Okay, music fans: reach the very vanguard of geekiness, and you can become an entirely new demographic — the Nerdster. Or so says direct marketing guru Lauren Bell for DMNews, who much to my surprise reviewed the most recent CDM + Etsy + Make “Handmade Music night in Brooklyn”:
Last night, on the not-so-anonymous urging of a PR company that represents Make magazine, I went to “Handmade Music” at Etsy Labs in downtown Brooklyn…
On handmade music night, super-nerds, artists, and the edgy, in-the-know, 20-something crowd converge on the Etsy labs, drawn by promises of newly-invented instruments, techno music, and free pizza…
Although it seemed a bit exclusive (the hipster-to-non ratio was rather high), I thought it was an interesting and entertaining way to spread brand awareness.
Make magazine targets nerds and hipsters..does that make them nerdsters?
Brand awareness — uh, sure! I won’t even touch “in-the-know”, “edgy”, and “hipster” (uh … yeah … that sure describes me, at least), but nerdster is a word I can get behind. Even if we’re probably not actually playing “techno” music. And Lauren, it’s not exclusive; do come back. (I’ll make sure CDM’s own, massive PR department follows up with her.)
In addition to direct marketing mag coverage, the most recent event attracted the attention of a site that largely does video podcasts about football fans. (Hey, you can solder a new MIDI controller during ad breaks.) Bre Pettis, the vodcasting superstar from Make, shows how he turned an electronics kit into a soundmaker, a quite-fun project:
Via realfans.tv — the guy there was really a nice dude, too; hope to see him back.
Next NYC event 9/27: Mark your calendars: we’re doing another Handmade Music event on September 27 in Brooklyn. If you’ve got a project, even a small one, we’d love to see it. Drop me a line.
And we really are working on a way of showing projects off virtually from around the world. If you’d like to chat about ideas for that, drop me a line. Otherwise, stay tuned.
Excited to see that there's another of these events coming up so soon. I was bummed about missing the last one (I was out of town) and figured that I might have to wait another year for it to come around again.
how many more controllers made from toilet roll holders do we need?
whats the point exactly? not that i realy care… sorry.
yay trolls! it means the event is now officially a happening.
@Matt: you need exactly 16 toilet roll holders. That gives you enough multi-timbral parts, anyway, plus 32-voice polyphony for each one.
people not making stuff are welcome at these events right?
People not making stuff are TOTALLY welcome. Really, this is about getting together to share the tools they use for music making. What was nice in the last one was getting to see Brian play his Monome and see his approach to the instrument — even if your instrument is, say, a (non-DIY) guitar or tabla or Wurlie. And, more than that, it's a chance for us to hang out outside virtualland.
Hey Peter. It's Bill from Realfans.tv. Thanks for your comments. 🙂
I have more clips from Handmade Music Night. I'm working on Eric Johnson's (pictured above) clip for today.
Cheers! 😀
[…] Hey, nerdsters! It’s CMJ Music Marathon time here in New York, which generally means lots of roadies, music biz people, crowds, and bands with guitars. Ewww. Guitars — with no software effects? No vocoding granulizer? No trio of laptops nearby? Not even so much as a keytar? What’s a computer music-loving nerdster to do? Happily, synths are back, and electro is making a strong showing this year. In fact, my problem is that all the bands I care about seem to be scheduled at exactly the same time, which I hear is a typical CMJ problem. But with fun music to look forward to, I’m in a terrific mood — so much so that I think it’s time to enjoy some nerdster-pride vids. […]
[…] for superstar controllerist musician Molder. I first met Moldover in 2007 or so in NYC at a Handmade Music event. At the time he was hacking apart other controllers to perform his music and I have been […]