The Son(ny) Always Shines On TV
Well, we met with Sonny yesterday. Now that I'm doing the train thing, Mar had to pick me up from work so we could go out to see him. We went to the Wendys that we usually meet at, and hung around in the car for a bit, since Bartek was going to be there too. I prepped Mar, and told him not to attack Sonny about the Nicky thing, and not to argue with him. If we want Sonny to come back into line, we've got to give him the opportunity to do so.
When we finally did go inside, it was pretty quiet to begin with. Bartek hadn't quite gotten there yet, and Sonny was fiddling about with some paperwork and whatnot, and talking a bit on the phone. When Sonny did start talking, first thing he did was start to freak out a bit, yelling about how it was "his" system and how he was tired of playing this cat and mouse game. Mar, to his credit, held back on the yelling. Bartek, however, was the guy that made the difference.
He suggested we take this over to a local pub, and so we did. It interrupted Sonny's yelling, and that helped a hell of a lot. Once we got there, he was in a much better mood, and we got to chatting about all of the neat things we're planning to do with this system, including the advertising. Sonny admitted that he could understand what we were trying to do with the hardware keys, which was cool, and he gave us two grand of the thirty four hundred that he owes us. Also, he explained to us why he's keeping the Chicago sites for himself. As it turns out, it's kind of a Good Ol' Boys network here when it comes to jukeboxes. All of the guys know each other, and try to keep from stepping on each others toes. So, that's fine.
We've set up a new deal, where now that Sonny is handling the adding of the music and videos to the boxes, we'll give him the reduced price of three hundred per machine. We were pretty much planning on doing that for him anyway so he could ramp up volume to benefit the advertising model, so it's not like he was browbeating us into submission or anything. Also, we'll let him order keys directly from Aladdin, and Aladdin will let us know how many keys he has ordered, so he doesn't have to chase us down to get the keys (which was his biggest gripe), and we'll still know how many boxes he owes us for. We gave him five keys yesterday at the new price, for the five extra machines they've got ready, and in the future he's probably going to give us a cut of the advertising revenue.
So, things with Sonny are pretty much patched up, although we're going to have to meet with the Aladdin people soon to get that "order it yourself" thing set up. Sonny gave us two grand, and got another fifteen hundred in keys, so his tab right now is twenty nine hundred, or fourteen hundred fifty a piece, of which he'll probably give us a bit more next week. Also, I think he's going to have Bartek pick up the remaining keys soon (we've still got twenty-five or so of them), which would be another seventy five hundred at the new price, thirty seven hundred and fifty a piece. Looks like the resurrection of a beautiful friendship. :-)
When we finally did go inside, it was pretty quiet to begin with. Bartek hadn't quite gotten there yet, and Sonny was fiddling about with some paperwork and whatnot, and talking a bit on the phone. When Sonny did start talking, first thing he did was start to freak out a bit, yelling about how it was "his" system and how he was tired of playing this cat and mouse game. Mar, to his credit, held back on the yelling. Bartek, however, was the guy that made the difference.
He suggested we take this over to a local pub, and so we did. It interrupted Sonny's yelling, and that helped a hell of a lot. Once we got there, he was in a much better mood, and we got to chatting about all of the neat things we're planning to do with this system, including the advertising. Sonny admitted that he could understand what we were trying to do with the hardware keys, which was cool, and he gave us two grand of the thirty four hundred that he owes us. Also, he explained to us why he's keeping the Chicago sites for himself. As it turns out, it's kind of a Good Ol' Boys network here when it comes to jukeboxes. All of the guys know each other, and try to keep from stepping on each others toes. So, that's fine.
We've set up a new deal, where now that Sonny is handling the adding of the music and videos to the boxes, we'll give him the reduced price of three hundred per machine. We were pretty much planning on doing that for him anyway so he could ramp up volume to benefit the advertising model, so it's not like he was browbeating us into submission or anything. Also, we'll let him order keys directly from Aladdin, and Aladdin will let us know how many keys he has ordered, so he doesn't have to chase us down to get the keys (which was his biggest gripe), and we'll still know how many boxes he owes us for. We gave him five keys yesterday at the new price, for the five extra machines they've got ready, and in the future he's probably going to give us a cut of the advertising revenue.
So, things with Sonny are pretty much patched up, although we're going to have to meet with the Aladdin people soon to get that "order it yourself" thing set up. Sonny gave us two grand, and got another fifteen hundred in keys, so his tab right now is twenty nine hundred, or fourteen hundred fifty a piece, of which he'll probably give us a bit more next week. Also, I think he's going to have Bartek pick up the remaining keys soon (we've still got twenty-five or so of them), which would be another seventy five hundred at the new price, thirty seven hundred and fifty a piece. Looks like the resurrection of a beautiful friendship. :-)