Full Transcript for Robert Bearce Magic Episode | Connecting Artists and Fans in the Digital Age

special Chad Bourquin (06:57) Hmm. Robert With bamoapp (07:14) song debut or whatever and that was where you wanted to debut you know direct them to on your landing platform you could do that if you wanted to have just a song that was going to come out just that night and you upload it that day and you say hey folks you know anyone that scanned that code by the end of the night you're going to hear ⁓ you're going to get a link to a song i didn't even play tonight it's brand new but it goes something like this and then they could just play it And then if they like it, you know, those people are going to get a free download because they're going to go check it out even further. So you can be as creative as you want. And I do a lot of talking, but the idea really is to empower the band or the entertainer to put everything right now, the QR code systems and the things that are in place for most musicians. I'm just tipping them. I'm not getting any further. And that band is not. Chad Bourquin (07:46) Mm-hmm. Robert With bamoapp (08:08) given me any opportunity to create a relationship with you because you didn't give me a contact. Chad Bourquin (08:14) Yeah, well, think this targets a lot of key things with the fan. mean, number one, you're giving a platform for artists to direct connect with the fans, which... which in building an independent business, that's the absolute key. know, I mean, if we rely on so many of them still rely on Facebook and we have no control over those algorithms, we don't know if they're seeing anything, you know, where you're actually just saying, hey, this is how we can connect, which is so important and even becoming more important. We'll probably talk about this too, to this even this new Gen Z, ⁓ what they're really after, which is authenticity and connection. Robert With bamoapp (08:55) Yeah, they're also laughter not wasting their time. Um, I've done a, I've done a series of, uh, uh, survey sampling about what makes people's, uh, key triggers of utilization. And a lot of that had to do with how did you take up my time? How did you not take up my time? And, know, you can tip somebody from across the arena with this app. You didn't even leave your chair and you know, Chad Bourquin (08:59) I don't know. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Robert With bamoapp (09:24) Maybe merch people are going to hate me after this, but not the band. So you see a three and a half mile merch line. I can scan that code, go online, buy that merch. I'm not going to wear it that night, but it's going to end up at my house and I'm not going to miss any of the show. ⁓ you know, so it's those kinds of little tidbits that I think, ⁓ people that are savvy with technology and people that are really trying to make something real. Chad Bourquin (09:39) Hmm. Robert With bamoapp (09:52) Right now, all we've done in the history of mankind is what we would call shotgun marketing. We're shooting to a broad space of the media empire, hoping that I get a tag on a percentage of people that start liking me. And the fact of the matter is it takes a lot of money, consistent advertising, prompting, ⁓ dialogue, digesting specific to the subjects and those contents of those individuals so that they will follow. Well, if I meet you at event space and you've already identified you like me and you've already opted in to like me, this folder in the attendee folder, it saves the date and their info. So you can go, okay, on that night I was at such and such club performing. So I know pretty darn damn well that these people were in that club on that night for that event. Chad Bourquin (10:26) Yeah. Robert With bamoapp (10:46) And when I'm back in town two months from now or three months from now, I'm not going to harass these people. That's the definition. I'm going to send them a lukewarm email just saying, I'm back in town. I really appreciate you supporting me as an artist. I can't do it without you. Would you do me a favor? Would you bring a friend? And in this link, there's a coupon for you to get $5 for you to bring a friend. It'll come off your ticket price when you show up. Chad Bourquin (10:57) Hmm. Yeah. Robert With bamoapp (11:12) whatever that relationship of creativity needs to be so another set of ears fall on your song. so, yeah, saving time, authenticity, direct marketing to people who we really want to have a relationship with. Because let's face it, as a band or as an entertainer, do you like bothering people that don't especially find your music their forte? No. Chad Bourquin (11:38) Yeah. Robert With bamoapp (11:38) In fact, you would wish that they don't hear it because you may never change their mind, but at least I don't have to bother them and I can spend that energy being directed towards someone that may like me. Chad Bourquin (11:50) Yeah. All right. Are you familiar with Rick Barker? Have you heard of him? Yeah. Rick was one of, or he was Taylor Swift's original manager. And, you know, he built quite a, I mean, he went as far as he could with her. Then now he does consulting and one of his big things he talks about that I completely subscribe to is the true fan concept. Robert With bamoapp (11:54) Rick Barker, I'm not sure. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, I know who you're talking about. Chad Bourquin (12:17) You know, it's a true definition, his definition of a true fan is anybody that spends a hundred dollars a year with you. So all you need is a thousand true fans and you're making a hundred thousand dollars a year. Your tool to me is a huge. It bridges this gap to get there because you're getting this direct connection with these true fans. mean, up to this point, his is just been email, you know, you know, everything else was to get them to your email list, right? Which you're still doing, right? Robert With bamoapp (12:46) We're still doing, you're still captivating it and you are deciding how you want to interact them. But you've also now given them the accessibility to

go ahead and like you and stream you. ⁓ The data beta test that we've done, ⁓ we've seen our artists receive almost a 34 % increase within a three day period from their event. Now, in streams. Chad Bourquin (12:57) Yeah. Increase in email setups? In streams, okay, gotcha. Wow. Robert With bamoapp (13:17) and streams of their music. ⁓ And you can maybe blame that on the fact that they saw you and now they're listening to you. That's a good thing. But having it to where you can directly connect them to the song they may have checked out at the show streamlines that process to get them listening to you faster. ⁓ And then the other thing too, most of the climax building up to somebody checking out a band is leading up Chad Bourquin (13:38) Mm-hmm. Robert With bamoapp (13:46) to the event. curious. If they've never heard you, they're checking you out. Or if they have heard you and they like you, they're sharing you with maybe the people they're coming to the show with. So usually that's when you see a spike in streaming and then it'll die off the next day. So having it stay relevant for a couple of days after that event really is a benefit to you because now you've got maybe these people thinking more about when they're to see you again. Chad Bourquin (14:13) Hmm. Robert With bamoapp (14:14) And then personally, anything going on longer than 24 hours, because now they're back at work and guess what they're doing at work? They're talking about what they did over the weekend and we hope that includes a conversation about senior band. Chad Bourquin (14:26) Yeah, for sure. Well, and you and I, when we talked before, you had some data on tip increase too, right? Robert With bamoapp (14:33) Yeah, so the tip and increase, you know, I don't know how to percentage it, you know, when a crowd of about 114 people, it was over $280 in digital tips. So when you look at that amount of tipping with a smaller crowd, you can see that you've left money on the table, so to speak, for most of your shows, because either people were embarrassed, they didn't have any money with them. Chad Bourquin (14:49) Yeah. Robert With bamoapp (15:02) They don't want to walk up and ask you, you take a card? I'll go ahead and square you. Well, great. I still have to walk up and get close enough to you to do it. And when we're talking about, you know, ⁓ generation ⁓ Z and such and people skills, and I'm not throwing rocks at these individuals or my millennial friends at all. But sometimes it's a little bit harboring to be able to have and carry on a conversation to even go up and entangle yourself with Chad Bourquin (15:05) Yeah. Yeah. Robert With bamoapp (15:32) trying to show your appreciation. Like, I wanna walk up and give this guy five bucks, but I need to, you know, I would rather just tip him from across the room and, you know, so be it. So, you know, we have those kinds of people that would really not like to come over or even shake your hand, but they wanna show you their love. And then people that are gonna tip, you know, they're already generous in that component. It just, if you are selling merch, ⁓ they're already spending. So you know, the prompt to of your conversation verbally or as our merch girl did for us was, scan the code. can like us, tip us, but you can also get our merch tonight. And people then get a little curious. ⁓ And that's all we're trying to do, create the curiosity, create the interest and create a true fan. Going back to having a thousand fans burn a hundred dollars on you a year. Chad Bourquin (16:01) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Robert With bamoapp (16:32) ⁓ When you look at your Facebook pages and you look at trying to get gig a lot of club owners measure ⁓ their interest in whether or not they're going to give you a shot based on how many people they think you're going to bring with them. And I think the other thing about this product that it does is that it allows us to pre-advertise an event space in advance with our data we've been collecting from other events. And it also allows us to proudly tell that event owner that won't book us, I've got 3000 people that I've met playing and performing my music that I'd like to invite to your venue. Give me an opportunity. Most musicians can't even say that because they don't have Chad Bourquin (17:18) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Robert With bamoapp (17:21) So, and booking agents, if every venue and every booking agent that has a relationship with a musician should want these people to harness this product because there hasn't been an opportunity for them to measure any sort of interaction directly with the crowd up until now. Yeah, everyone threw their hands up. All their merch was sold. know, tickets for the next show are going great. You know, when you run out of hits, Chad Bourquin (17:48) Yeah. Robert With bamoapp (17:52) and you're no longer popular, you still need the crowd that's loyal to you. Cause they're waiting for that other hit that you're going to come up with two or three years down the road or whatever. They're just waiting for it. You know? So I mean, it also allows you to keep a loyal fan loyal and not drop off by the wayside because you yourself maybe are not as active and or don't have as big of a presence as you once did three years ago or four years ago. I'm just using this as past presence, future conversation of what this could mean. to anyone that's trying to utilize music as a career or be an entertainer. If you had had this four years ago, what kind of clientele would you have? How many more people would have streamed your music? How many more people would you have met that maybe inspired you to create that song that eventually became the song that separated you from the pack? And that's the other thing too about Bammo app. We're in a sea of musicians. And if you're not using every device at your hands to try to create relationships. You're just kidding yourself thinking that your one hit song is gonna bring the

following. It just isn't like that. Chad Bourquin (19:00) Yeah. Yeah, so I'm sorry, go ahead. have more? Robert With bamoapp (19:03) anymore. I was just saying they didn't like that anymore because of technology. you look at every major recording artist before 1985 and you look at the demographics of their success factors and what made them success, it was all the things that everyone still thinks work to this day. Relentlessness, raw talent, and someone's gonna see me. Man, you gotta be a freak show. Chad Bourquin (19:09) Yeah. I'm ready. Yeah. Robert With bamoapp (19:30) And you gotta come up with the next word that no one's even heard and it's gotta rhyme and sound good and everyone's gotta tap their foot. That's a high list. Or you could just find a whole bunch of people that like what you're doing already and grow from Chad Bourquin (19:43) Yeah. Well, and so you've talked a lot about the original music too, but I mean, this makes a lot of sense for cover bands as well. Can you talk about that a little bit? Robert With bamoapp (19:56) ⁓ What I was saying is some event planners that do weddings and large scale music with weddings, they're getting ready to implement it into some of their programs. They're able to have a code up simply saying, know, tip this code. Proceeds go to Barb and Jim's vacation wedding. So they're going to utilize it another way, but it's also going to allow you to book that wedding for some of your wedding. Chad Bourquin (20:01) Mm-hmm. Hmm. Robert With bamoapp (20:22) So the band can get tipped, because they get tipped too during these events. So they're going to say, 50 % of all the tips electronically are going to Jim and Karen's wedding. Now, we're not getting rid of the old-fashioned cash bucket. If you want it, go ahead and leave it up there. But what I'm telling you is put this code on that bucket bold and loud and announce it all day long. Some of you people don't carry cash. We take digital currency. Chad Bourquin (20:27) Yep. Hmm. Robert With bamoapp (20:50) And that's really, you know, that conversation. The other application for this that's being discussed, believe it or not, is Toys for Tots. The Marines want to put this code on their boxes so you can see the recruiting campaigns. You can see the distribution of the toys and where they go. You can actually financially donate to Toys for Tots if you like. So there's a lot of future applications that I feel this is going to end up. finding its home different than what I originally applied it for, which was for musicians and artists. ⁓ But ⁓ it just is a catch-all, not replacing what you have. I think the coolest feature that we haven't really dove into is the Bammo Boomerang. Chad Bourquin (21:30) Yeah. Hmm, yeah, let's talk about that. Robert With bamoapp (21:38) So let's face it, we've all been to a concert where, you know, we knew the band we were going to before. Um, and you know, we already had been involved in seeking them out information wise, but for the working band, the working man band, the guy that's working four nights out of the week, involving the public all the time, trying to meet those people. You know, those relationships can be a little superficial because they only met you because, you know, they were eating food in the restaurant you were playing at, et cetera. But more importantly, those are still people that obviously probably made a decision to go to that restaurant because they knew there was music. And so the Bama Boomerang allows you before you actually go do your gig to decide if you want to send a email or if you want to send a link with a video. to whoever had scanned that code in the crowd that night. So you're going to leave the stage at 10. You're going to set this thing for 1030. So 30 minutes after you've walked off the stage, you're still cleaning up, your act's still done. They're walking out to their car and they're getting this tap on their phone thanking them and telling them that, man, I really appreciate you checking me out and coming to my show tonight. I'm here every Thursday. Really hope you come back and see me again. By the way, when I'm not here, I'm over at O'Quigley's Bar and Grill on 22nd Street. Chad Bourquin (23:09) Yeah. Robert With bamoapp (23:11) ⁓ so for me, mean, every time if I had a musician ever reach out to me after a show, thanking me for coming in comparison to all the other musicians that I went and saw that never thanked me, there's definitely going to be a standout of relationship there where I feel like these people took the time. My merchandise sales, my streaming and my following of them meant something to somebody out there that's out on planet Pluto. They don't personally know me, but they know, they know me enough to know that my fanism, my following, my tipping is an important relative link to their success as a musician and they sent me back to I Love You. Rock and roll man, rock and roll. Chad Bourquin (23:51) Yeah. I mean, Robert, this whole business, if done right, is about connection. If it's not about that, then we've got other things that we need to address with the artist to establish that that's what it's about. But once you realize that, as an artist, that this whole thing is about connecting with the fans, then this BAMO is a no-brainer to me. Robert With bamoapp (24:02) Yes. I agree, man. It's consumed me for a few years and ⁓ I couldn't have made it happen without a wonderful team. ⁓ Eugenio, Mitch and Jess, those are my people in the backdrop. I came to them with this idea and what got me excited is that they all kind of researched it and looked it around and said, no one's doing this. I said, well, let's try to make this happen. ⁓ I went to Nashville recently. Chad Bourquin (24:44) Hmm. Robert With bamoapp (24:50) A couple of studios out there ⁓ are sharing it with their fans. We've had ⁓ a couple dozen people sign up. This product's only been out since July of this year. I

do not want to tell you this is the final version because it's not. And I do not want to tell you that there may be some factors of patience you need to have with it because don't get click happy. Enter your information, hit enter, let it process, then go to the next page. ⁓ Chad Bourquin (25:01) Yeah. Yeah. Robert With bamoapp (25:18) I made it to where you could set it up in about a 20 minute period. And you know, just to walk you through it, it's a real simple, you register with an email. That email needs to be your holy grail. You need to have access to that email always. ⁓ And then from there you register, you're gonna hit a button that says advance links. And that's where you wanna have another window open up on the same desktop. Chad Bourquin (25:22) Mm-hmm. Robert With bamoapp (25:46) is you're going to copy and paste the correlating links that go to the icons. So your tip me is your pay, your little guitar that's following itself is your follow, your social media, merch is merch, so on and so forth. And then when you're done and you can select to pay this, it's 10 bucks a month if you go in for a year, it's $120 a year, or you can do it month to month for $15 a month. But after you get done with that, it allows you to print out your customized BAMO QR code. This is not a normal QR code. It has some QR code properties within the print, but it's got a lightning bolt B in the center of it. It's got an outline with a different color, so you can separate it from your other QR codes if you have some. Hopefully you'll see this replaces all of them. But more importantly, someone in the crowd knows that's a direct link, a direct lightning link to you. Chad Bourquin (26:37) Mm-hmm. Robert With bamoapp (26:42) supporting you, getting in front of all that you have to offer information-wise about your band. ⁓ So that's it in a nutshell. Really, I'm excited to see where it goes and excited to hear what I can do to improve upon it to make it even better than what I think it already is. Chad Bourquin (27:03) Yeah, for sure. mean, and you don't have to share these, but do you have ideas already of like next level stuff on this? Robert With bamoapp (27:11) Yeah, I want to be able to have a calendar feature added. Chad Bourquin (27:16) Hmm. Robert With bamoapp (27:17) ⁓ that will directly be able to sync with your Microsoft or your calendar on your phone. So then it would tell you all the time reminding you when I'm playing. Chad Bourquin (27:24) Yeah. Hmm, that's a great idea too. Robert With bamoapp (27:34) I'd like to see that. The other thing I'd like to see is that if I as a musician have a cause that's ⁓ important to me, or I have a story that I'm trying to bring light to, I'm thinking about adding another panel for that. We are already in the midst of trying to fabricate customizability features where you can change the colors. You can change the slides to represent what you want that to say instead of saying tip me, it might say, support me. So we're on changing the tiles. We're working on color options and font options. ⁓ But this is kind of like the ground level. I'm trying to get about a thousand people to utilize the product over the next six to seven months. ⁓ That opens up a gateway of a platform I can. Chad Bourquin (28:07) Yeah. Robert With bamoapp (28:28) expand to that'll do a lot more of these things. It'll actually allow you to eventually put your customers on a CRM campaign. Chad Bourquin (28:37) Mm. Robert With bamoapp (28:39) So it would tell them the important milestones in the band's career at random. Chad Bourquin (28:46) So you're talking about working with an existing CRM then? Like you would connect with the CM or you would be the CRM? Robert With bamoapp (28:55) There's a couple options. think utilizing a platform that we can populate into our app would be the best route and making it part of the subscription service as a whole. As a company, I think that would give us sustainability, knowing that your relationships are kind of involved with the BAMO app and us keeping a hello going with them. Chad Bourquin (29:20) Mm-hmm. Robert With bamoapp (29:21) Everything else that's currently existing comes from the standpoint of a true business looking model. You know what I mean? There's nothing whimsical or fun about it in regards to I'm an entertainer. It's all like, here's our meeting. You know, I'd like to change that up and make it a little bit more fun. Like, did you know on this day in 1976, I split my thumb in half trying to play 14 hours of the song. Chad Bourquin (29:31) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Right. Robert With bamoapp (29:46) You know, the relationship grows. Chad Bourquin (29:47) What was that song? What song was that, by the way? Okay. Of course. Had to be. Did ⁓ you participate in the Smoke in the Water Most Guitar Players event at it? Robert With bamoapp (29:54) Mug on the water. Way back in the 70s. Way back in the 70s. Chad Bourquin (30:12) Yeah, awesome. Robert, is there anything else we need to let people know about this? Robert With bamoapp (30:19) ⁓ Check me out. Go to my Facebook page. Give me a like share it with people. Like I said, I don't take a percentage of your tips I don't keep your data. I I made it inexpensive enough so a band of two or three could have easily afford it and then you know the other thing too, I just want to say this If you are really trying to make this a career even cover bands You know you want that next gig Chad Bourquin (30:35) Yeah. Robert With bamoapp (30:49) You know, you're doing this for a reason. You want that next gig. Original artist, you want that next gig. you know, fundamentally speaking, you need all these things in between while trying to create out original music until someone starts copying you. So it's a beneficial tool to everybody. But what I'm most excited about is that fans now are going to have an opportunity to get direct information. Chad Bourquin (31:04) Yeah. Robert With bamoapp (31:16) and really create relationships with the musicians that they're after. And instead of being bogged down with ⁓ search engines and trying to find things, they'll go straight to the horse's mouth and listen to him yodel and check out their next show and bambo app right in their pocket. And there they go. Chad Bourquin (31:34) Yeah, you know, like I said, it makes sense to me and you and I do not have any type of financial arrangement. You're not paying me to say this. And, uh, um, but, mean, I just truly believe what's that. Robert With bamoapp (31:41) no, I tried. I said I tried. You said no, you think it's worthy of the musicians and I dug that out of you. So ⁓ that, you know, it was the same experience I had with a couple people in Nashville. They were like, Robert, why would we don't need you to pay us? This is a no brainer for people because it's going to help them. And that's what my business is, is to help musicians. So they wanted to help just like you are. Chad has been awesome. I definitely want to get connected since you're local here and see you face to face. We've got a show coming up the 23rd of, well the 27th of December in Knuckleheads and then we got another show at the farm the 23rd of January. So if you don't want to see the band but you want to come out and see how Bama works, you can just come out, scan the code, it'll walk you through it. It'll be like a Bama demo. So anyway. Chad Bourquin (32:35) ⁓ That's a great idea. Live and perfect. Well, Robert, thanks. Robert With bamoapp (32:40) Just come out for the technology. Anyway, that's bammoapp.com. It's bammoapp.com and my name's Robert Beerson. Thanks for having me on chat. I really appreciate you. Chad Bourquin (32:53) Yeah, you bet. We'll have those links in the show notes as well. So if anybody wants to check them out, they can get to them easily. Thanks again, Robert. You've been listening to Gig Soap. You all have a great day.