Interview with Garry Wheeler of BandDigs.com! MUST READ!

Interview with Garry Wheeler of BandDigs.com! MUST READ!

As readers of this blog might already know, I am always looking for best of the best of up and coming bands from around the world. Even though I tend to like the Indie/Alternative scene from the UK the most. I still like to listen to great new music from wherever it comes from. I want to be the "first" on my block to listen to a hot new band. I want to be able to sing along at a bands first show on US soil! Just recently I have been able to find out about bands from all over the world, that I normally wouldn't have found out about till much later. Asleep from Norway and El Goodo from Wales to name just two. But until the last few years it was very difficult to do. Unless you had a friend in the UK sending you Cd's or a record shop that got that type of music quickly. With the advent of downloading and Myspace...access to new music has never been easier. With a click of a button you are listening to and downloading a piece of music that you can easily burn to a CD or put on your Ipod.


The world of music has changed and is evolving on a daily basis. Personally, I think for the better. Now you can have instant access to the music you like anytime of day or night you want it. Plus, you can visit and talk to some of the new bands you like via the web. Something just 5-10 years ago was simply not possible.


A few weeks ago, I was introduced to what I think is going to be the next "big thing" in the music business and it's called BandDigs.com . I just recently spent some time with the creator, brainchild and CEO of BandDigs, Garry Wheeler. I really wanted to know what to expect from BandDigs.com over the coming months and get his thoughts and insight into the online music business.


Here is my interview:


Garry--I was recently turned on to your new site called Banddigs.com, before I ask you about that tell me about yourself and your involvement in the music industry?


"Over the last 5 years, I have been very involved in the music industry and the evolution of the online social communities. It started when my then 10 year old daughter Jillian wanted to get involved in music. She had been an actress in theater and done some film work, but her real desire was to cross over to music. Any parent can relate… gee dad, I really want to sing, can you help me? I started out by taking lessons in Pro-Tools at a local recording studio… that lead to me serving as the executive producer of her first two records, launching a record label with the owner of the studio, working with other bands, building a digital download store, working with distributors, other managers, venues, radio stations, etc. Eventually, I was able to get her a bigger deal with another indie label (which has since gone out of business), was very involved in her latest record and managed her touring for over a year. I worked with a new cast of producers, writers, studios, promoters, etc. in LA, NYC and Nashville through this deal which helped me realize that I needed to be in the music business full time. It really helped me discover my passion after 25+ years of working in the high tech sector in various IT management positions. I had the idea for BandDigs about a year before I decided to quit my job and devote my full attention to the site and the surrounding business model. It took a little over a year to bring the product to market. Now I am reaching out to all of contacts trying to spread the word."


What is Banddigs.com all about?


"BandDigs is a first of its kind online community that allows fans to interact with bands in video chat rooms… something like an online meet and greet site. You get to talk to the band face to face like you were backstage at a show. Our video chat space can handle around 20 people at once now and will handle 50 people or more in another few weeks and no special software is needed. It is PC and MAC compatible. All you need is a webcam and an account on BandDigs. In addition, the site allows bands to broadcast live video over the Internet like they are their own TV station. They can broadcast from just about anywhere at anytime and invite their fans to watch. They could do a show from a club or their rehearsal space and share it around the world. Some of the bands are taking their fans behind the scenes in some pretty cool ways… showing them their writing and recording process and even doing a reality TV style show. All the band needs is a webcam or DV camera, a computer and access to the Internet. The site is free to bands and to fans. We do offer some premium services, but all of the basics are free."


Why is your site different then Myspace for the Fan? Bands? Record Company?


"MySpace is great, but we take the bands and fans to another level of interaction. First, when you comment on MySpace, you never really know whether you are communicating with the band or with one of their interns. On BandDigs, fans actually meet the band face to face with a Webcam. Fans also get invited to watch live events and our polled for their feedback. They can earn points and prizes by helping promote their favorite artists. Some of the bands have asked us how we are different compared to YouTube as well. On BandDigs we allow the bands to upload pre-recorded videos and to link to their YouTube videos, but the primary difference is that we are a “live site”, like a live reality TV show (live video chats and live video broadcasts).


For bands, we believe BandDigs will help them build a more loyal fan base compared to these other sites. I know that whenever I have had a chance to meet a band and really get to know them personally that I am much more interested in following their career, getting to their shows and promoting them to other music fans. BandDigs helps the bands to create more content that they can sell or give away to their fan base. For example, bands can offer one on one video chats and then sell the fan a copy of their video chat as a download. We allow the bands to record all of their events (chats and broadcasts) and then help them package the events as downloads for computers, i-Pods and some cell phones. For a fan, this is a pretty cool keepsake and for the band it is another source of income. Lastly, like most sites, we are planning to do advertising, albeit in a more subdued manner than some of the other sites. When we do so, we plan to share as much as 25% of the ad revenue with the bands in our revenue sharing model. We also will allow the bands to pre-approve the sponsors so as not to conflict with other endorsement deals that they may have.


All record companies are looking for ways to sell more Cd's. That is pretty much all they care about. When a band connects with their fan base the way that BandDigs allows, I have got to believe that the fans will be more willing to spend money on a CD. If BandDigs helps the record company sell more Cd's, then they will be a big supporter of BandDigs. We hope to sell site subscriptions to the record labels so that they can run their own events online and generate additional buzz for their artists. They can use BandDigs to run their own showcases, auditions and other types of live online video events e.g. artist interviews. They can also use our site for general purpose web conferencing and training purposes."


We know how big of an impact the Arctic Monkeys have had on building a fan base on the Net, and how that turned out to be a huge amount of Cd's/downloads being sold across the world...they had the fasting selling debut CD in the UK ever and they had the #1 CD for the year. Here in the US they continued that success when there debut CD was the second fastest selling Indie debut of all time...what does that tell you about the way music is headed--and how can your site help the next Arctic Monkeys?


"To put where I come from on this in perspective, I haven’t listened to terrestrial radio for the last 4 or 5 years. I discover my favorite music and bands on the Internet and through magazines like Paste and CMJ Monthly who send CD samplers each month… I am a huge fan of Pandora and Rhapsody and listen to both on a daily basis. I look at what happened to Sandi Thom from the UK last year as a perfect example of what BandDigs can do for independent artists. Sandi and her band couldn't’t afford to tour so they started doing live shows from their basement over the Internet using a web cam. After about 30 nights of shows in a row, she had an audience of over 100,000 people from around the world watching her last broadcast. Sony watched one of the shows and offered her a recording contract. I’m not saying that this will happen routinely on BandDigs, but I am saying that our technology enables bands to connect to audience in an entirely new way. They can build a national or even an international following in a much more affordable manner than piling in a van and traversing the countryside."


Since anyone can put music on the web and don't need a record deal behind them...as long as they have a fan base and place to sell there music...what do you think is going to happen Cd's over the next 5 years? And how does the growing trend of music downloads fit into Banddigs overall plans over the next 5 years?


"I was an early adopter to the whole i-Pod thing… Being a technology geek, I had a Jukebox style MP3 player before most people had heard of them. I also built the first digital download store in New Hampshire for Granite Rocks Records before it was fashionable. I love digital, but I also love physically owning/collecting a CD. If I am into a band, I want the artwork, the liner notes, the lyrics, the whole nine yards. What I really want is an autographed copy of their CD. Hell, I still buy albums once and a while just because they are cool to own. I discovered the band Midlake about six months ago. I was so into their latest CD that I tracked down an autographed copy of the vinyl version. I buy a lot of used Cd's as a way to keep the cost down. Bottom line, there are a lot of people like me that want the CD and want to collect music for the experience of it all so I think Cd's are here to stay for a while longer. BandDigs will help the bands distribute their Cd's and their song downloads through our relationship with Superdups and DiscArk if they need our help. If they already have a distributor, the band can link their fans to their source. BandDigs will focus on video downloads only."


What do the Record company executives think of your site and vision? Are they for it or against it?


"We have a good mix of independent and signed artists on the site so far. Virgin Records has a few artists on the site and they are really into what we are doing. They even helped us with our pilot testing etc. and believe that we have something unique and impactful. We have artists from RCA, Nonesuch, Vagrant, Columbia and others too, but to be honest, we’ve been working with the artists directly or with their managers and not so much with the record labels. Time will tell how these other labels feel about the site. Part of me says that they’ll all jump on board, but I have been around the business long enough to know that some of them will have concerns. Issues like, the band’s image and accessibility, their other priorities and how they sound/look in live videos, might raise some eyebrows along the journey. Here is the deal though… if I am a real fan of the band, I want to see the good, bad and the ugly. I want to be brought into their world and be part of their evolution."


What bands are on the site now and what are your future plans with the site? Any big names you care to share?


"As I already mentioned, we have a good mix of independent and signed artists on the site. We’re signing up bands every day now and really expect the site to blow up over the next few months when we start promoting it to fans. In the short term, we are focused on getting more bands signed up, getting content on the site and helping the bands use the technology. The bands will all be given viral marketing tools to help spread the BandDigs message to their fan base in the next month or so.


We have many signed bands such as Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (RCA), Over It (Virgin) and Reggie and the Full Effect (Vagrant), B5 (Bad Boy Records), Jada (Motown) and more like them on the site. For independent artists, we have bands like Violet Nine, Raposo, Angry Hill, We are I, Jillian Wheeler (yeah, my daughter) and many more. We are doing the dance with several bigger name artists as of this interview. Our goal in bringing a few bigger names on board is to drive more traffic to the site that will in turn help the developing artists. I can’t disclose their names yet, but I would encourage everyone to visit BandDigs often and to watch for upcoming announcements."


I want to thank Garry for taking the time to talk to me about BandDigs.com. I really think this is the next step in the evolution of music on the net. A great idea at the right time and that's what its all about!

If you are in a band, or going to start a new band, go over to BandDigs.com and take a look around. Test the site out. Get involved. The more people know your music the better off you will be. Wouldn't you like to be the next "Arctic Monkeys" or "Koopa" who are an unsigned band with no proper CD, who as of this writing were in the top 40 in the UK by downloads alone! A first in the history of the music business. Who is going to be next?