SMI #007: Build the WeWork for Weekend Musicians
Jam Space as a Service (JSaaS)
Opportunity in a Tweet:
Casual musicians love to jam and hang with friends, but it’s a big investment of space and money to create the ideal setup. If you are not an aspiring professional, and just do it for kicks and social interaction, you don’t want to dedicate a space, lug gear around, or clean up after.
What This Is:
A monthly membership for a place to jam
A playground for adults with TVs, loud speakers, beers on tap
Fully equipped with mid-tier quality instruments (or bring your own)
A community atmosphere with common lounge areas to meet new jam partners
Accessible through mobile booking
Cleaning included
What This Isn’t:
A recording studio
Rentable by the hour
Meant for professionals
Thesis:
Not Everyone is Trying to Record the Next Abbey Road
There are 62 million amateur musicians in the US
Amateurs vastly outnumber the mere 41K professional musicians in the US
Takeaway: There are a lot of amateurs who like to jam - in aggregate, about 1.5x the population of California.
Lugging Around a Drum Set Sucks
No one wants to play roadie and drive instruments around in the family Tahoe
Ideally you could show up and use whatever gear is there, or BYOI (bring your own instrument) if it’s not a 300 pound cello
Takeaway: Give your back a break and use the Zildjian’s on site
Significant Others Hate When You “Have the Band Over”
Believe it or not, after the 37th attempt, your wife decided she was sick of listening to you guys trip and fall through “Livin’ on a Prayer”
Also, the Cool Ranch Dorritos Dan brought stained the family room carpet last time
Ideally you would just show up, jam, mess the place up (within reason and short of breaking guitars over each other’s heads), wash off the Kiss face paint, and go back to civilian life
Takeaway: The best jam pad is the one you don’t have to clean up after
A Place Between Work and Home
The average person has one or two favorite places they like to frequent outside of work and home
For some people it’s the gym, a favorite coffee shop, the hardware store, the local bowling alley, or the town dump (at least that’s where my father in law always disappears to)
This “third place” was a driving philosophy of Howard Schultz when growing Starbucks
Takeaway: Just because you’re a garage band don’t mean you gotta play in a garage
Back of the Napkin Market Sizing
Do you know a guy who knows a guy who should steal this idea and run with it? Punch that button and let it rip.Kinda Biased Competitive Landscape
How It Makes Money
Waves This Rides
Subscription Memberships for Group Experiences
People pay to join dart clubs, bowling leagues, professional networking groups, and online video game communities; this is no different
Excess Supply of Retail Space and Commercial Space
Amazon is buying up defunct JC Penny and Macys stores for pennies on the dollar
The confluence of online shopping and work from home are making industrial spaces cheaper to rent
Specialized Space as a Service
Aside from WeWork, there are niche coworking spaces popping up in major cities
The number of global coworking spaces, thought to be around 14,000 in 2017, is expected to reach 30,000 by 2022
Examples include: Alma, which offers shared space for therapists; Spacious, which offers shared spaces for restauranteurs; and Glitch City, which offers shared space for Game Developers
Future Expansion Areas
Skateparks as a Service (for yuppies who like to shred)
Art Studios as a Service (for leisure artists who don’t want to build a kiln at home)
Pet Washing Stations as a Service (for dog owners)
Why This Might Fail
High overhead, capital intensive business model
Commercial real estate in high population areas may not always be cheap
Outfitting them takes significant CAPEX
Guitars, amps, drum sets need to be maintained and serviced
The business is counter intuitively more successful when less people show up, as it can then sign up more people for memberships based on the ratio of average activity to building fixed capacity (similar to a gym)
Bands breaking up = churn
The business’ initial growth is predicated on people bringing people they know to jam with
The business’ long term viability is predicated on being a match maker between people who want to jam
A Strictly 80’s Joel Rebellion
Potentially Reliable Stuff I Read at 3 AM
Professional musician stats
Irrelevant Post Script No Reputable Publication Would Allow
Get Hyped
Get Loud
Get Wise
“You have to enjoy it like a boy, play it like a man.”
-Marvelous Marvin Hagler