Who is Andreas Blachere?
As we are all in a continual state of becoming it’s probably easiest to answer the question this way: I have been a musician, songwriter, graphic artist, website/application developer, entrepreneur, blog writer, and teacher of music and tennis. Before starting CB Studios, I had an online start-up with an associate called Capsule Records started in 2005 which was a music delivery system akin to Bandcamp. I’ve also run a couple of recording and rehearsal studios, released a handful of albums under different monikers (The Ever After, Resident Alien and solo) and put on a number of live events.
Most recently, I’ve been working on a series of solo guitar videos and releasing an album of newly mastered material for my project The Ever After called Take Two.
What’s the story behind CB Studios?
CB Studios is a company I started to produce content and technology: music, videos, websites, designs and more. It was originally called Critical Bandwidth and did primarily website design but as I got better at recording and mixing audio and producing videos we branched into content creation as well.
To date we’ve recorded and produced tracks for a number of artists including The Resident Alien, Waves&Windows, Joel Prades and Apostles. Our video for Tirage au Sort has received over 10,000 views and we’ve helped build website tools for companies as broad as WebMD, Studentcare.ca and Ann Taylor.
What was the most difficult part of your experience in the early beginnings?
In reality we are still in the early beginnings and the challenges are monetizing our projects, locating good help, finding the time to get it all done and finding the balance between what interests us and what is profitable.
What are you most proud of regarding your business?
Probably that I’ve managed to keep it afloat for this long without external funding and of course the content that we’ve created.
What is your vision for the future of CB Studios?
Along the way we’ve learned a lot about music, technology, marketing, analytics, accounting and more. I believe we could help others in these areas – either through consulting or contracting – while continuing to create our own cool content and events.
What’s your advice for the businesses that are trying to adapt to this economic climate?
Without knowing the specific case – and feeling unqualified to dole out such advice frankly – it would be difficult to make one general statement that will appeal to all the businesses or individuals that are being challenged right now. If pressed , though, I’d say use this period of upheaval to figure out what you really enjoy doing and then focus on that.
Please name a few technologies which have the greatest impact on your business.
Still awaiting a reply from our sponsors but google workspace and wordpress are definitely helpful.
What books do you have on your nightstand?
The last book I completed was Deadeye Dick by Kurt Vonnegut: a melancholic tale of a decaying mid-western city told with typical Vonnegut poignancy. The book I’m currently reading is Sapiens by Yuval Harari – per the recommendation of several people – and so far it paints a pretty grim picture of Homo Sapiens and their chances for the future but I’ll withhold judgement till the end.
Because of the current economic climate our publication has started a series of discussions with professional individuals meant to engage our readers with relevant companies and their representatives in order to discuss their involvement, what challenges they have had in the past and what they are looking forward to in the future. This sequence aims to present a series of experiences, recent developments, changes and downsides in terms of their business areas, as well as their goals, values, career history, the high-impact success outcomes and achievements.
