Fun Stuff > BAND

Coffee Shops and Music

(1/16) > >>

Tokuma:
I am, along with my family, in the process of opening a coffee shop in Belleville Illinois. Being a fan of independent music, that is what we are going to be playing. I have two questions for the QC music community. First, if anyone is aware of the rules regarding playing this music.

Now the second question is a bit more music related. I already have a few playlists of music that I think fit the feel of a coffee shop, and I am looking for some more playlists/playlist ideas. For the playlists I am looking for more of a Sufjan/BSS/AiH along with some Explosins in the Sky/GY!BE/Enon feel. Just a wide variety of Musicans. Though generally a nice mellow feel but not to mellow.

3Z3VH:
Legally, you cannot play any copyrighted music, or radio station in your coffee shop without permission from the copyright holder, or radio station.

Realistically, unless you are a large chain, or use the music as part of your marketing, you will never become the target of any copyright infringement lawsuit.

Ideally, you would want to get in touch with your local arts scene to contact local bands directly.  They are more than willing to have you play their music in your shop, and having an open-mic, or even a scheduled show every friday night would not only get you more customers, but would give back to your local arts scene.

Tokuma:
That's pretty much what I figured. I am trying to get in touch with the big names in independent music at the moment. Mainly SubPop, Matador, Touch&Go, etc.

As for local bands. Having moved here from Athens Georgia, I have been very disappointed with what I have found. Most bands here seem to be mainstream De-Pop (read: Emo, and not the real kind), nothing too special. I expected a bit more considering that Jeff Tweedy is from here.

The building we are planning on building is really quite ideal for open-mic nights/coffee house events. So I will definitely be looking to find some decent local bands.

pilsner:
You know, one of the best indie spots in Manhattan is a little place called Cake Shop that has coffee and awesome cupcakes up front, a few shelves of indie and obscure LPs in back and a tiny venue downstairs.  I'm not suggesting you open a venue, but if you really want to push the music theme and you have the space, you may want to consider having a few shelves of music.  Highlighting the albums of small local bands would be an awesome way to tie in with any local bands that were playing or had their music playing at your place as 3Z3VH suggested.  I am basically telling you to open a carbon copy of all my favorite coffee shops :)

It's always difficult to find good local bands.  But once you find one, you often find several.  You might want to look for band myspace pages or look the next state over ("regional" local bands).

As for playlists, I think you will find the responses more helpful if you give a little more information regarding the type of music you want to play.  Are you leaning closer to Sufjan Stevens/Broken Social Scene/ Architecture in Helsinki vibe, or Slint/Maserati/Explosions in the Sky vibe, or Modest Mouse/ Franz Ferdinand/ Scissor Sistors, or Zappa/ Captain Beefheart, or Fugazi/ Q and Not U/ Kaiser Chiefs, or what?

3Z3VH:
Depending on your budget, you could also get a code-geek to make you a nice web-page that basically lists your inventory of songs, and when you click on a song, it puts it next in the playlist.... with this, you could set up a PC with only a touchscreen in front of your barista stand, so your customers basically get a free jukebox.  And with said interface, you could use scrolling LED signs, or even plasma screens in the shop to show people what is currently playing.

But that was just an idea I had a couple years ago and never felt the need to open my own shop to enact it.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page