For most of us, the only way to get to a show is to drive there. Even in my hometown of Boston, which has many fantastic small venues easily accessed by public transportation, the larger acts tend to go to car-only spots like the TweeterComcast Center some 20 miles south of town. Traffic into and out of the shows is a nightmare, and if, like me, you don't have a car, you have to bum a ride off someone. And never mind getting to shows at other places, like the Cape Cod Melody Tent or the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom.
Enter the internet. A slew of rideshare services have popped up to help riders like me find empty seats in cars going the same general direction--Rothbury listed 10 services on the festival website. But the problem is that until recently, none of them has focused on the music and events markets. Instead, most of them have been going after the commuter market or the casual rider group. But with so many options to choose from, no one service has gained a critical mass.
Pickuppal.com set out to change that earlier this year. After an initial success as the official carpooling site of Coachella, other events and touring acts quickly gravitated to the site. Pickuppal.com is now the official carpooling partner of the Dave Matthews Band, John Mayer, and All Points West. The site offers a turnkey, branded carpooling option to any festival or musician that wants to offer this kind of a service. I had a chat with founder Eric DeWhirst recently to see how things are going.
Jason Turgeon: You've had a long and varied career in web startups and the environment, but this seems like a bit of a new direction for you. What prompted you to get so interested in car-sharing?
Eric DeWhirst: I worked on doing the carbon accounting system for Natural Resources Canada. I got really involved in talking with all the scientists about planting more trees. What they were saying was what we need to do is focus on all this driving. My partner John called me up and said why don't we do this in a way that makes sense with the internet.
JT: There is suddenly a lot of competition in the car-sharing space online. Going after the music market makes a lot of sense, since it's one of the most common situations where people will be looking for a ride. How did you get into this segment of the market? Are any of your competitors actively targeting this same space?
EDW: Music is definitely one of our target verticals. Whenever people come in and out of a place, for casual ridesharing, we're focusing on it. To get two people who don't know each other to ride together, there has to be some kind of affinity, and if I know that you like the Black Crowes, too, you must be a cool dude. It's a big part of the push for tours and venues to geet people to rideshare. We think we can have a big impact here. I haven't seen any competitors cropping up with the zest that we have. We have a dedicated sales team that is contacting all the festivals and we're going after it pretty hard.
JT: You recently made your service 100% free for users. Most other car-sharing sites collect gas money for the drivers and take a cut. What's your new business model now that you don't have a revenue stream?
EDW: We're going to introduce advertising on the site in 2009. We're looking at partnerships with green advertisers and we think that that is our client base. We don't want a bunch of ringtone and punch the monkey advertisers all over the place. We dropped [the fee] because it's a barrier to entry. What we want people to do is to rideshare together. If we really do a great job and a lot of people do it, we're going to make a difference. Looking at more social networking stuff, linking them off to their facebook profile, then we can showcase that these are real people and you don't have to be scared of them. One thing that is not on the table is selling out our email lists. If we contact you it's because someone is looking to ride with you or once or twice a year we have some big announcement about the site.
JT: You've been working with Reverb, a great organization that's been spending a lot of time trying to figure out how to cut down on fan travel to venues. How did you get involved with them? Are you working with them on any tours besides John Mayer and DMB?
EDW: It was a total cold call. They had talked with other people as well, but I talked with Elliot May and just laid it on the line. As far as other bands, yes [there will be some new partnerships], but I'm not allowed to disclose [those] just yet. What we're seeing is that people have talked about it, but said "OK, how are we going to do that?" To take the next step is kind of new territory for some of these groups. We're [also] talking with [Major League Baseball].
JT: What's been the biggest challenge to you in trying to get music fans to carpool?
EDW: There's a lot of people showing the intent and getting into it, but it's still a new thing. People are comfortable riding with other people they know, but they're getting used to riding with strangers. But there is an overwhelming intent. We have thousands of people registering and as they have positive experiences it's like a snowball. For some people it's because the band is telling them to do it, for some it's because they're younger and don't have the dough to drive out there.
JT: How many of these events have you done so far? Which have been the most successful?
EDW: Since Coachella, I would say that we've probably done 15 events off the top of my head. The most successful was Dave Mathews, then the Vans Warped Tour.
JT: How do you measure success? Can you share any numbers with me?
EDW: We measure people and miles saved. The stats [for Dave Mathews Band] as of [July 16] are 1395 registered fans [with a ] total distance of ride requests of 63,817 kilometers.
JT: Rothbury decided against using pickuppal because of perceived liability issues, and I've seen other comments on various sites expressing concern over the safety aspect of this service, especially for women traveling alone with strangers they meet through your service. How are you addressing this kind of safety concern?
EDW: We talk quite a bit in our blog about safety. We have a set of 12 guidelines that you can do. When we contacted Rothbury, we hadn't had anybody. But Coachella took a chance with us, and as soon as we had that, it was good enough for everybody else. Their legal department reviewed it and went through it and the reality is that there is no increased liability for the venue at all. Also, you usually go with your buddy or your girlfriend. It's getting those other two seats filled.
JT: The Magnetic Hill Festival just announced that anyone who wants to park on site must both use your service and pay a $10 fee. What if someone was able to line up a full car with their existing friends? Is there a way for them to print out a parking pass without going through the hassle of having all of their friends join pickuppal?
EDW: Magnetic Hill reserved 1700 parking spots for us. The only way to get in is if you use pickuppal. We're finding that people are really trying hard to pack their car. This is also coinciding with record high gas prices.[If a group has filled a car without pickuppal], they contact us and we do a little due diligence to see if they're legit. If they arrive at the gate with no one in their car, they'll be turned away, but otherwise we'll let them in. This not something you did a year ago. I know that people like Live Nation are looking at it too, with some pretty cool incentives. Front of the line in and out, that kind of stuff. And it introduces you to the concept of ridesharing for other purposes.
JT: Do you get to go to all of these events? What are some of the bands you've seen?
EDW: Well, I have a wife and three kids, so I don't get to do a lot of traveling to all of the festivals. Locally here I went and saw Primus and I saw the Black Crowes, and I'm going to see Oasis and Foo Fighters.
JT: Are you doing anything else musically that we should know about?
EDW: We teamed up with Gibson and for the Virgin Music Festival and said we want to give away a prize. We said you know what would be really wicked? A flying V. So we called up Gibson and we got them to give us some flying Vs. We're having a best rock star pose contest that people are going to vote on and the winner gets a flying V.
Thanks, Eric, for your time. Hopefully we'll start seeing a lot fewer cars at concerts and festivals over the coming years. Meanwhile, here's some footage a giant flying V. Enjoy!
No, I'm not talking about a new effects pedal that makes you sound like you're jamming in an empty world, I'm referring to the fabulous folks at Reverb who never cease to amaze me. This summer they're out on tours with Dave Matthews Band, John Mayer, Jack Johnson, and about to head out with Maroon 5 and Counting Crows!
Jason will be covering some of those tours soon, but in the meantime, feast your eyes on this beautiful little film that conveys the power we have as fans, musicians, and citizens of Spaceship Earth:
This past weekend my boss sent me to the Clean Air-Cool Planet conference in Manchester, NH. Ordinarily, I'm loathe to give up my weekends for anything even remotely work-related (I am a government employee, after all), but this was actually pretty fun in a morbidly depressing sort of a way. Besides hearing that we have even less time than we thought until we lose all the fun places like Amsterdam, Key West and New Orleans (why are all the good spots so low?), I got to hear speeches from my boss at the regional level here at the EPA, his old boss Christine Todd Whitman, former head of the EPA, and several of the people who want to be her replacement's boss: Bill Richardson, John McCain, Dennis Kucinich, and Mike Huckabee. There was also some science, and a few good discussions on various topics related to global warming. I snuck out early on Friday afternoon so that I could catch game 1 of the Red Sox-Indians series (more important than global warming!), but at the expense of missing what I'm told was a very spirited discussion of CO2 offsets featuring George Hoguet of Native Energy.
While I missed seeing George speak there, I did catch his presentation the next day in a smaller session. Native Energy is the big name in offsets when it comes to music. The company offset Dave Matthews's entire touring schedule retroactively, handled the offsets for all of Live Earth, and has worked with many other big names from Bonnie Raitt to Jack Johnson. After the presentation, I cornered him and pressed him for more info on the company's work with the music industry. He passed me on to Kevin Hackett, Marketing Specialist.
Before I start, an introduction to carbon offsets is in order. The simplest explanation is that they are a way to compensate for the carbon dioxide you're responsible for when you drive, fly, or use fossil-fuel based electricity or heat. You give some money to a carbon offset program like Native Energy based on the amount of your CO2 you feel guilty about. The program takes the money does something that is supposed to either remove an equivalent amount of CO2 from the atmosphere (by planting trees, for instance) or replace a fossil-fuel burning power source (by adding wind power to the grid, for example). Native Energy takes the second approach. If you want more info, I recommend reading Grist's short and sweet description, visiting the Tuft Climate Institute's analysis of carbon offsets, or delving into Clean Air-Cool Planet's 44-page Consumer's Guide to Carbon Offsets (PDF).
There are any number of problems with carbon offsets, and I'm on the record as saying that I'd prefer people spent their carbon offset money elsewhere. As Ed Begley says in a quote I'm shamelessly stealing from Grist.org, ""[I]f you're going to drive a Hummer and buy carbon offsets, that's like getting drunk every night and getting into an AA meeting, throwing money in the basket, and leaving." More troublesome to me, having to pay extra for offsets perpetuates the notions that being carbon-neutral has to be both expensive and voluntary. But they are a first step to either a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade system, both of which I support.
But despite my general opposition to carbon offsets, it's hard not to like Native Energy. They go out of their way to address their critics and work as hard as they can to actually do good for the environment. The company is one of only four that Tufts recommends of the 13 reviewed. Native Energy is also working on a new project with the Gold Standard group to make sure that its carbon offsets pass muster with even the most stringent critics. They're majority tribally owned and are working to give Native Americans a viable source of income besides casinos. And to top it all off, they're a bunch of music lovers from Vermont.
The process of offsetting is simple. First, you decide how many tons of CO2 you want to offset and buy the credits (currently $12/ton). Native Energy takes this money and uses it to help finance either a new wind farm on Native American land or a methane powered-project on a family farm. These projects deliver renewable energy to the grid, displacing energy from fossil fuel plants. Since the fossil fuel plants burn less fossil fuel, they emit less CO2, and you can tell your friends that you're carbon neutral. After this point, Native Energy could choose to sell your CO2 offsets on the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), but instead it donates them to Clean Air-Cool Planet (CACP). CACP then retires the offsets, making sure they don't get double counted. For much more info, check this link.
And now, on to the interview:
Jason Turgeon: Tell me about the work Native Energy (NE) does with the music industry.
Kevin Hackett: Native Energy works with both Reverb and Music Matters on outreach. Both of them do a great job of reaching that youth market. Both take the position that they should help reduce emissions first.
JT: Do you see fans purchasing offsets? KH: Yes, both through our standard programs for their homes and through things like stickers that have tons or pounds of offsets. But it's not a huge number of fans.
JT: Can you clarify the part of the process where you donate the offsets to CACP?
KH: When someone buys an offset, they can't really show it off to their friends. It's not tangible. We donate the rights to that offset to CACP so that it can't be resold or reused or double counted. Offsets and renewable energy credits (RECs) are traded on places like the CCX. Ours are taken out of that.
JT: Who owns the projects?
KH: It depends on whether it's on tribal land or a family farm. For wind projects, the tribe owns them. On family-farm methane projects, the farmers own them. We don't own the projects, we help finance them. We provide the last 20% of the funding. Our business model is to find projects that are on the cusp of being viable and provide that little push.
JT: What response do you have for people like Radiohead's Thom Yorke, who has said he doesn't like offsets?
KH: That's a statement that we get on a regular basis. Offsets are not the solution, they're part of a solution. Everyone we work with takes steps to reduce their emissions first. What they can't reduce, they offset. We stand by the projects that we work with. They are all truly additional projects that wouldn't happen without our funding. They're not up and running projects that are selling RECs on the CCX.
JT: You're famous for your work with Dave Matthews and Live Earth. Waht other acts have you worked with recently?
KH: Incubus, Martin Sexton Trio, Jon Butler Trio, Xavier Rudd, a lot of others.
JT: You work with Timberland, a company that is well known in the hip-hop community. Have you had any success working with hip-hop artists?
KH: No, but there's stuff coming down the pipe. We're open to working with anybody.
JT: Do you see bands rolling this into the ticket price?
KH: We've seen a lot of that. We see promotion companies doing this either as an opt-in or an opt-out.
JT: Native Energy is from Vermont. Did you work with Phish before they split up, or have you worked with any of the members on their solo tours?
KH: We haven't had any contact with them, but we're open to working with anyone.
JT: You're doing methane projects on family farms. Have you worked with Farm Aid?
KH: We have not worked with farm aid, but they would be a good fit.
JT: Is it easier to put up a windmill on tribal land than it was for Jon Fishman or Cape Wind?
KH: No, we still have to jump through all the hoops. Being majority tribal-owned certainly helps, but we have just as many hoops to jump through. It's all essentially federal land, so we have to deal with all the same regulations.
JT: What about NIMBY? Is it better on reservations?
KH: It's still an issue. In some ways, it might be worse.
JT: Are you working with anyone to certify your offsets?
KH: We haven't in the past, but the Owl Feather project will be our first gold-standard certified project. We're not doing anything differently than we would before. It's just a new bit of paperwork.
JT: What's on your ipod?
KH: Everything from Willie Nelson to Guster because we just went to the show, a little bit of hip-hop. I am a child of the eighties so there's some Ratt and Guns and Roses and Poison. I hope I didn't just turn off the jambase crowd. (laughing) JT: No, no, it's cool, we're not all 19.
Thanks again to Kevin Hackett for taking the time out for this interview. Now here's some Ratt to take it home.
NUGS.NET ENLISTS DAVE MATTHEWS BAND, JACK JOHNSON PHISH, GRATEFUL DEAD & OTHERS FOR A LIVE DOWNLOAD COMPILATION TO BENEFIT ROCK THE EARTH MUSIC FOR THE PLANET: a nugs.net BENEFIT ALBUM FOR ROCK THE EARTH TO SUPPORT ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION IN THE UNITED STATES
Nugs. net and all the artists involved will donate 100% of all profits from the sales of this environmental resources compilation to Rock the Earth, a registered 501 (c)(3) non-profit charity. Director Marc Ross proudly claims, "Rock the Earth champions environmental and public health issues, and all the artists on Music for the Planet and nugs. net wanted to help these worthy causes for Earth Day 2007. We work closely with the music industry and its fans, many of whom are concerned with the fate of our public lands, air and water. We act as advocates to ensure the existence of a sustainable and healthy environment for all. Further, we aim to represent those individuals and communities whose environment or natural surroundings are directly and adversely affected by the actions of others." Nugs. net founder Brad Serling adds, "We feel extremely fortunate to have the unwavering support of our artist clients for this fundraiser." This two CD benefit compilation album will be available for $10.95 as MP3 downloads and $15.95 as CD-quality FLAC downloads. It is also available in a two-CD format for $25 which includes a one-year membership in Rock the Earth. To purchase, go to LiveDownloads.com and help support nugs.net's efforts to defend our natural resources.
Music For The Planet: a nugs.net benefit for Rock the Earth
DISC ONE 1) Widespread Panic: From The Cradle 04:43 11/3/06 Austin, TX 2) moe.: Blue Jeans Pizza 07:59 2/9/07 Boston, MA 3) Phish: Tube 10:44 12/29/97 New York, NY 4) Zero: Ermaline 11:00 2/2/07 San Francisco, CA 5) Jack Johnson: Banana Pancakes 03:10 4/22/06 Waikiki, HI 6) STS9: Hi-Key 05:31 12/29/06 Atlanta, GA 7) Gov't Mule: Unring The Bell 09:20 10/22/06 Portland, OR 8) The Radiators: River Run 10:17 2/16/07 New Orleans, LA
DISC TWO 1) The String Cheese Incident: Piece of Mine 06:55 3/24/07 Denver, CO 2) Grateful Dead: Eyes of the World 12:20 12/31/76 San Francisco, CA 3) Umphrey's McGee: Morning Song 07:35 12/30/06 Chicago, IL 4) Trey Anastasio: Simple Twist Up Dave 12:03 10/27/06 Las Vegas, NV 5) The Disco Biscuits: Helicopters 09:56 12/31/06 Camden, NJ 6) ALO: Plastic Bubble 05:29 6/1/05 Berkeley, CA 7) Dave Matthews Band: Warehouse 09:58 8/7/04 Alpine Valley, WI
Los Angeles, CA Nugs.net, the leader in live music downloads, has assembled another all-star compilation of exclusive live tracks to raise money for several Rock the Earth campaigns to defend environmental resources in the US. Nugs.net artist partners donated the recordings for this compilation, including an exclusive release from Jack Johnson. Other artists contributing to the benefit compilation include Dave Matthews Band, Grateful Dead, Phish, Widespread Panic, The String Cheese Incident, The Disco Biscuits, The Radiators, Trey Anastasio, Gov't Mule, STS9 (Sound Tribe Sector 9), Zero, Umphrey's McGee, moe. and ALO. Nugs.net and the 15 artists featured on the benefit release organized this compilation out of their dedication to providing continued support for the worldwide environmental community. 
