Attracting people to our hobby

[FloridaClay]

How many times have you guys had visitors and they don't even notice your phonographs? But every once in a while you get that person that wants to know everything about them. It blows my mind that I have these 100 year old players and people don't ask questions.

It is always going to be that way, human nature being what it is. You can't infect everyone with the phonograph bug, but a few will catch it and that is what matters. And it is really rewarding when you see those eyes light up and the questions come.

Clay

[fran604g]

YouTube and Facebook are 2 very easy and very accessible venues that I use. You can control the audience that view your "posts" on Facebook to reach an ever larger, or smaller, group of people. Granted, Facebook can be dangerous if you don't pay attention to the details you show, but once you familiarize yourself with the privacy settings, it is quite easy to limit others' knowledge of your personal information. I never give my actual hometown location, for example. One can always set up a generic page, too, it's really quite easy.

Just my $0.02.

In the case of people that I consider my friends, my home is always open, and visitors are always drawn to the antiques we have, our home is a bit of a time machine, so it's easy to draw them in.

Fran

[zenith82]

How many times have you guys had visitors and they don't even notice your phonographs? But every once in a while you get that person that wants to know everything about them. It blows my mind that I have these 100 year old players and people don't ask questions.

It is always going to be that way, human nature being what it is. You can't infect everyone with the phonograph bug, but a few will catch it and that is what matters. And it is really rewarding when you see those eyes light up and the questions come.

Clay

My wife and I are fortunate enough to live in a historic district where most of the houses were built between 1910 and 1919 and have maintained their original features. So, naturally, most of our neighbors have an interest in antiques. In the summertime I'll open a few windows and start playing a phonograph. It's drawn more than a few people to our front door and was a great way to meet some of the neighbors we didn't know. I even managed to infect a few of them with the phonograph bug, though most said they wanted only one to "go with their house" since the houses are from the right era.

[mikejk]

I drive a school bus for a living, that's Kindergarten through Twelfth Grade. Any student that rides my bus knows what an antique phonograph is because I bring them on the bus all the time; portables, small internal horn table models, the small external horn Standard Talking Machine Co. Model "A", and a cylinder machine as well. They know them all. When we are waiting to board or unload, I play them for the kids. They are very eager to watch them operate. I am know as the fiddle playing phonograph guy. Mike

[FloridaClay]

I drive a school bus for a living, that's Kindergarten through Twelfth Grade. Any student that rides my bus knows what an antique phonograph is because I bring them on the bus all the time; portables, small internal horn table models, the small external horn Standard Talking Machine Co. Model "A", and a cylinder machine as well. They know them all. When we are waiting to board or unload, I play them for the kids. They are very eager to watch them operate. I am know as the fiddle playing phonograph guy. Mike

Cool

Clay

[pictureroll]

How does one see something on facebook like the person fran604G above posts?
Jerry F Bacon-Dallas,Tx

[Rastus10]

In terms of "older" music itself, being 36, I've found much more interest amongst those in their teens and twenties than 15-20 years ago.

However, this is mainly toe-dipping. For example, I swing dance in an area in which there are 5-6 clubs that have weekly dances. In the past four years, I've encountered only a handful of people who are interested in the music itself. Most are too concerned with the dance moves, and could care less about the music, musicians, or time period. The exception is a WWII dance, and even that is a very short-lived interest, and very token in nature.

In regard to budding social media, sites like Tumblr and Pinterest can certainly share the beauty of the machines and discs, and perhaps generate recognition of the recording artists. But, again, very surface. Whatever dis-ingenuousness leads a person's online persona to profess ardent interest in something of that nature, it rarely carries over to anything in person, in my experience. Too many people on those sites like to share "pretty pictures" of things that they probably can't afford, or only have as much interest as it takes them to share, re-blog, or whatever the terms are, and which consist of a few seconds before something else draws them away.

Pardon my taking a dim view of any optimism toward this endeavour, but of the dozens of dance partners who know that I love the music of the time period, and who know that I have an open-horn Victrola, only three have seen it, and two listened to any music from it. It sits in my home for my enjoyment, alone.

That said, it's great to hear that some are doing much in sharing our hobby.

[Le0]

the last time I talked phonograph with my aunt, she asked why the hell I bought another and when I was goint to sell it.
otherwise I show my collection to people coming to our house. most enjoy seeing my phonographs and they're always surprised to know that the sound doesn't come from the motor.

having a strong interest for something and actively collecting is not the cup of tea of most people, regardless of the subject. so even if you try die hard to get people in the hobby, they need to have the collectionite disease to start with or else it won't work.

my 5 cents (cuz we no longer have cents in Canada!)

[FloridaClay]

It's the old business of the glass being viewed as half empty or half full. Or in the case of mechanical music collectors perhaps being at best 5% full.

It is easy to focus on the 95% who will likely never become really engaged, get discouraged, and sit down and quite. But they are not the audience. If we do that, the 5% who would become engaged won't because they have not been exposed to the hobby and the hobby will die. It is the 5% to focus on. That is where the good results come from. Be pleasant to the rest, don't take it personally (it is NOT personal), and let them pass on their way.

Also keep in mind that you are planting seeds, which seldom produce an instant crop. I got started with music boxes. I first heard and was intrigued by a large music box a couple of decades before I ever took the time to learn about them and become a collector, but that eventually happened because that wonderful sound stayed in the back of my mind all those years. That kind of thing happens more often than you might imagine, even though you may not be around to see that seed you planted bear fruit.

Clay

[fran604g]

How does one see something on facebook like the person fran604G above posts?
Jerry F Bacon-Dallas,Tx

One first needs to create their own FB "page" then they extend invitations from their "home page" to other people (friend requests) that are on Facebook with "invitations". This is how you can expand your personal "group of friends". There are obvious security concerns when you do this because if you aren't particular with other peoples access to your information, well, you can imagine it wouldn't be difficult for people to know who you are, where you live, etc. Security is always important, but it's probably not much more concern than an internet message board (forum).

One needs to exercise prudence with ones personal information.

I only "invite" my family members and closest friends. This may not be the largest audience out there, but, you'd be surprised how large of a group you can be involved with in a short time. Many forums have their own Facebook pages now, too. Typically they aren't as well received or active as the forums themselves.

Facebook is more a medium for creating or expanding an existing personal social network. You contact friends, they contact other friends. I've long used it to stay in contact with my adult children and grandchildren.

You can upload pictures, create picture albums, create events, etc.

Fran