BLANK

Ms. Anonymous writes

Q
Comments:You are a very talented musician. Your music was inspiring. You are also blessed with a very wonderful gift.

You music brought joy into my heart. Blessings

A
Thank you Ms. Anonymous: Your the reason why this site was created.

True enough that were in the business but not everything is about money and its

a comfort to know that there are still a lot of people like you around

who know this and are not reserved about voicing your feelings in this regard.

Cheryl S. of Chicago,IL. writes:

Q
Comments: I like your new promotion much better than the one you introduced on your website last November 2008.

                  I'm an event planner and I think this one that your about to enact in April is a little more "manageable".

                  One thing though! Are you asking for 75% deposit on each of the two client market events or are you

                  asking for 75% deposit between both client market events all on one agreement deal? Also, what about

                  a margin for potential client market cancelation? If one of em cancels what do you have written into the

                  promotion that would address this potential concern?

A
Hi Cheryl! Glad to hear from you. We will be posting a FAQ page section on our website for such questions

regarding not only pertaining to this particular question but FAQ's on any promotion we may run in the future.

However, for now here's how were going to handle it. The 75% deposit will be on the $175.00 promotion charge on

each client market per event, which is about $131.25. What we do is e-mail you a proposal highlighting all of the

performance responsibilities of Boise Queen to service your event. If you accept the proposal we then draft an

agreement for $350.00 which will cover Boise Queen's performance fee at the promotion price and any travel/mileage

charges due (which would be included in the initial proposal), in case the event location is outside the travel parameter

boundaries designated in the promotion. You will be responsible for payment online of $ 131.25 for each event per

client market as it occurs with a balance due of $43.75 payable by company, certified check or money order. All

company issued checks must be issued by a bank within the State of IL. (Cook County) no personal checks can

be acceptable,especially on promotions. Balance due can be paid before or on the date of the first or last of the two

performances given for either of the two events pertaining to the client markets.

As for cancelations. We will have it written into both the proposal and the agreement that client market cancelation

will involve no change in the promotional pricing if you are able to provide another event either in the same location

or a different location within the optimum time period of 1-3 months of the promotion guidelines. If this is not

possible say (3-6 months out) then there is a 25% increase in the performance charge for a 2-hour performance.

This increase can be waived however; if a client elects to have a longer performance time and chooses a $25.00 per

half hour overtime charge for that particular event.

In actuality your getting like a 2 for 1 sale here! Your obtaining 2 separate performances for one price spread out over

a 1-3 month time frame. We're doing this in order to make the business road a little smoother for event planners to

want to work with us. We realize that the economy is not a very rosy picture right now. People are holding on to every

nickel and dime they can right about now. So whatever we can come up with thats going to help keep us in business

by way of helping you to help your customers will be a good thing all around. Thanks for your comment Cheryl!

Q. Allen J. of Dallas-Ft. Worth Tx. writes:

Hi "Piano Q"! I'm not sure if you'd post this on your feedback page or not...I certainly hope that you would because it may help some other musician out there that may have gone through a similiar situation that I have. Like you I'm a pianist and have been playing for years...I recently was turned down by two major store outlets that would've allowed me to perform on contract for the next six months full time at a real good salary. They both said my playing was "overly emphasized"..I asked them in a return reply letter as to..."What do they mean by overly emphasized"? They never responded or got back to me. What do you think?

A. Hello Allen and thanks for your feedback. We've decided to go ahead and post this because it may be benefit to someone out here. I visited your website and I also listened to the CD that you sent in. My conclusion is that your playing is absolutely fantastic, you sound great....and thats the problem! If you auditioned for the store the same as to what I heard on your website or on your CD...."No wonder they didn't hire you"! They don't want a creative musician who shows a love for what they do at a level that would detract customers attention too much away from the stores product or service that they were marketing. Allen, you have to realize why they would want to pay you to play. They are not in love with the way you play as to why they would hire you. All they need is to use the performance atmosphere to appease shoppers mood to want to be attracted to their products or services. Companies and businesses use entertainers for this purpose all the time. However,if a particular entertainer or performers presentation may be presented at a particular level they feel will cause a distraction for buyers away from a product or service; thats when marketers get worried. What happened to you is very reminiscent of what happened to me 10 years ago. Say you went in there and auditioned at lets say; 50% of your full performance capacity and they hired you. You got the job! At some point then on you'll always be inclined to; "open up" so to speak, on your playing ability. The very moment that you did...they'd be on your back, "so fast"..to turn it down! You would'nt have a moments peace at that piano. Doing what you love is not supposed to work that way. They probably did you a favor by not hiring you....because there's a compatibility gap there. I was told by a manager once" We don't want to create any stars in this place...so keep it down!"...and he wasn't referring to the volume level of the music. What he was saying was: "We don't want to spoil our patrons to a level of performance that we'd have to find and pay for...once your gone". Don't get discouraged Allen, this happens all the time to quality musicians like you. I had an old piano teacher once to tell me" Your alway's way ahead of the game by presenting yourself at your best , than selling out and short changing yourself at your worst"....Because your the best buyer of what your selling and if you don't buy it...how do you think somebody else will?

Q. Sharon H. Arlington VA. writes:

Comment: Thanks so very much for providing such a beautiful performance at the piano for our national awards dinner. I speak not only for myself but for all of the committee members that decided to select your performance. You are truly one of a kind! Also, I would like to compliment you on your "Spring into April" promotion. It saved our organization quite a bit in the planning of this event and it couldn't have come through for us at a better time. Thanks again we appreciate it . God bless;

Sharon

A. Thank you very much Sharon for sharing your appreciation. We also appreciate you writing in asking us to post your comment as well, that will certainly help our cause for our visitors in getting the word out about our promotion...Thanks

Jim C. of Naperville, IL. writes:

Q (comments):

Hi Boise; just wanted to offer and share some thought about your recent e-mail ad about your”Fall into October” promotion pricing for solo piano concerning event planners.

I think that it’s a great idea that you’ve come up with to have a separate (unpublished) pricing base primarily for third party affiliates and repeat customers.

I’m a musician myself and I do some limited booking myself when I’m not actively performing and what you’ve outlined in your e-mail ad is “right on target” in giving me some ideas to increase performance offers to come my way.

I like the idea of you making your regular prices known but as one musician to another …wouldn’t it go better for you if you’d just send your regular prices in the e-mail ad along with your promotion instead of posting them on your webpage?

I know why your doing it…so people would have an opportunity to check the credibility of your promotion against the regular price base already in place.

However, I know its gotta be generating some flack for you; maybe even costing you some potential gigs out there from third party concerns.

Personally; I find that the quality in the performance your presenting is right in line with your standard performance prices anyway. You shouldn’t have to “offer the shirt off your back” to get an offer to play an event. Let your performance stand on its own merit…your better off that way. If they like you…they like you! If they don’t …then they don’t! From what I’ve heard your stuff sounds a whole lot better in comparison with what I’ve been hearing in most local market circles for solo piano anyway.

Don’t get me wrong ! I’m not criticizing your promotion…,I think it has a lot of merit and can be a very valuable asset to getting offers. I’m just critiquing your motives for presenting it.

A Thanks Jim for your thoughts:

Jim you’ve presented a range of issues here that I’m not sure if we have space to address but I’ll do the best that I can. First of all; I want to thank you for caring enough to write in. Its good to know that even though some of our visitors might not always agree with everything they see or hear posted; at least they care enough to respond to it , pro or con and we are grateful for that.

Jim, let me begin with the issue of price posting. You are certainly not the first site visitor to raise criticism to this practice. Lets say for the moment that if I received an e-mail ad from you about a “special promotions” pricing being offered to event planners on your website; which included a standard price list attached. Lets say I then visited your webpage and found no mention or display of those very same prices I received from you in the e-mail. What do you think would be going through my head right about that moment? It’s a rip! A con job! I could be getting one set of standard prices as an e-mail attachment and Joe Schmoe someplace else could be getting a different set of standard prices.

That’s why the prices are posted for public view; to authenticate the promotions we offer people.

Will everybody agree with that? Absolutely not! Professional event planners and third party concerns understandably will take objection to these prices being displayed. Its for this reason that we are offering the promotion. Jim; I’m not just after getting performance offers here. I’m after getting repeat business. I’m after those very same event planners and third party’s coming back with offers in order to take advantage of the pricing discounts available to them each time they do.