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Posts Tagged ‘remedy’
Remedy iPhone Application
Remedy has finally made the big time. Nope, not Madison Square Garden, Royal Albert Hall, or the Grand Ole Opry; the Apple iTunes store! The official Remedy iPhone application is now available for free in iTunes and for an Apple fanatic like me, seeing the application in the app store was like gazing into the eyes of my children for the first time.
Sad, I know.
I’m still utterly shocked that I was able to secure the name ‘Remedy’ in the app store and that no one had previously snatched it up. Who knows, maybe someday Preparation H® will offer us $10,000 for the name and we can go buy Andy B. a second set of drums. A guy can dream.
So how’d we do it? With the help of 4 programmers, 3 graphic designers, 5 marketing gurus, 9 investors, and 1 Starbucks barista. Alright, alright, the honest answer is, without much difficulty or cost, and 1 Starbucks barista. Oh, that and a Scott McDaniel, who actually advised me on all of this stuff! Thanks Scott!
Here’s what you need if you want to do this for your band or business.
A Website
Sorry MySpace band page owners, that junk just won’t cut it. I won’t go into what a cyber train wreck MySpace is or my thoughts on it being an archaic wasteland for teeny-boppers and stalkers as I don’t want to appear judgmental. 
That said, if you are currently hosting a band page there and directing your users to that location so they can digest your content, run away as quickly as you can, and bring your band equipment and followers with you to your own hosted website.
Now I know that building a website is not the easiest thing in the world for most people to do and I certainly won’t provide a tutorial on how to build one here, particularly because it does require some time, effort, and skill. But buying a domain name, securing a hosting provider, and building a website is easier today than ever before. You can either pay someone to build one for you (likely about $300 – $500 for basic sites), or purchase a template on one of the many template websites available online. With a little knowledge, effort, and skill, you can typically modify a template and have it up for viewing within a few days.
The route I chose to go for construction of the Remedy site, thanks to the advice of my buddy Scott, is WordPress. WordPress is a free, open source web-authoring platform that is incredibly easy to install, use, and maintain. With thousands of developers contributing helpful plugins that make authoring a snap, it’s a no-brainer for folks looking to create a quick and easy website. For out-of-the-box implementation of a template, it requires no programming or .html skills and even the novice user can begin authoring content in minutes. The reason I chose it over other open source authoring tools, or .html, or flash, is because I wanted something that would be easy to maintain, help with search engine optimization, and allow our friends and fans to interact with the site.
RSS Feeds
After you have a site in place, you’ll need to make sure you develop RSS feeds so that users can consume your content without actually needing to be on your website. The iPhone app you develop will be heavily dependent on RSS feeds and the wonderful thing about using WordPress is that most templates already have them built in! Remedy has RSS feeds for latest news, gigs, video, images, and user comments, as well as RSS feeds from external social networks like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr. All of these RSS feeds are essential for feeding content directly from your website to your mobile device.
Build Your iPhone Application
You would think this would actually be the most difficult part of the process but in fact, it’s the easiest. Once you have your website and RSS feeds in place, building your iPhone application shouldn’t take you more than an hour or so. There are several websites available online that take the pain out of creating and submitting applications for mobile devices. My buddy Scott and I built our apps using AppMakr but there are others online that offer similar services. Upon arrival to the site, you can begin plugging in your RSS feeds and building your application, testing as you go along via their slick online ‘simulator.’ When the application is complete and you’re thoroughly satisfied with the end result, AppMakr submits the app to Apple for processing on your behalf and you sit back and wait for it to be published. The application cost $100 to construct and was live in the iTunes store within two weeks following my submission.
Please feel free to leave comments for others on the page and ask questions if you’re looking for a little guidance. I’m always happy to help those in need of a little advice as I’m extremely thankful for having received it myself.
Good luck!
Remedy Takes 1st at the Fred
Remedy had the pleasure of performing at the Frederick Brown Jr. Amphitheater in Peachtree City, GA as part of an ‘Open Mic Night’ contest held by venue. The band was selected from a pool of about 40 applicants to come and compete in a battle of the bands type format, with the winner being awarded the opportunity to return to the stage as the opening act for one of the headliners in the Fred’s summer concert series lineup.
Gates opened around 6:30 and family, friends, and fans of the 17 scheduled performers poured into the amphitheater on what turned out to be a very pleasant May evening. Despite a rainy forecast, the only thunder heard was from the stage, where guitars, drums and amps ripped through the night air and from the crowd, who roared in support of their favorite performers. Each band was given twelve minutes to play, while solo performers were allotted six minutes to make an impression on three judges who sat stage right observing every note and guitar lick throughout the mini sets. Most bands were able to squeeze in about three songs and benefited greatly from the Fred’s outstanding acoustics and professional sound engineers that were on hand to assist with technical requirements.
Remedy performed sixteenth on a list of seventeen total acts, performing to a crowd that had perhaps grown a bit restless in waiting for the contest to finish so that a winner could be announced. Whatever reservations we had about their remaining enthusiasm quickly melted away however, after our opening tune, Hard to Handle by the Black Crowes, set the tone for our three song set by getting the audience on their feet and singing along with the familiar lyrics of the tune. Our second offering, Pride and Joy by Stevie Ray Vaughn, showcased Tim’s incredible guitar skills and kept the venue buzzing as Jon led us into our third and last song of the set, Whipping Post by the Allman Brothers Band.
It was a bit hard to see the crowd while under the stage lights but we’re told we were given a standing ovation after the set and heard a tremendous amount of applause as we exited the stage. With only one act remaining we didn’t have very long to hear the result of evening’s contest.
The judges narrowed down the field from seventeen acts to only three, calling each of the finalists up on stage for the final announcement…
3rd Place – Paige McCauley
2nd Place – Krysta Nick and Gopher Broke
1st Place - Remedy
As second place was announced, a roar went up from the crowd and we quickly turned toward each other to celebrate the moment.
Having entered the competition with no expectation of being selected to perform, let alone win, it was quite a shock at the end of the evening walking out of the amphitheater as the group selected to perform at the summer concert series. We couldn’t have been more thrilled with the result and had an incredible time playing on the Fred’s stage under the lights and stars for a fantastic audience that made us feel welcome and appreciated.
Many thanks to the Fred, Nancy Price (the event organizer), and all of our friends and family who came out to support us. It was an incredible moment for us, made better only by the joy of being able to share it with all of you.
See you back at the Fred this summer when we open for the “World Class Rockers,” featuring an all-star line-up of members from Steppenwolf, Journey, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Santana, and Toto on July 10th, 2009!
Look Mom, I’m on TV!
During our last performance at The Boardroom, we noticed a couple of video cameras roaming around that didn’t belong to us. We typically take video at just about every one of our gigs which we use to review our performance but also for use on the website for promotional purposes. These cameras however, belonged to a local video production company that was hired by The Boardroom to produce a couple of television commercials for the newly reopened venue. Airing in several parts of Fayette County on various local cable access channels, we kept hearing reports from people commenting that they “saw Tim” or “caught a glimpse of the band” on a commercial for The Boardroom.
Tim gave Richard (The Boardroom Co-Owner) a call and asked him if the band actually made it into the advertisement for the bar and alas, it turns out we made the cut. Sandwiched between a delicious steak and some Texas Hold Em’ card players, the band briefly appears in the commercial(s) with Tim, the prettiest of the bunch with his fancy shirt, getting top billing throughout the two commercials.
Although appearing between reruns of Matlock instead of Lost or 24, we’re proud to be a part of the commercial and happy to promote The Boardroom. We’ve got a great relationship with Richard and Danny and we hope the ad brings them TONS of business.
Have a look at the two ads, back to back!