording on one point in my Troubadour Booking Report. I had written:
“They [the online concerts] will be on Saturday nights. I had hoped to run them on the Traditional Troubadour Fridays, but Mark was unwilling to shift the Friday Stayaway series of broadcasts to another day.”
That is easily interpreted as saying the decision not to move off Fridays for the Stayaway Concerts was Mark’s decision alone. And to some degree it was my own erroneous impression that this was the case. But in fact, Mark had told me it was a decision thoroughly discussed within the Stayaway committee, and arrived at by the Committee as a whole. Please change the wording on that paragraph to read:
“They will be on Saturday nights. I had hoped to run them on the Traditional Troubadour Fridays, but The Stayaway Committee did not want to shift the Friday Stayaway series of broadcasts to another day.”
And Mark, please accept my apology for the misleading original wording, and for my carelessness in not listening to you carefully.
Now, on to further developments
An inquiry about a possible booking at the Troubadour, presumably before a live audience, in March 2021 from a prominent artist led me to reexamine my Troubadour Online plans. I had to reply to that artist that I couldn’t make any commitments for March, as I did not know if we would be open for concerts before live audiences by March. But it occurred to me that if our Troubadour Online concerts were on Fridays, rather than on Saturdays, as is currently the plan, I could offer a firm booking, that could be presented to a live audience if that were possible, or online if not.
Extrapolating from that scenario, I realized that I could book a full schedule of Fridays for Troubadour Online out into the future, and transfer those shows to live audience whenever that became possible. That would allow us to hit the ground running with a full schedule of live concerts whenever that became permissible.
That seemed a desirable approach, but it meant the question of Friday versus Saturday for Troubadour Online was no longer just an academic question. Fridays would now be a definite advantage. I posed this possibility to Mark, and he will bring it up to the Stayaway Committee.
The success of this plan is not a sure thing. There are numerous possible impediments.
Would we be able to draw a large enough audience to make the online concerts financially viable
Would there be enough artists willing to make the trip to do a show from the Troubadour for me to fill a full schedule of online shows?
Will the artists be willing to agree to essentially two different potential conditions with different pay schemes?
When we do open up to live audiences, will be be able to draw enough people to the Troubadour? Some folks may still be reluctant to attend an event without social distancing? (We would only open up to live audiences at such time when social distancing was no longer deemed necessary. ie: wide availability of a vaccine.)
Still, this is the path I would like to attempt if the Board is in agreement. Everything is in flux at the moment, and nothing is sure. However, if the Board and the Stayaway Committee are willing to let me pursue this course, I’ll need to start very soon. I would look to start the weekly online/live audience program in November after two trial online shows in October.
Mike Agranoff
Program Chair
The Troubadour Acoustic Concert Series
Morristown, NJ. USA
www.Troubadour.FolkProject.org
From: Lois DeRitter <lderitter@gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, August 1, 2020 8:11 PM
To: bluesq5555 <bluesq55@gmail.com>
Cc: <Troubadour@folkproject.org> <Troubadour@folkproject.org>; FP Board <fullboard@folkproject.org>
Subject: Re: Troubadour Booking Report, August 2020
Sounds great! Big thanks to Mike and John, their likely crew, and to Bill Staines for his willingness to travel to us to try this.
Lois DeRitter
On Sat, Aug 1, 2020 at 2:33 PM bluesq5555 <bluesq55@gmail.com> wrote:
Bravo!
From: The Troubadour <mike.agranoff@folkproject.org>
Sent: Saturday, August 1, 2020 11:01 AM
To: 'FP Board' <fullboard@folkproject.org>
Subject: Troubadour Booking Report, August 2020
Troubadour Online
Well, the big news is that we are planning on initiating a Troubadour Online series of live webcasts starting in October. I just got the official Okey-Dokey from the Unitarian Fellowship, so I am going ahead with the plan. Here’s the basic outline.
It will feature live performances webcast from the Morristown Unitarian Fellowship.
They will be on Saturday nights. I had hoped to run them on the Traditional Troubadour Fridays, but Mark was unwilling to shift the Friday Stayaway series of broadcasts to another day. We will do two in October, and if all goes well, go weekly after that.
The format of the evening will be a single set of roughly one hour (No opening act) starting at 8:00PM, followed by a half hour Q&A session with the viewers, and then a final song from the performer.
After examining several platforms, I have settled on an outfit called Crowdcast to fill the role previously held by Concert Window. It best fits the volume of viewership I anticipate, and appears to be compatible with the existing equipment built into MUF’s sound board.
Monitory arrangements will identical to those of our regular live shows: a $10 ticket to view the show with tips to the performer encouraged to take the place of the Creel.
Currently lined up for the opening show on October 3 is Bill Staines. I’ve discussed the idea with him, and he is eager to do it. The plan is to do one or two test broadcasts in September to work out procedures and kinks, and then go out live in October.
Operation
The Unitarian Fellowship was very concerned about the safety of such an operation with regards to social distancing, as was I. We intend to run this with a bare minimum of staff: A sound person or two, a camera person, an Emcee, and the performer(s), all masked except the performer(s) while onstage. In a room the size of MUF’s Meeting Room, that appeared safe. We will sanitize the facility at the end of the evening. We will also sanitize the sound and video equipment. We may use our current volunteer pool to staff the show, but with such a small staff, that might not be necessary. I plan to be emcee for most shows, and other staff may choose to be regulars as well. So we might be able to operate with the same weekly staff with occasional substitutes as required.
Finances
There are a number of unknowns in the area of finances. The viewership of Stayaway has been very strong, but I don’t know how that will translate into practice with a ticket price for viewing. And I don’t know how pay-per-view would affect the Creel. The Folk Project will keep 100% of the first X tickets sold to cover rent and other expenses, and then a percentage of the take thereafter. The performer will get a fixed flat fee plus the balance of the ticket sales plus the Creel. John Lamb* has developed a spreadsheet that allows me to juggle all those factors, and calculate the performer’s fee and the Folk Project’s profit or loss as compared to the number of tickets sold. I will attach that spreadsheet in a separate email to current FP Board members. (This email goes out to Fullboard, which, in addition to current Board members, includes past Board members and others as well.) I chose input parameters that would have us break even at a little under 50 viewers, and make a profit of about $120 at 100 viewers. The performer would make $375 at 50 viewers (with a very low estimate of $3.50 / head in the Creel) and $863 at 100 viewers Profits for both performer and Project go up beyond that, with the performer getting the lion’s share. I may adjust the input parameters I set (ticket price, percentages we keep, Creel estimates, etc.) later after we have a few shows under our belts.
In addition to adjusting the input parameters there will undoubtedly be many unknown factors that will affect this program, not the least of which might be a resurgence of the virus and resulting shutdown of the MUF facility. Bill Staines was the only performer I contacted about a booking. I don’t know if there will be enough acts willing to travel and potentially expose themselves to the disease. Other issues, technical, personnel-oriented, and factors we’ve not anticipated may crop up. Maybe we won’t be able to attract enough viewers to make the program fiscally viable. (Although the success of the Stayaway program is encouraging.) We will try to stay loose and adjust our operations once we have some actual experience.
* John Lamb
I want to extend an enormous Thank You to John Lamb, who has gone above and beyond the scope of his Webmaster duties to help me develop this plan. In addition to creating that spreadsheet, he undertook a lot of work in comparing the various streaming platforms in order to finalize the decision. His technical expertise and eagerness to be of help were invaluable. As is he.
Mike Agranoff
Program Chair
The Troubadour Acoustic Concert Series
Morristown, NJ. USA
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