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Thread: How to stoke the competitive flames.... Your input is needed...

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    Noob JWright's Avatar
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    How to stoke the competitive flames.... Your input is needed...

    Two questions:

    What would you as a competitor like to see in a New Soundoff Event ?
    What would you as a spectator like to see in a New Soundoff Event ?

    As everyone is aware... our hobby has experienced a pretty sizable drop in interest and attendance since it's peak in the 1990's and early 2000's....

    What can WE do to get people interested again....?
    What can WE do to retain current competitors and draw new...?
    What can WE do to get people attending the shows...?

    OK, I guess that's more than just two questions.... but you get the idea...

    Let's brainstorm on this...

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    Re: How to stoke the competitive flames.... Your input is needed...

    The biggie is convincing folks that music reproduction is a pursuit worthy of their hard earned monies......lol. The love of music is still there, probably hasn't faded much as generations pass, it's just the love of superior presentation that has faded. The internet killed car audio by undercutting the brick and mortar, therefore limiting the exposure of quality audio to the masses. Combine that with the slim margins in quantity work requiring lower paid staff to make a bigger profit off of less work, and car audio shops are totally absent in my area.......In order for the comps to grow there must be a rise in popularity amongst young folks, having a system must become cool again, otherwise it'll just be the stagnant pursuit of a few freaks like us.......you'll see a rise in serious competitions only a generation or so after it becomes cool for youngins to have systems and they mature past the boom boom into quality sound desires.....then once again priorities will change and it'll die again.....the youth are a fickle group, and are swayed totally by what's popular at the time, after all, that's why we are all here, lol, systems were cool when we were coming up........

    As a person who has been to several and entered a few comps, the only way to improve it is to make it financially viable to the promoters and manufacturers to gain support and make more shows possible, unfortunately this is only attainable through attendance. If it didn't require so much travel, because I don't live in one of the hotbed areas, I would probably become a regular attendee.......but the 3, 6, and 8 hour trips are just not feasible for me to do enough times to obtain any substantial points like needed for a finals invite, so I quickly lost interest. I just go to the gtgs to associate with the friends I've made in the audio world, and to meet folks sharing my hobby. While I don't have easy access to many comps, my state's gtg scene is pretty popular. Maybe that's the answer, maybe the competition promoters should look into garnering manufacturer support to get involved with the folks responsible for the successful and well attended gtgs, maybe converting those folks into comp promoters themselves........after all the only people to financially profit in the long run is the car audio manufacturers, maybe a grass roots investment would have returns if the growth took off.......maybe not.....that's the gamble the bean counters can't get comfortable with.........and really, who can blame them, because business these days is all profit, right now, no time to grow a business, your viability is only a good as next quarters bottom line.......
    Last edited by claydo; 10-08-2015 at 10:21 AM.

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    Re: How to stoke the competitive flames.... Your input is needed...

    What if Soundoffs became true events....?

    Multiple activities in addition to the competition....

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    Re: How to stoke the competitive flames.... Your input is needed...

    Two questions:

    What would you as a competitor like to see in a New Soundoff Event ?

    -The events have become a closed-door, hide your secrets game. I'd like to see point awarded for allowing people to demo and look over cars. It would not only create a better environment for competitors, but it may draw spectators into competition.

    What would you as a spectator like to see in a New Soundoff Event ?

    -Displays setup by manufacturers and stores, that has dropped off considerably over the years. Maybe have an on-site installation going on so people can see what it takes, kinda like the Installer Challenge, but not as involved.

    As everyone is aware... our hobby has experienced a pretty sizable drop in interest and attendance since it's peak in the 1990's and early 2000's....

    What can WE do to get people interested again....?

    -Alot has effected the competition circuit. Integrated head units raise the cost of entry due to the need for a processor and knowledge on how to use one. The quality of new music recordings doesn't drive people towards ripping their car apart to install a multi-thousand dollar stereo just to find out their favorite band's recording is horrible. Also, fewer stereo shops are interested in performing quality work, too many hack artists out there.

    To get people interested again, we need to push the entire industry to become better and do quality work. We need to push for higher quality recordings and having albums released in high quality formats.

    What can WE do to retain current competitors and draw new...?

    I think for current competitors that drawing more competition and pushing them to get better will keep them coming. Competition stokes creativity. Going to a show and winning all the time doesn't make people strive for better, why improve when no one is there to compete against you or beat you?

    What can WE do to get people attending the shows...?

    If the event is larger and well advertised, more people will attend. So many of these events are tiny, with little to no advertising even on the soundoff organizations website. We need to get the organizers to put the info out there. It amazes me, in the age of the internet, that I can't find event info and when I do it is sketchy at best. Food, feed people....we all like to eat and if we can see some awesome cars and knock out a good meal...win! I often go to shows and end up leaving for food, bathrooms or a drink.

    OK, I guess that's more than just two questions.... but you get the idea...

    Let's brainstorm on this...
    "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."
    -Albert Einstein

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    Re: How to stoke the competitive flames.... Your input is needed...

    If you mean drawing peoples for another reason and slipping a car comp in on em, well, you'd draw in fans of the other pursuits, but I doubt you'd sway many by offering up quality demos. I'm afraid I've given too many demos met by slack jaws and amazement followed by a complete lack of interest to believe drawing in outsiders and convincing them with a listen would ever work........

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    Re: How to stoke the competitive flames.... Your input is needed...

    What I mean is... to draw people in, we need to have a variety of activities to make it FUN....

    Such as... Live Music... say after the show is complete.... Maybe a partner event with say SCCA....

    I'm just throwing ideas out there...
    Like I said... Brainstorming...

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    Re: How to stoke the competitive flames.... Your input is needed...

    Live music would definately draw fans of the band, or scca event, but to grow participation in the comps the interest in car audio must be fostered back into coolness, only done by creating a trend with the young folk, then like I said keeping it popular for long enough for a new generation of folks to get over the boom system phase and move to essque......this I feel is something out of the promoters hands and lies solely with the manufacturers.......to grow it needs a substantial investment in advertising and availability. An investment that would be slow to create returns.........so it'll never happen.


    But, I'm not very optimistic at heart........so maybe I can offer this, hows about a serious investment by the comp orgs to spread out of their "hotbed" areas combined with a serious effort at advertisement and visibility to the public. When I mention comps around non car audio peeps, the most common response is, they still have those???

    Much like glenn stated above, even the folks in the hobby have trouble aquiring solid information about events they are interested in.......let alone someone who doesent even know it exists.....
    Last edited by claydo; 10-08-2015 at 10:58 AM.

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    Re: How to stoke the competitive flames.... Your input is needed...

    Quote Originally Posted by Glenn View Post
    Two questions:

    What would you as a competitor like to see in a New Soundoff Event ?

    -The events have become a closed-door, hide your secrets game. I'd like to see point awarded for allowing people to demo and look over cars. It would not only create a better environment for competitors, but it may draw spectators into competition.
    I completely disagree with the "secrets" comment. That was true 10-15 years ago, but isn't so anymore.
    MASQ partner and judge
    MobileAudioSQ.com

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    Re: How to stoke the competitive flames.... Your input is needed...

    I hate to be a naysayer here because I've had these kinds of conversations with a few people before, even to the point of starting a new sq only organization. Having said that, this same question has been asked for over a decade. You can find old topics on long dead car audio forums about it. One friend who has been competing for quite a while once told me that the competitor counts are roughly the same as they have been for the last 10 years or so, give or take.

    You aren't going to change anything in the music industry, so might as well drop that topic.

    The orgs don't care too much about SQ because it is so small compared to SPL, and SPL is where the money is at. By the same token, you take iasca for example, and for a 2x event the sanctioning fee is $250 (last I checked), so you are already in the hole for a small show. To grow you tend to have to start with small shows to get people interested and regular competitors aren't much interested in traveling to a 1x show ($75 IIRC).

    On the meca side, you supposedly have to host spl if you have a 2x or 3x show, but meca charges per scoresheet. Some people don't want to do SPL, or have the equipment. You are also mandated to have trophies and that cost money. You can debate trophies, plaques, certificates, whatever, but that isn't the point. Bottom line is starting small isn't easy. Without shows, there is little to no interest. It's kind of a catch 22.

    Some people don't want to get into competition because they feel they won't be competitive, so no point right? It's difficult to debate that. you can say all kinds of things like competing will make you better, you learn more and on and on, but it is an uphill battle.
    MASQ partner and judge
    MobileAudioSQ.com

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    Re: How to stoke the competitive flames.... Your input is needed...

    ^ That.

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