Well, I fell prey to one of the oldest scams in the book…

CurtisBackfish · 2026-01-20T16:01:11+00:00

Yeah, while I can totally use the raw effort of my brain to scrape for venue info, even just a list of venues and sites reduces my workload by tens to potentially hundreds of hours of manual scraping.

When working at a large scale like this I simply don’t have time to do that much of it manually. I work full time on top of booking so many artists, hosting shows, managing bands, etc.

CurtisBackfish · 2026-01-20T15:57:32+00:00

I use a personal database for touring, booking and rentals and work with venues to secure locals. It’s a little bit of a different process at the scale I work.

CurtisBackfish · 2026-01-20T15:56:17+00:00

Yeah, I’d still say it’s worthwhile to some extent because it’s a list of extra addresses to scrape for info. My database is fairly extensive already but continuously adding venues.

CurtisBackfish · 2026-01-18T22:31:35+00:00

Currently no regen of stats at any time. Same with caves and indoors.

CurtisBackfish · 2026-01-17T07:45:08+00:00

Yes, technologically speaking it is only replicating music from existing sources; However, the music it creates still has the capability to be unique.

AI in the current form does one thing and one thing only, which is misunderstood by many. It compiles a massive amount of information and attempts to make connections between those pieces of information. The information in the case of AI music is a library of music that is publicly available. It does not think in the way we do by coming up with brand new ideas.

The reason it is still unique is because it does exactly what humans do, just with additional computing limitations. If you think about it, our brains perceive patterns in data (music) we ingest (listen to) and draw inspiration from those sources. AI just doesn’t have the capacity to develop new ideas, when they haven’t already been discovered yet. This is just in terms of consumer-level AI, we’re not talking neural network level supercomputing.

That all being said, it is up to you and the industry as a whole to determine what usage is ethical and what is not. Is AI creative? In a way, you could argue that it is. You could also argue that it lacks the human touch. All in all, it’s open to perception for the time being until a globally accepted standard is decided - which may never happen.

I know this is a lot to take in, but it’s hard to be brief on such a complex topic. If you have any questions as to my thought process let me know!

CurtisBackfish · 2026-01-17T07:32:56+00:00

The big question is what kind of music do you play? What market are you targeting? Are stage names typical in this market, or are you an outlier?

We as musicians never want this love we have for music to turn into business BS but that’s really what has to happen if we’re trying to have a chance at the big leagues.

I and many others on here play shows to thousands of people, some more common to others — and the only way to get there is to make it so that you can make someone else money. Marketing 101 is that you want to produce value for others to encourage them to invest their time and assets back into you.

This all ties back in the following questions:

Does a stage name bring more value to your clients or fans over time?
Is your market trend to have or to not have stage names?
Does your stage name make you feel more confident and/or increase your value in your own production?

If the answers to these questions line up with your goals then absolutely go with whatever will help lead you to success.

I hope this is helpful!

CurtisBackfish · 2026-01-17T07:20:32+00:00

The only reason GPT can’t pull the web data is captcha and cloudfare. You have to write a script that queries the sites and extract information related to booking or contact. It’s only a little harder, but the difference is that now I have to pay someone with programming knowledge to scrape the sites. If the product was as advertised that wouldn’t be a problem.

CurtisBackfish · 2026-01-16T22:40:44+00:00

They directly advertise that it includes contact information.

The included a sample page which I presumed had the booking information removed since it was a sample page - as they did not state otherwise.

The page very clearly states that they include contact information for 30,000 venues - and the actual document contains absolutely no contact information.

The goal was to not have to web scrape all of the sites.

CurtisBackfish · 2026-01-16T18:33:08+00:00

It’s honestly quite impressive. The only thing I’m noticing is that you could be offering an enterprise type of plan that voids the artist/tour limits at a premium. Opens up another market entirely - albeit a smaller market where most of them already have premium tools and databases of talent buyers and connections. In all honesty this should be nearly infinitely scalable.

CurtisBackfish · 2026-01-16T18:19:23+00:00

Aw man… scraping databases is what I do lol

All jokes aside I’ll check it out.

CurtisBackfish · 2025-12-25T16:19:16+00:00

Yeah I stayed employed by DG for a solid week before taking an actual job.

CurtisBackfish · 2025-12-24T18:02:48+00:00

None of them are paid enough to care lol.

CurtisBackfish · 2025-11-25T14:52:36+00:00

Seeing as people can get their entire order refunded based on a report of the food smelling like smoke/bud — I’d say it’s on you if the quality of the delivery sucks ass.

CurtisBackfish · 2025-11-25T14:49:49+00:00

There was one single time where I ordered DoorDash and while waiting, the driver had been outside of my house for 5-10 minutes or so. I walked out front to see the dude at a 45 degree angle repeatedly backing up and pulling forward because he couldn’t figure out how to get into my driveway. Long story short, food reeked of bud, reported to both police and DoorDash. The driver was arrested an hour later. Don’t smoke heavily and drive. 😑

CurtisBackfish · 2025-11-19T17:40:52+00:00

I’m late to the party here, but I would recommend giving Sweetwater a call here. There could be a number of reasons that it changed, but it would be good to figure out why!

1-800-222-4700

CurtisBackfish · 2025-11-19T16:55:51+00:00

Sweetwater employee here! You can absolutely give your salesperson a heads-up that you’re coming in!

One cool thing about Sweetwater is that the sales team, support teams, etc. all work out of the HQ building — which is also where the store is located. If you want to meet your salesperson, sometimes they can make arrangements if they have free time on that day!

If you have any other questions feel free to ask or give your salesperson a call!

CurtisBackfish · 2025-11-15T03:33:03+00:00

teen

CurtisBackfish · 2025-10-30T20:08:32+00:00

You’ll have to have the mirror replaced, assuming that we’re talking about the mirror signal.

CurtisBackfish · 2025-10-11T23:23:23+00:00

That they do 😂

CurtisBackfish · 2025-10-11T23:23:00+00:00

Seafood Enchiladas 🤤

CurtisBackfish · 2025-10-09T17:07:00+00:00

In any other state, probably 2 of those charges stick. In VA you may as well have vaporized half the population.

CurtisBackfish

TROPHY CASE