The RAN
In my search for ways to improve Scred service I will connect with our target groups by meeting them and talking about what they do and how they deal with internal financing as a group. This is the first of a series of posts that will be out throughout the summer where I explore the pains and sorrows of book-keeping and accounting, or rather how to avoid them, and Scred’s high and low points that we can build on or fix.
My first guinea-pig is a Finnish indie rock band called The RAN. They shared with me some of their history and what solutions they currently use to track and share finances within their group.
The RAN
Two Turks, two Finns and a Russian – the RAN is a multinational band that was started back in 2007 as a ‘family business’. Can and Ali, the founders of the band, knew each other from family relations but on top of that they both liked making and playing music. They found two more band members online via Muusikoiden.net and were later joined by a guitar player.
The RAN describes the music genre they play as post-punk revival. ‘Music is big part of our lives: we practice quite a lot but our minds are busy with music everyday’ – says Can. The band borrowed their name from a Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet Ran who was expelled from the Ottoman Empire for his communist views. While neither communist nor in exile, Ali and Can still sympathized with the longing for home that inspired a lot of N.H.Ran’s work. That and the fact that The RAN sounds cool and can mean loads of different things is why guys chose this name for their band.
The finances
Small Indie bands in Helsinki do not earn shiploads but they still need to keep track of the money they make and spend as a band. The RAN used to have a manager who helped them with that but he quit due to the lack of time and guys had to start sorting out band’s finances by themselves.
Band members prefer to settle payments informally, quickly and as easily as possible. A pretty useful solution for book-keeping is Google docs, though it still takes a lot of manual input and additional work. The RAN agreed that Scred offers another solution that makes accounting easier and helps keep track of finances over time, though the user interface needs modifications (Scred team took notice and the work is in full swing to fix that).
Check out The RAN’s upcoming gig on June 22nd in Club YK (Pohjoinen Rautatiekatu 21) http://bit.ly/dtdsG8.
Listen to and comment on The RAN’s music here or find them on facebook.
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