CONCEPT:

Pirate Nights is an international community focused on the art of the Mash-up, Bootleg and White Label Remix, all generally referred to as “Bastard Pop”.

Our community will include:

- Club nights and special events focused on mash-ups.

- On-line message boards focused on music trading and discussions around the Mash-up genre.

- Music Streaming. (formatted to be attractive to radio broadcasters as a packaged show)

- Web Hosting services. (File hosting, site and email hosting)

Event Format:

- Initially we’d like to do a monthly event on a Friday or Saturday night.

- We would hopefully move to a weekly format in the summer based on attendance.

- Our resident DJ - CAPT. HOOK - will spin digital files on two turntables using Final Scratch.

- Guest DJ’s will also be brought in from both local and international destinations.

- Traders Room with a WIFI network will be provided for downloading the music we’re playing.

- Each party would have a different “focus” (80’s / disco / hip hop / ska / Madonna / )

- The Pirate theme would be used in décor and costumes (free cover if come dressed as a pirate)

- We would prefer to make this a low cover night to encourage attendance and growth.

- We would need some club support (liquor sponsored?) to help cover basic expenses.

Target Market Appeal:

There is no single genre to Mash-up’s… In fact that’s the appeal. Mash-up’s cross over many different genres and attract a wide and diverse fan base. Generally we are looking to attract the young twenty something crowd, although we also believe we’ll attract an older crowd as well, the ones jaded to the “usual” club scene and looking for something new, fun and different.

Marketing Plan:

- Web Promotion will be the main thrust of our marketing efforts.

- Advertising on Clubvibes and other targeted sites to raise awareness.

- Email marketing through known list will be used.

- A Free CD will be made to promote the night and the genre. Given out to “early birds”.

- The website itself will generate membership and therefore client awareness.

- Flyers will also be printed and distributed at local retail stores and other “usual points”

- Newspaper and other targeted print advertising will also be used to promote awareness

- International DJ’s will be brought in as frequently as possible.

- Sponsorship will also be sought from both traditional and non traditional sources.

Who Is Behind Pirate Nights:

Pirate Nights is the creation of Riel Roussopoulos. Riel has a long involvement in Vancouver’s underground music scene. Starting with rock and roll warehouse parties with DOA and the Hard Rock Minners in the late 80’s, Riel has hosted events ranging from 15,000 people all the way down to small weekly afterhours parties for 80 to 150 people. He created and ran undernet.*, a credit card ticketing and membership system operational throughout the 90’s and widely used by the Vancouver rave scene. As a Creative Producer Riel has gone through a growth cycle that has taken him from film and video projections and house DJ’ing through to full digital production of multimedia projects including visual, audio, software and hardware integration.