The past 18 months or so, Bon Jovi has been hosting a radio channel Sirius FM, sharing their concert recordings which up until then were only available in bootleg format.

And earlier this year 2024, the band opened their digital museum experience,  Backstage with Bon Jovi, showcasing their legacy.

Because I remembered sending them an email years ago, suggesting exactly these two things, I finally decided to unlock my own archives, and have a peek.
Was I the one bringing them to this idea?

Turns out, Yes; I did send them a letter.
But it bounced in a weird and peculiar fashion…. I had never seen anything like it.
I don’t know enough about software to understand if that means it is excluded they read it.
But I assume it did.

There is no retry sending it, probably because I vividly remember thinking;

“Well I did my job of trying to tell them.
God, you figure it out because this is clearly not my task to do!” 

And God did.
Obviously.

But on this Wednesday in April, I just couldn’t resist sharing what I found in my Sent Emails box.
The letter that was never read by any human soul.
But maybe, someone upstairs, was listening.
Or chuckling.

Wednesday 28 October 2020
11:51 AM

title:
suggestions w regard to your business model (you’re leaving money on the table and making it hard)

message:

Hi Team JBJ! 

I m really excited for you guys* , but as a fan from Europe I really have some issues that you may want to address,
if you are considering tailoring the JBJ experience to a global audience.

And I also have a suggestion to a business model that you may not have thought of,
that is way less hassle and more sustainable than the one you have now.

First of all, customs fees are NASTY.
You may want to consider offering “International Gold Pack” or “International Membership” without physical products being sent through mail.
Or, alternatively, put up BIG SIGNS that you will be billed by customs, for VAT I think it is officially.
For anything over 20 euros but that’s including postage, so that’s easily “scored”.

Secondly, I received an email yesterday, that my copy of 2020 cd had shipped.
That’s 26 days after the promised date without any apology, or explanation why it had taken so long.
And after mailing customer service, and receiving a “No worries mate, we’ll consider you’re inquiry handled now. Unless you say it’s not handled, then fill out this form with a thousand blancs.” reply.

Sending physical products out globally is a pain in the ass;
But if you do it, you gotta come up with better customer service than standard replies to very valid inquiries why a cd which was supposed to ship on October 2nd, apparently didn’t.

And now the business model:
There are recordings of 30+ years of concerts, which the fans would love to have access to.
Many bootlegs have actually been remastered by fans already, and can be harvested straight from YouTube.
There are fans working on remastering recordings, who you could sign up as an employee,
who would fill your database with the FULL legacy of Bon Jovi, in absolute no time.

You could go for the obvious, and create an on-“site” (behind login) community around the audios,
But you could also offer/ unlock tours, and sell them one by one.
In that case you go to your dashboard and see the tours you purchased,
and of course also, winking at you with special offers, gottahave copywriting and an extra kiss if you decide NOW –
seeing the other tours available for purchase.
You could then for example use the Facebook page to let fans discuss them.
For example:
“We just unlocked the Asian leg of our 1995 CrossRoad tour! Were you there? 
Did you see? 
First 24 hours available for $10.” 

Us fans are so grateful for Bon Jovi still being there, there’s really no expressing our gratitude.
So with that being said, I do feel bad for being a bit critical for responding to your new memberships program.

But we’re all worried that the The Legacy, all those tapes from all those decades, will be lost or not properly looked after.
When NOW is the time to get them out and sign up those fans worldwide who are so familiar with your work,
and could help you out sorting it out and monetizing the s*** out of it –
in a heartbeat.

Curating and safeguarding the Bon Jovi legacy, is your work. It is your responsibility.
How do they call it in the bible?
Being a good steward of the work of the Lord.

And with everybody still alive and kicking, and systems and organizations in place,
I think it is time to unlock those vaults, and create The Legacy.

Warm regards,

Suzanne Beenackers
Nijmegen, Netherlands

* the letter was written as a reply to the (re-)launch of the JBJ experience, hence the reference to me being happy for them

 

 

That was it! 

Thank you for reading my Rock Star Writer blog!
Subscribe to the blog, to get them in your mailbox.
You can find the subscription button on this page, probably on the top right.

SUPPORT
☕️ Buy me a coffee
🥳 PayPalMe 
voor Nederland 🇳🇱 Tikkie van de week

 

my businesses since 2023:

Catacombe
become the Rock Star you were born to be

+ My new Dutch company

de Club
yoga voor generatie X

————-