Ask Slashdot: Best Option For a Touring Band With Mobile Data?

New submitter SEMLogistics writes: I'm working with a well-known rock band, that is not based in the U.S., and has an upcoming U.S. tour this fall. The issue they always run into, however, is when renting a tour bus and traveling with 12 to 14 people, they consistently blow through data allowances set by the bus company. This leads to tremendously expensive overages, and greatly throttled data. "When chartering a Nightliner tour bus, travel companies only typically allow for 10GB data a month. With 12 people, downloading music and streaming movies, we can easily exceed 12GB a day! This leads to thousands of dollars every month in overages!"

Slashdot, help! Are there any good mobile hotspot options with unlimited data, and monthly contracts (I haven't found any), or other alternatives than to simply be held a data-hostage?

Comments

T-Mobile

[CaptainDork]

Ok?

Re:T-Mobile

[Anonymous Coward]

look up 4GAS.com service from TMobile with a mofi cellular modem/router/wap. technically capped to lower priority, but IO have not seen it. Less than $100/month few hundred to buy the hardware and no contract.

"simply be held a data-hostage"

[Nutria]

Sounds like entitled whining to me.

If you want more bandwidth, *pay* for more bandwidth. If that bus company doesn't offer it, then find another one.

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[Anonymous Coward]

Get a Peplink mobile router and data service with AT&T and T-Mobile. That should give you coverage almost anywhere in the US.

Re:"simply be held a data-hostage"

[Obfuscant]

If that bus company doesn't offer it,

Since when is a bus company in the business of providing mobile data? They aren't. Why are they capping it? Why are you buying it from them in the first place?

For those thousands of dollars, you can get a lot of basic unlimited cellphone lines. Who cares if each member has his own account and his own "unlimited"?

I see T-Mobile has 4 lines for $40 each, and the only "cap" they show is if you go above 32Gb when they de-prioritize. Verizon has "unlimited" for a phone and two devices for $80/mo, with the "cap" that anything above 22Gb is at a lower priority.

I'm wondering, why isn't this person just doing the same thing I am doing: google for cellular services and see what is available? It's a question of how much you want to pay, so we can't tell you what will work because we don't know how skinflint you are.

Re:"simply be held a data-hostage"

[Anonymous Coward]

Not familiar with the touring bus rental business. If there are alternatives, do negotiate for more data for your rented bus, or move elsewhere.

As a temporary measure, you may try reducing your bandwidth requirements. E.g. install an access point that supports throttling inside the bus. This should make e.g. YouTube automatically downgrade the quality of the streams, thus save bandwidth. Not sure if you can achieve the same effect by outright blocking specific addresses.

Re:"simply be held a data-hostage"

[Narcocide]

Fun fact: Finding things rich people don't want to waste their time figuring out and letting them just throw money at it instead is a great way to get paid way more than you're worth.

Re:"simply be held a data-hostage"

[Anonymous Coward]

Because he's the "tech" guy for a band because he knows someone and doesn't actually know what he's doing, he has the basic ability to type on a keyboard, his tech skills end there. That's why he's not doing what you are doing or any other real tech person for that matter.

For $1000s/month they could easily get each band member their own personal hotspot. This is not a hard "problem" (not a problem at all) to solve.

Re:"simply be held a data-hostage"

[Anonymous Coward]

Another fun fact. Having rich people to pay you to post their question to Slashdot, Stack Overflow etc instead of figuring out the answer yourself like the expert they are paying you to be, is an even easier way to get paid way more than you're worth.

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[SEMLogistics]

'Fun fact' - What you call rich and entitled people whining describes the 1% of the music biz. I'm working with this band and am taking no fees whatsoever (and have no affiliation with any business associated with them). What you don't realize is that a large majority of the bands that you know from your streaming service of choice (iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, etc) is that you'd consider them working class if they were in a white colllar profession. Most of your favorite artists don't make 'billions' and are very far away from 'Kardashian money'. Managing expenses on a yearly tour, while paying venue fees, accompanying act fees and miscellaneaous cost of living fees eats well into a major source of income for the people who you listen to, disposably, in your white and red high-def earbuds. The music industry isn't what it used to be, when bands like Led Zeppelin could request rooms on the water and have 'red snappers' delivered to their rooms. The music industry today, is comprised mainly of hard working individuals who make fractions of a cent on the dollar for thousands of streaming plays, and depend on regular touring to support the tour, their families and pay for production of more of the music that you love and expect. Hate on bands all you want for their ideaology, but I challenge you to form a valid argument against a hardworking touring band wanting to save on expenses....

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[SEMLogistics]

Please see my comments below; that pertain HIGHLY to your opinion...

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[Anonymous Coward]

Why in gods name do you need continual, high-speed internet? Can you not pull yourself away from the computer? That's a problem all by itself.

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[Anonymous Coward]

Take Led Zeppelin out of your mouth. Led Zeppelin did not need a 12GB data plan to rock hard & have a great time.

A real band is busy getting "red snappers" on their dick.

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[Zero__Kelvin]

Fun Fact: People who know how to research get paid more than people who complain on Slashdot that people are using the avenues at their disposal to do thorough research.

Re:"simply be held a data-hostage"

[Anonymous Coward]

For those thousands of dollars, you can get a lot of basic unlimited cellphone lines

Agreed. Doing some rough math here:
- Let's assume a cap of most carriers at 25GB/month.
- Let's assume a reasonable price of $50/line.
- Let's take the OP statement and boil it down to 20GB/day.
- Let's assume the band is traveling 5 of 7 days of the week, call it 21 travel days per month

21 travel days * 10GB = 210GB. We'll round up to 225GB to keep things simple. 225GB / 25GB cap per carrier = 10 different line needed. Multiply by $50 = $500/month for internet.

Get a router that supports USB aircards - come up with a system to mark the aircards that have hit their caps for the month - and be done.

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[Obfuscant]

Fun Fact: People who know how to research get paid more than people who complain on Slashdot that people are using the avenues at their disposal to do thorough research.

Two more fun facts: this guy is getting paid nothing to be this band's consultant, and he's trying to get a lot of people on /. to be HIS consultants for free. And he has the nerve to whine about how bad the music business is financially for him, instead of getting a real job that would pay money.

"What should I do instead of buy my internet service from a bus company?" is a question that he ought to be able to figure out for himself -- if he is anywhere near able to understand the answers to begin with. The band clearly is getting every penny's worth of his salary.

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[Obfuscant]

Please see my comments below; that pertain HIGHLY to your opinion...

Not only are you too lazy to do your own research into mobile broadband solutions, you are too lazy to make any attempt at a clear reference to some "comments" that might "pertain highly", other than the "see below". Sorry, there is nothing from you below this. The comments above this are all a whine about how poor the band is and how awful those people who listen to the music by using a streaming service are. Ignore the fact that those people are likely the ones who come to see your band perform and pay the probably excessive ticket prices for a cut-rate band, you should insult them for listening. (Cut rate band hires a zero salary consultant for it's networking.)

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[Zero__Kelvin]

Then don't click on the story and reply. I guess that thought never occurred to you.

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[Anonymous Coward]

'Fun fact' - What you call rich and entitled people whining describes the 1% of the music biz

I dunno man, spending more on mobile cellular data in a month than I spend on rent seems kinda rich to me.

(Note: Im not the parent poster, and am not using the words "entitled" or "whining", just the word "rich")

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[uvajed_ekil]

Why in gods name do you need continual, high-speed internet? Can you not pull yourself away from the computer? That's a problem all by itself.

Have you tried touring for extended periods? In a bus? It isn't like these bands just go out for a day then go home at night, or even every week or two. Many spend months at a time on the road, with lots of long drives (hence the bus) and a sizable crew (the 12-14 mentioned). In 2017 it is not realistic for a group like this to NOT use 10GB+ per day. It isn't like they are just sitting around watching Netflix all day, and you obviously have no clue how this works. Few people on Slashdot would go days or weeks by choice without streaming anything.

Mobile data consumption is not the problem, the problem I see is people like you trying to tell the OP what his problem is rather than bothering to offer a solution. Folks on the road don't have their home internet connection to fall back on, or even slow hotel wifi, much of the time. Believe it or not, many bands also do a lot of work while travelling too, which requires internet use.

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[Anonymous Coward]

You obviously have no clue how this works AND no self-control. Because they are a musical band and not a HFT brokerage.

Few people on Slashdot would go days or weeks by choice

Could you pick a worse comparison for a rock band? I doubt it. Slashdot is comprised mainly of fat manchildren with no self control. See that "by choice" you skip right over? Get some self-control and your imaginary bandwidth needs will go away

Re:"simply be held a data-hostage"

[gl4ss]

it's not whining..

it's just that in finland they could get an entire month of nonstop 3g/4g streaming for 10 bucks.

anyways, I suggest just keep buying prepaid sims, even in usa. one per day or whatever.

another option: tailgate a greyhound bus. maybe the wifi works in that particular bus.

and for americans I suggest you write your congress representatives or whatever and tell them to do something about the data cartel your operators have going on. yes, there is no excuse for your data limits except operator profits. you cannot excuse it with either higher or lower population densities, since elsewhere both of those work out just fine.

the whole thing is legacy for you getting screwed over with subsidizied phones.

and on top of that your monthly plans are STUPIDLY EXPENSIVE.. with those rates you should be all having unlimited 5mbit/s stations.

Re:"simply be held a data-hostage"

[dowens81625]

Your number one option here is going to be self control.

Explain the budget issue to the band members.

Institute a reimbursement plan where each member pays a percentage of the overage bill based on how much data they used.

If the leader singer wants to spend $3000 streaming cat videos then let him its his money, but his actions should not negatively impact the rest of the bands bottom line.

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[Anonymous Coward]

instead of getting a real job that would pay money

Damn right. Why should these slackers waste everyone's time bringing pleasure to thousands when they could be working in an insurance office or on a checkout?

And how dare SEMLogistics come on here asking for advice. The nerve of some people.

BTW, you've put an 'a' instead of a 'u' in your name.

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[vux984]

With 12 people, downloading music and streaming movies, we can easily exceed 12GB a day!

plus

you'd consider them working class if they were in a white colllar profession.

equals:

Hey dummy, don't do that.

Continually streaming music and movies while on a big road trip is expensive. The 'working class' solution to the problem is simple: don't.

Have them download movies movies and music to local storage for the bus; or dump what you need on a NAS and run a bus-wifi network or stick it on a USB drive. Throw 100GB of music on it and stream from that.

Pop into used dvd shop and pick up a couple dozen movies, and bring a portable dvd player or a laptop with a dvd player or ensure the bus media center can play DVDs.

Netflix also lets you do download stuff for offline movies. etc.

Hit up GoG.com and buy some games -- no drm, no online requirements, massive time sinks. Buy a Nintendo handheld. Buy some books, or an e-reader.

Get your fix of 'breaking news' streams while on wifi at the hotels.

Frankly, this should be fairly obvious, my children figured all this out pretty quick, because I won't let them stream netflix and youtube on my cellular plan on a road trip for the same reason.

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[magusxxx]

Fun Fact: This is the time when Costello would yell, "I know, THIRD BASE!"

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[Anonymous Coward]

Take Led Zeppelin out of your mouth. Led Zeppelin did not need a 12GB data plan to rock hard & have a great time.

They did need their own jet, though.

I want to know why these musicians in OP's story are downloading music all the time. Whose music? Do they not buy albums and then listen to them? They have to stream it?

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[Anonymous Coward]

it is not realistic for a group like this to NOT use 10GB+ per day

Which is why there were no big tours prior to the dawn of the internet

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[Anonymous Coward]

You wrote all that and failed to answer the question. You fail.

Customer: I'd like a burger, fries and cola please.
You: You don't want that. You should make your own sandwiches at home and then drink tap water.

Re:"simply be held a data-hostage"

[Anonymous Coward]

You have subjected yourself into accepting the current status quo. I feel so bad for you people in the US who have to pay shittons of money for shitty mobile services. Here in the EU we get *truly* unlimited data over 4G networks at 100Mbps for $20-30/mo depending on the service provider.

You've been fooled by the service providers to believe what you get is somehow justified. It's not. Somebody always brings up the argument of population density and whatnot. The fact is, many EU countries have far lower population density than many states in the US and *still* are able to offer mobile services at far more competitive prices because many countries have strict laws when it comes to anti-competitive practices. The living costs and taxes are also a lot higher, yet we get lower prices.

Thinking one is somehow "entitled" to demand better service at a more affordable prices is absurd. To me someone doing that sounds like an awoken consumer.

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[thegarbz]

Either you missed the bit about this being a band on tour, or you have an over inflated view of Hotel WiFi. The big problem here is that if you're bored out of your mind in transit a few GB doesn't go far for entertainment. I have enough problem with downloading offline movies for a 1 week intercontinental trip, let alone going to tour, and the WiFi in the hotel typically barely allows me to get an additional movie in for the day after, let alone cover 14 people in a bus all day.

There is a LOT of data that needs to be planned ahead if you're trying to do this trip without relying on mobile data.

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[stealth_finger]

Why in gods name do you need continual, high-speed internet? Can you not pull yourself away from the computer? That's a problem all by itself.

Have you tried touring for extended periods? In a bus? It isn't like these bands just go out for a day then go home at night, or even every week or two. Many spend months at a time on the road, with lots of long drives (hence the bus) and a sizable crew (the 12-14 mentioned). In 2017 it is not realistic for a group like this to NOT use 10GB+ per day. It isn't like they are just sitting around watching Netflix all day, and you obviously have no clue how this works. Few people on Slashdot would go days or weeks by choice without streaming anything.

I know man, the fact that bands managed to tour all those years ago in the ancient, pre mobile internet days is just mind boggling. It's not like you can pre load your media or get entertainment that isn't streamed :O Outside the box thinking I know. Or if you really must stream all your shit for 12 people who apparently have nothing better to do then get them individual sims with a data allowance rather than use whatever the bus gives you. I know rock'n'roll isn't rocket science but at least think about it a little bit. In 2017 apparently stating the year is a good way to validate your point.

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[Aighearach]

He's on third, and I Don't Give a Darn.

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[Aighearach]

Well, if they all had to watch the same movie somebody would get murdered.

Or, they'd all be doing heroin in the bathroom. I think that is the old way bands passed the time on the road.

But they could at least rip the music to a personal collection instead of constant streaming if they're that into music.

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[stealth_finger]

Do they not buy albums and then listen to them? They have to stream it?

Nah, kids don't bother with that these days. They just pay a bunch of subscriptions and assume they'll always have unlimited high speed data everywhere they ever go ever and then get all panicky when they realise how hooked they are on it and it's not there. There's probably a whole sub set who have never seen a DVD let alone a CD.

Re:"simply be held a data-hostage"

[Anonymous Coward]

Also, in Finland, the band would not need to play more than one show since there are only 200.000 people in the entire country.

Re:"simply be held a data-hostage"

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, they'll also need one or more hotspots to convert those wireless accounts to standard Wi-fi for laptops, music workstations, etc. But that raises another point to avoiding the bus' network: Who knows what crap they put in their wi-fi portal? Hotels have been known to put MITM packet-sniffing in their wi-fi infrastructure, and the bus company could do that too. At the very least, it's probably some pre-installed crap from 5 years ago that's been infected by previous users.

Re:"simply be held a data-hostage"

[Anonymous Coward]

>paid way more than you're worth.

As a rich person, let me say that this is wrong, and I'm paying that person at least what they are worth to me for doing that, and probably less.

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[Anonymous Coward]

"What should I do instead of buy my internet service from a bus company?"

Can I convince you to write every /. summary from this day forward, forever? Please. Pretty please.

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[cob666]

Until recently, I used to travel frequently, spending up to 15 hours a day in a moving vehicle with NO internet access. What's wrong with reading? You can download dozens of books at a time and share the devices. If you want to watch movies, many tour buses have screens, let the people on the bus take turns picking movies. There's also games, people can get competitive when they're in groups, use that.

As others have pointed out, you can buy several tablets and get pretty robust data plans that people can take turns using to check their mail, Facebook and other things that don't involve streaming gobs of data. If they ALL MUST have unlimited data streaming then do some research on mobile hotspots and tell them if they can't curb their data usage then stop bitching about it and pay the overage costs.

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[Anonymous Coward]

In what world is white collar working class.

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's an idea. Go to the library and check out a good book. Or buy one. Even a used one will work (e.g. abebooks.com).

And also buy local newspapers when you travel, and read all of it so that you learn something about the culture and people you are performing for.

It will tell you what might be important to those people: cattle prices? coal mining? local healthcare? crime problems? garden club? fishing? hunting? high school football?

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[Anonymous Coward]

Some bands actually work on recording while on the road and need data upstream to upload sketches or even completed recordings to their producers and agents day to day. Some of them even pass songs back and forth with their producers to flesh out ideas. The really serious bands NEED to do this to even think about continuing to support themselves through music because the road doesn't pay like it used to. It's not like every band with a bus full of twelve people is going to come home millionaires. Most of them will have enough to go to the studio to record the new album, maybe, if not need to take six months to a year off to work a real job before doing so, and then get their asses back on the road.

The idea that all that data usage is strictly streaming Netflix all day long is ridiculous.

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[SuiteSisterMary]

"We need more bandwidth."
"Guys, guys, no, you're doing it wrong. You should be reading books, instead!"
"You're fired. New guy, we need more bandwidth."

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[Anonymous Coward]

We have money to burn here in America. Just pay the bill.

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[vux984]

Either you missed the bit about this being a band on tour,

No. I saw that.

The big problem here is that if you're bored out of your mind in transit a few GB doesn't go far for entertainment.

Which is why i suggested loading up on offline entertainment.

I have enough problem with downloading offline movies for a 1 week intercontinental trip, let alone going to tour,

Hence the other suggestions: like walk into a used DVD shop, and buy a couple dozen movies.

and the WiFi in the hotel typically barely allows me to get an additional movie in for the day after, let alone cover 14 people in a bus all day.

Agreed. I said use wifi at the hotel to get your fix of youtube or grab that one movie you want but forgot. Get most of the offline content in advance, or in bulk.

Music for example, once you've got a 100GB offline you're set, sure you'll want to add new albums or tracks; but it can go on the next trip, and the one after that, etc.

There is a LOT of data that needs to be planned ahead if you're trying to do this trip without relying on mobile data.

Yep. Do it. Its how bands on a budget toured for the last 70+ years.

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[vux984]

Customer: I'd like a burger, fries and cola please.

More like "Customer: I'd like Kobe steak every day month, and Kristal to drink, but I'm just working class and we can't afford it."

You have two options:
1) make more money.
2) eat something else.

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[vux984]

"We need more bandwidth."
"Guys, guys, no, you're doing it wrong. You should be reading books, instead!"
"You're fired. New guy, we need more bandwidth."

If the band demands expensive caviar at every meal, and then complains it's breaking their budget -- the solution is either to make a lot more money or to stop eating expensive caviar at every meal.

Getting fired sounds like a far better option than working for entitled toddlers who don't understand that.

Re:"simply be held a data-hostage"

[Anonymous Coward]

You're thinking of Iceland.

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[SuiteSisterMary]

If the band demands expensive caviar at every meal, and then complains it's breaking their budget -- the solution is either to make a lot more money or to stop eating expensive caviar at every meal.

No, if a band demands expensive caviar at every meal, and asks the catering guy to look into less expensive means of getting cavier; for example, switching suppliers, ordering in bulk, etc etc, simply coming back and saying 'you shouldn't be eating caviar in the first place' is categorically the wrong answer.

Coming back and saying 'having looked at several options, there's really no way to eat this much caviar without spending this much money' may well be appropriate. That's not what most of the suggestions in this thread are saying.

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[vux984]

No, if a band demands expensive caviar at every meal, and asks the catering guy to look into less expensive means of getting cavier; for example, switching suppliers, ordering in bulk, etc etc, simply coming back and saying 'you shouldn't be eating caviar in the first place' is categorically the wrong answer.

Why is someone asking slashdot for solutions to a problem that could be answered with "have you considered switching suppliers?"

What's else? Should I ask to make sure they aren't on prepaid no included data and roaming from Canada?

Coming back and saying 'having looked at several options, there's really no way to eat this much caviar without spending this much money' may well be appropriate.

That's the reality. You aren't going to get a TB of 4G mobile data cheap. You might be able cut a few corners, but I don't think a 10 or 15% or even 20% reduction is going to cut it here.

That's not what most of the suggestions in this thread are saying.

I skimmed the suggestions before I posted. I didn't see anything practical. "write your congress critter"? follow a greyhound and try to leech from them? ...? What suggestion are you thinking of that you think really nails it?

The only approach I saw that might help a little is to get n separate LTE plans, and then rotate through them. That will work, by avoiding the exorbitant overage rate and just using each plan up to the caps... but really what does that accomplish. Verizon's 'unlimited' mobile plan throttles you to 3G speeds after 10GB, which is pretty shit for streaming and its $80/mo... $80/mo for 10 GB... is $8/GB that's in the 5-10$/GB overage rate they are likely paying now. Another carrier might have some better plan and some better way to rig it, so there might be a bit of savings there... maybe they can get it down to 3-4$ per GB. But it's ugly as hell, and its still going to be pretty expensive if they need 500-1000GB/mo.

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[SuiteSisterMary]

Why is someone asking slashdot for solutions to a problem that could be answered with "have you considered switching suppliers?"

Well, as Subby says, they're from 'not in the US,' and they're going to be 'In the US.' He was looking for real-world suggestions on good national carriers with decent coverage and prices. How else would you suggest he go about getting that sort of info?

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[vux984]

Well, as Subby says, they're from 'not in the US,' and they're going to be 'In the US.' He was looking for real-world suggestions on good national carriers with decent coverage and prices

There are 4 national carriers, it wouldn't take long to look at each one.

ATT, Verizon, TMobile, Sprint
Next largest is US Cellular about which is about 1/10th the size of sprint, and is regional only.

The subby also said they've been here before. And they already know the lay of the land so-to-speak -- given they're aware of the billing situation that they are trying to cut down; so they likely already know who the 4 are, and they've likely already determined that they're all about the same price. But if not, I think they can figure that out.

How else would you suggest he go about getting that sort of info?

Same way I just did.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

I'm not an american, and I'm not in the USA. I certainly didn't have to ask slashdot to get a list of the major national carriers in the United States, or to look up their rate plans.

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[Zaelath]

Is your next question how you can save money on coke and not be held hostage by your dealer?

What about the increasing cost of hookers willing to do the whole band?

I think you're confusing need and want.

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[Anonymous Coward]

WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS FOR FREE? If you're seriously working with a 12 person touring band, and they can't make enough touring to afford paying their logistics consultant, they're not any good at money, and are probably not much better with music. If they're not paying because you haven't asked, you're not much good at money, and probably not much better at consulting.

You are quite literally, doing this wrong.

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[stealth_finger]

The idea that all that data usage is strictly streaming Netflix all day long is ridiculous.

You obviously didn't read the summary. And no, bands aren't recording on the bus (just think about that for a second), and even if they were definitely not at the rate that they just have to upload their super hi def recordings right there and then.

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[SuiteSisterMary]

But again, he's not just asking for a list of carriers, or their posted rate plans. He's asking for personal experience. Wikipedia isn't going to tell you 'Carrier A has great coverage in cities, but carrier B has better coverage along interstates' or 'Carrier C has way better technical support' or 'I've worked with carrier D before to come up with special price plans' or 'Carriers A and C have a nice roaming agreement between the two of them' or 'If you're along the border with Canada, make sure you have roaming turned off, especially if you're on ATT.'

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[vux984]

He's asking for personal experience.

Right. And personal experience is what I gave him. From personal experience mobile data in all of North America is expensive. If you don't want to pay through the nose for mobile data, your best bet is to avoid using it as much as possible.

There is no: "one weird trick they don't want you to know" to get around it.

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[SuiteSisterMary]

The fact that it's all expensive doesn't mean there still isn't one that's better than the others for his particular needs.

Besides, what you actually gave him was 'treat your employers like children, and tell them they can't have what they want.'

Frankly, this should be fairly obvious, my children figured all this out pretty quick, because I won't let them stream netflix and youtube on my cellular plan on a road trip for the same reason.

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[vux984]

"The fact that it's all expensive doesn't mean there still isn't one that's better than the others for his particular needs."

Like what? Which suggestion in this ask-slashdot did you think was the best? Seriously, which one met his needs?

"Besides, what you actually gave him was 'treat your employers like children, and tell them they can't have what they want.'

I didn't say treat the employer like children. I said my children figured out how to supply themselves entertainment when mobile data was too expensive for them, without asking slashdot for help. At worst was suggesting the submitter was using ask slashdot for solutions children could figure out.

I did LATER suggest that if the band fired him for reporting reality doesn't meet their wishes that such an act would make them entitled toddlers... IF they fired him for it.

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[uvajed_ekil]

it is not realistic for a group like this to NOT use 10GB+ per day

Which is why there were no big tours prior to the dawn of the internet

That's an idiotic comment. There was a time before buses when people traveled for extended periods too, so do you think band should stop whining about the cost of buses and just walk, like Jesus did? There are solutions to a need for mobile data other than just paying Verizon's scammy overages or not using the internet.

Re: "simply be held a data-hostage"

[Wycliffe]

There is no: "one weird trick they don't want you to know" to get around it.

There are a few weird tricks. There is a company called unlimitedville that resells unlimited data hotspots. Mine costs $50/month for unlimited sprint. ATT also has an unlisted plan of $100/month for 500G with $1/gig overage which is considerably cheaper than their normal plan. Personally though, as most people probably have their own cell phone and most major providers offer unlimited plans and/or free tethering, it would probably be cheaper and easier to just have each member handle their own internet.

t-mobile

[Anonymous Coward]

t-mobile will not charge you for using a ton of bandwidth hogging services such as youtube. They also will not charge you for going over your limit but they will throttle you once you hit the cap. There are no contracts. That being said there coverage may not be the best.

Karma WiFi

[spacepimp]

Take a look at Karma Wifi. It doesn't have a router in the mix which may be a deal breaker. I have no affiliation with karma or their products. But their pricing is straight forward.

how cheap?

[Anonymous Coward]

Is cheap?
Just buy a dozen off the shelf prepaid phones with data plans you can use as a hotspot.
Blow thru the data on one. toss it and connect the next one.

200 bucks would do it.

Super epic wasteful... but it would be cheap.

The problem is the band.

[Anonymous Coward]

Top class bands use airplanes, and they don't worry about data use on a fucking tour bus.

Re:The problem is the band.

[Anonymous Coward]

When did Donalt Trump start posting as AC?

Re: The problem is the band.

[Anonymous Coward]

Nope its the country and mobile market. If you dont roam you will have a difficult time trying to grab the situation. Come to europe someday ðY

Re: The problem is the band.

[Anonymous Coward]

Venues don't have runways you idiot. This isn't Metalocalypse. No band has military cargo helicopters to carry their custom stage around.

Re:The problem is the band.

[magarity]

Top class bands use airplanes, and they don't worry about data use on a fucking tour bus.

Real top class bands are too busy shooting heroin and getting blowjobs to whine about data caps. WTF kind of pansy rock band is this about?

Re:The problem is the band.

[Anonymous Coward]

Mumford & Sons

Verizon

[Anonymous Coward]

Verizon.

Affordable, Unlimited, Good Coverage

[chispito]

Pick two.

Groupies

[dasgoober]

Use groupies to download stuff using their own cell connections.

Re:Groupies

[msauve]

If they had groupies, they wouldn't be spending time watching Netflix, they'd be "chilling."

DL the movies!

[kfh227]

FWIW: You can download a lot of the Netflix movies when connected to wifi. Just tell them to pick movies ahead of schedule.

And what band?

Have you tried ...

[Anonymous Coward]

Living within your means?

Re:Have you tried ...

[Anonymous Coward]

Take it easy Roosevelt, things are a bit better now. We have rich people throwing money at other people, don't ruin the party.

ProjectFi

[Friar_MJK]

Google's service has a very straightforward and reasonably priced approach.

Re:ProjectFi

[SteveAstro]

Yeah, I think Fi is their best option, for $120/day for 12Gig. 130 for 13 etc etc.

Re:ProjectFi

[hackel]

Wow. I'm a Fi user myself, and have to say this is an idiotic comment. Fi is *terrible* for high-data users! It's really only good if you, like me, use less than 1-2GB/month.

Unlimitedville

[0100010001010011]

https://unlimitedville.com/

Re:Unlimitedville

[Anonymous Coward]

These plans are mostly resold "grandfathered" unlimited plans. I would avoid using them since there is no guarantee as to what can happen with the service they give you. With the current unlimited plans available from all carriers there is no reason to use this service.

Re:Unlimitedville

[Anonymous Coward]

"...The âunlimitedâ(TM) phone plans that carriers offer are ONLY âunlimitedâ(TM) for data used on the phone and only allow 5-10gb of tethering/hotspot usage per month..."

Re:Unlimitedville

[hackel]

Holy shit they are expensive! $99-249/month? Why would anyone ever go for that for their home internet service? That's crazy.

you have no choice

[Anonymous Coward]

welcome to the u.s.a. bring your own lube, it won't hurt quite so bad when you find that there isn't any american provider that will deliver what you want at the price you're expecting or used to.

Something's not right here

[Anonymous Coward]

You work for a rock band that cares more about bandwidth than cocaine? Does not seem legit. ;-)

Re:Something's not right here

[Anonymous Coward]

It's probably OK Go or the Polyphonic Spree or some other nerd shit.

Re: Something's not right here

[Zero__Kelvin]

Why do you think they need to keep their data costs down; their only other choice is to put a cap on their coke use, and that ain't happrning! :^)

Re: Something's not right here

[Anonymous Coward]

Internet is waaaay more addicting then cocaine could ever hope to be.

Re: Something's not right here

[DontBeAMoran]

They should try Pepsi, I've heard it's cheaper.

Re: Something's not right here

[Zero__Kelvin]

You shouldn't shoot it, can't smoke it, and snorting it is a bitch, so you heard wrong.

Buy and use mobile phones as hotspots

[dannybrizzi]

How about buying 3 mobile phones with great data plans and running them as mobile hotspots. Just plug them into the power outlet, then allocate 4 people to each phone.

Well known band?

[Lumpy]

Then they can afford buying a mobile hotspot with 60gb of data on it. If they are well known then $1KUS per month is chump change to them.

Re:best practices

[amicusNYCL]

Right, fuck trying to engage with your fans and post pictures and videos from the road. No, the drummer needs to practice! Never mind that all of the equipment is stored in the trailer, if they've made it to international tour status they need to practice, practice, practice.

best

[Anonymous Coward]

Google Fi

Multiple Hotspots

[maxrate]

Order multiple 4G access points with the largest data plans available, bond them all together using an aggregation platform, then pump thru a good wifi router/access point. This gives you: 1) more speed, 2) combining the data plans to give you an overall lower cost per gigabyte transferred. I'm doing this today and reselling to my customers. I own a stretched limo, my friends and guests enjoy the wifi - never any overage fees, lot's of bandwidth and about 300 gigabytes worth of data for a max of $450/month. Easy to do, cheap to maintain. I own an airplane too, but haven't found a good/inexpensive/reliable way of getting bandwidth on board yet sadly.

Re:Multiple Hotspots

[Anonymous Coward]

How high and fast is your plane flying? Traditional 4G works up to around 500-600m. Above that the inter-cell interference becomes too big for a good connection, but if you connect a directional antenna you can significantly reduce this (no need for tracking systems, the beam is wide enough and there are many towers). Getting coverage up to a few km should be possible in this way.

Re:Multiple Hotspots

[Anonymous Coward]

It's coming...

http://oneweb.world/

and

http://www.onewebsatellites.com/

Re:Multiple Hotspots

[jishak]

maxrate, Can you provide some specs on what equipment you are using? What is the best 4G access point in your experience? Also what aggregation platform are you using to bond them all together? I would love to hear about your setup.

calyxinstitute.org

[Anonymous Coward]

nuf said

Stop fagging around on the Internet

[Anonymous Coward]

You dumb shits. You should be playing gigs and fucking sluts until you pass out.

I bet this problem is caused by the fat idiot roadcrew. Just unplug the goddamned thing and dole out small portions out as a reward.

Satellite

[Snotnose]

Assuming ping isn't an issue (do you really try to play a multiplayer game on a bus in the middle of nowhere? If so, you need a swift kick in the balls and a quick whack upside the head with the cluestick), um, what was I saying.

Satellite. Viasat. Ping sucks ass, but the bandwidth per buck is pretty good, and from what I hear coverage is good.

Disclaimer. I don't work for Viasat. I don't know much about their coverage maps. But it's free to spout my opinion, so there it is.

Re:Satellite

[Anonymous Coward]

I live in an coach and enjoy online gaming. I download patches from whatever Wifi I can get and use my Verizon or T-Mobile paired with a Wilson cell booster for actually playing. Overwatch is the most bandwidth heavy game I play and that's only 30K/second. No problem for a cell connection.

why the fuck are they

[Anonymous Coward]

Streaming/Downloading movies?

If you can afford several thousand a month in overages, you can afford a dozen $50 Blu-ray players and enough to buy every single movie that comes out each month.

That should reduce your bandwidth consumption to something manageable.

Also as mentioned, find a new band, because you're doing it wrong.

Re:why the fuck are they

[Anonymous Coward]

Or read. Or talk with each other. You don't have to watch movies all the time you're on the bus.

Ting Mobile

[Anonymous Coward]

Check out Ting. They will charge you $10 a Gig for as much as you can pay for. No overage charges. Fast connections (15x faster than my old AT&T LTE account.) $120 a day is still going to run you like $3600 a month though. That's market rate though, very unlikely you will get it cheaper without WiFi.

Dude, like our bandwidth sucks.

[Anonymous Coward]

Dudes! I'm like the tech guy for like this cool band. Like, can you like help us figure out this wicked hard problem to solve?

Re:Dude, like our bandwidth sucks.

[mjpaci]

You're from Boston aren't you...

Re:Dude, like our bandwidth sucks.

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually he's from New Jersey (exit 10) trying to sound like he's from Boston.

buy your phone and data at walmart at 4am

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm in an Indy band from AU that is touring the US again this year (toured last 4 years), and we're definitely not famous/well known and we don't get a bus, we get a u-haul :-) We have to keep it cheap because airfare is $$.

We go to walmart, we all buy SIM and cheap phone packages, generally AT&T cos they have better coverage where we tour.

There's unlimited data on a few plans, but they can't be tethered (bummer) but 1 month unlimited phone calls and data was like $70 last year. Not bad. Speed was good and alternatively, WIFI is ubiquitous. We spent the first tour in carpark at McDonalds comping their wifi to contact home, so you have options.

Considering that a bus costs a crap load per day (yes I know the figures) and you've got 12 people on the move, it's hard for me to imagine that your Data costs are a Tour Killer, but yeah you don't have to get ripped off and the Yanks are deffo a Caveat Emptor bunch, if you don't know better, you'll pay more.

If you're blowing through that much data, may we also suggest looking out the window for a bit instead of downloading Fap Content :-) Turns out the US is quite pretty in places, especially if you like Corn.

Re:buy your phone and data at walmart at 4am

[Anonymous Coward]

If you can go back to Oz and convince the Little River Band to grow up and come to the states, I'll cover their mobile wireless fees. (But not until next year - I'm in Brissy for one more year - lets see some local warm-ups before the tour).

Re:buy your phone and data at walmart at 4am

[Anonymous Coward]

Only a rocker in a rock band from Australia would use caveat emptor and a tour bus,
 
and hookers with their cheap ass Walmart burn phones.

qos

[Anonymous Coward]

Get yourself wifi routers to site in between your people and the internet. Then configure the antennas with per-user qos of max 1 kbit/sec - enough for medium res youtube. They don't need HD in a bus, it'lll negotiate down to 480. Tell 'em the U.S. is too spread out for HD on a bus.

Wrong approach

[ronaldbeal]

I have been touring the U.S. and worldwide for 23 years. I have never had a problem with data caps on a tour bus from the major providers (Senators, Roberts Brothers, Hemphill, etc...) Additionally, most tours get a high bandwidth connection in each venue, and use a touring wifi system from road-wifi.com (I think they also do North American licensed walkie talkies so you can kill 2 birds with one stone.) Finally, most hotels have free/included wifi, so you only actually use the bus wifi on submarine rides.

Speaking as an RV'er

[Anonymous Coward]

This *IS* a good way to go. Peplink routers aren't cheap, but I can use WIFI, Sat, LTE as I find it.

My current setup is Peplink w/ http://www.millenicom.com (TMobile) Not bad, but do NOT watch video unless you're looking at it on a local device (no firestick, chromecasts, etc.)

The Pirate Bay

[Anonymous Coward]

Download your shit to computers when you have a fast connection. You can steal a lot of 720p movies in a few hours on a 30 megabit downstream.

Straight Talk

[demonlapin]

Buy Straight Talk from Walmart. $55, 12 GB of LTE data. When you use it up in one day, buy another (you can still text and call with the card, it just gets 2G data after the 12 GB are used). Rinse and repeat. If $55/day sinks your budget, rent a smaller bus next time.

If you want a local SIM in the US, this is it. Not cheap, but it does cover the entire country. Anyone got any recommendations for something similar in central Europe? Probably going to go with Google Fi just because roaming rates are reasonable, but have a two-week vacation coming up from Germany to Hungary and back...

Re:Straight Talk

[Anonymous Coward]

Just use T-mobile in EU. Data roaming is free and works ok. Not for streaming though. If you want streaming buy a local sim. Lyca, Vodaphone, etc, You will probably get unlimited data for 30 days, for 20 EUR or 5GB for 5 EUR

Re:Straight Talk

[Anonymous Coward]

I went through two years of falling data prices. Started highest in US, then Australia, then Vietnam, then Costa Rica, then British Isles - every country cheaper than the last. .... Then I came back to the US to start all over again. Why is American mobile data so much more expensive (and not so speedy) compared with so many countries that Americans look down on? American cellular has always lagged Europe and Asia. s/ Those regions much pay their CEOs much than the American CEOs get paid /s How else to explain the disparity?

Re:Straight Talk

[Anonymous Coward]

New EU legislation means no more roaming charges (hooray!) when you're in EU member states so just buy the cheapest. This is rarely the offer you get on the plane, at the airport etc. for a "worldwide" SIM... Shop around for the cheapest deal which will probably be in the poorest country - so Hungary rather than Germany. Go for one of the big established providers rather than a re-seller, since their roaming deals are sometimes flakey. Finally remember that some countries in Europe are not in the EU so roaming charges still apply, e.g. Switzerland.

Re:Straight Talk

[bgarcia]

I currently pay $180/mo. for a family plan of 7 lines on T-mobile. Unlimited everything on every line, including high-speed data. They also give $10/mo back for each line that uses less than 2GB of data in any month. That seems pretty damn cheap.

Re:Straight Talk

[Anonymous Coward]

Roaming inside of EU is great, roaming outside easily puts you in the $5 per MB of data.

Re:Straight Talk

[demonlapin]

So, Fi it is. Not the cheapest up front, but as Switzerland is on the menu, looks like the best choice. Mostly going to be used for nav and streaming music on the road.

Re:best practices

[R3d M3rcury]

No, the drummer needs to practice!

Practice what?

What do you call a guy who hangs out with musicians? The drummer.

Hey-O! I'll be here all week. Try the veal.

Re:best practices

[PopeRatzo]

Right, fuck trying to engage with your fans

Do that from the stage.

These data caps aren't getting blown by posting pictures from the road or Tweeting the set list. They're being blown by the rhythm guitarist watching Season 5 of Hawaii 5-0 and the bass player watching Netflix for 8 hours a day.

And what's up with touring musicians who are all of a sudden too good to do drugs and bang groupies? They gotta be on the Internet all day? Man, millennials have ruined everything.

From an old touring tech...

[Anonymous Coward]

So Iâ(TM)ve been a touring tech in the U.S. for the last 10 years. The company to go with is Verizon if your not hitting any major cities. Iâ(TM)ve been to every state with lots of people, with other providers and they almost always have some issues in alot of rural areas. The best luck Iâ(TM)ve had was capping it per day (for crew) and a second one for the artist (capped as well but a little higher). It honestly sucks touring in the states for internet cause itâ(TM)s always spotty and they always try to rob you (fucking venues charging an arm and a leg for borderline 56k doesnâ(TM)t help either). Best to control it in your end, if you give them a call about that sort of thing they can set it up.

Re:best practices

[PopeRatzo]

What do you call a guy who hangs out with musicians? The drummer.

Back in the day, I remember that punchline being, "the bass player". As in...

Did you hear about the drummer who locked his keys in his car?
It took him four hours to get the bass player out.

Re:best practices

[Obfuscant]

Right, fuck trying to engage with your fans and post pictures and videos from the road.

You missed the reason why they need 12Gb per day: to stream videos and download music. They're not engaging the fans, they're consuming other people's content.

Boost

[Anonymous Coward]

Boost or another sprint reseller -- $30 phone @ 22gb $50 month, gotta manual root it to bypass tether/wifi 8gb cap, then UDP vpn to a $5 VM to bypass congestion cap. Coverage sucks in boondocks but so do the crowds, interstates are fine. Can go anon cash via Walmart.

Re:Read a bloody book

[Anonymous Coward]

Says the guy posting this on /. from what is obviously not a book.

Wanker.

Wait, what?

[DontBeAMoran]

With 12 people, downloading music and streaming movies, we can easily exceed 12GB a day!

So... don't download music and don't stream movies while you're on tour? Ever heard of local storage? That's still a thing you know.

Re:Wait, what?

[kamapuaa]

Right, just figure out the movie/TV preferences of 12 band members and pirate it all ahead of time! Wow, and who said Ask Slashdot had stupid answers to stupid questions?

Re:Wait, what?

[Sandman1971]

Or you know, Netflix now allows you to download locally for offline viewing.

Re:Wait, what?

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't they sell CD or even tapes and vinyl on tour?

Also, they still sell 11.6" netbooks with 500GB HDD. Look up Asus Eeebok E202 for instance. That's hundreds of movies and it's a small fanless thing with 802.11ac. (also the first useful thing I've noticed yet that takes power from USB-C). Can even take a 2.5" 7mm 2TB hard disk.

YES with 2TB you can store so much shit as to satisfy everyone. Like a hundred seasons eating less than half the storage.

You can also get a USB DVD drive if you're worried about legality. Copyright law is such that if you buy 1000 old DVD for $5, or borrow a stash of DVDs from a friend, or perhaps find them in a dumpster then you've legally acquired the material and making a compressed copy to the hard drive is legal (might be .mkv with xvid, .mkv with H264 or .mp4 with H264)
The worst CPU, Celeron N3050 even has Intel Quicksync which you might use to encode the vids in H264 (with a bit less quality, but for the argument of dumping dozens DVD onto a netbook I think it'll do)

Of course the guys likely are watching illegal streaming anyway (that's why they only use 12GB a day)

Re:Wait, what?

[stealth_finger]

Right, just figure out the movie/TV preferences of 12 band members and pirate it all ahead of time! Wow, and who said Ask Slashdot had stupid answers to stupid questions?

If you think the only options are stream or pirate then you're a fucking idiot.

Re:Wait, what?

[Wolfrider]

--The "smart" phone / iPhone has only been around for about ten years. Seriously, you can't revert back to pre-smartphone habits? Carry around an iPod or similar (even an Android tablet with SD card and Doubletwist) that's full of your favorite music, carry around a cheap laptop with a builtin DVD drive, MakeMKV and a few of your fave ripped DVDs that you loaded onto it before leaving?

--Srsly? Not everything has to be streamed on demand, especially if it's costing extra $$$ every month. Buying even refurbished equipment and doing the above, instead of downloading everything ad hoc, would be LESS expensive. In fact, when you have *no* Internet connection you'll be thankful that you have local copies of everything!

// kids these days
/// my lawn, off

A book?!

[DontBeAMoran]

Books are not meant to be read.

Use what Willie Nelson used!!!!

[williamyf]

Mushroom Networks. If it was good enough for Willie Nelson in 2009, It is good enough for your no-name band (let's hope you become a household name in the future).

More info here:

https://www.wired.com/2009/10/...

Re: Quotafy

[jtara]

'red snappers' don't get quotes.

And even if they did, not "single" ones (AKA apostrophes). Please don't apostrophe your quotation marks. Unless you are a software developer, and then if you can in the language(s) you use, I endorse that usage because it makes the code easier to read.

Nor do these get quotation marks: (but quotation marks in the list below are legit because I am ACTUALLY QUOTING.

- "Kardashian money"
- "billions"
- "fun fact"

OK, maybe "billions", if you were exaggerating.

- The grammar pedantry squad

AT&T Mobile Connect

[Anonymous Coward]

It's $20/month, truly unlimited, and is available in any vehicle with an OBDII port.

Others have been using it for household connections for a few months now, with tremendous results.

Re:AT&T Mobile Connect

[sims 2]

Expanding on this the cheap option is the att mobley for $20/mo just tether it to a router and you get decent speeds.
Otherwise for $90/mo you can just get unlimited on any att hotspot the unite allows 15 devices if that's not enough either tether to a router or buy a router that can do cellular like one of the pepwave or cradlepoint routers. The cheap end of the cellular routers is the MOFI line. Well $300 isn't that cheap but it is by comparison.

Re: Quotafy

[Anonymous Coward]

Nor do these get quotation marks: (but quotation marks in the list below are legit because I am ACTUALLY QUOTING.

Where is your ending parentheses?

"Fun fact" can be quoted if the PP is replying to the GPP post and placing a sarcastic undertone to it, which is how I read it.

Tell the bus company to pony the fuck up

[Khyber]

Either they provide unlimited data on the tour or your big band will go with another bus provider, period.

It's like you have no balls for negotiation. You'd make a shitty Ferengi.

How'd someone with no balls for negotiation like you even get the job you have?

Re:Tell the bus company to pony the fuck up

[johnsie]

Your negotiation skills would leave you with no bus and no Internet, you pillock.

Re:Tell the bus company to pony the fuck up

[Anonymous Coward]

good luck walking. While buses aint cheap, no company is going to throw in a freebie like that. (if they were a big band the cost wouldn't be an issue and the band members wouldn't be all travelling by bus).

Re:Tell the bus company to pony the fuck up

[Obfuscant]

How'd someone with no balls for negotiation like you even get the job you have?

He's great at negotiation. He underbid every other competitor to get the job! And they're getting every penny's worth from what they are paying him. Win win!

T-mobile

[Anonymous Coward]

As others have pointed out, Tmobile is the most data friendly provider in the US. I've had verizon, and while they can get connectivity almost anywhere, their data network is stuck in 2001. If you get verizon you deserve all the pain and anguish you will suffer( along with the high $$$$). ATT in my experience is highly predatory, though I can't speak to their performance. I have run with Tmobile on a cell-booster ( Weboost 4g-M) and have never NOT had connectivity - even deep in godforsaken ATT land where the only thing there was edge. For you likely use case I would recommend a "family plan" get everyone who needs one a phone. They will get 32GB each before they get de-prioritized QoS style. ( It's no big deal unless the tower is crowded.) Beware that the booster I suggested can handle up to 4 phones simultaneously. I have no idea what will happen when you are trying to push data on all 12 at once. Since you are going on tour. I find it highly unlikely that you will be in no mans land for very long. If you stay on major highways, you should have pretty fast data for the most part, and when you are at your venues( as long as they arent in the middle of knowhere [unlikely if you are as popular as you say]) your data should be pretty fast. I've seen 30mbps per phone with them in some places. I've seen youtube vids of folks getting even faster than that. TLDR: Tmobile + signal amp (booster) will be your best bet here. ( unless you can get the bus company to give you free unlimited internet)

make the record company pay for it

[nnet]

advertising. use your alleged well-known-band hype. negotiate. the band can afford it.

Re:make the record company pay for it

[Anonymous Coward]

At the same time, you will know where things stand between your rock band, and the record company.

If they use finger quotes when they refer to "rock band" -- there's your sign.

Re: Quotafy

[bestweasel]

"Please don't apostrophe your quotation marks"

The verb is "apostrophize".

No matter how pedantic you are, there's
always someone pedanticker.

I have a better idea

[PixetaledPikachu]

Introduce them to the wonderful world of book reading

Re:I have a better idea

[Anonymous Coward]

and self driving vehicles

or at the very least hands-free parallel parking

Check this out: today's captcha is "antibody"

What happened to Slashdot?

[Anonymous Coward]

So many trolling and negative replies here I thought I was redirected to 4chan

Max Payne 3 Pc Game Download

[malikb2017]

Max Payne 3 Pc Game Download

What happened to rock and roll

[Anonymous Coward]

Streaming movies and checking emails on tour?

Re:What happened to rock and roll

[sabbede]

What would you be doing if you were stuck on a bus all day?

Re: What happened to rock and roll

[KGIII]

I'm too old, now. I used to perform, but it wasn't that fancy. Either way, the answer is, "Groupies and blow."

One of the great things about playing in bars is that even the drummer can get laid.

Re: What happened to rock and roll

[sabbede]

The drummer can always get laid. It's the bass player nobody wants to hump.

If you do blow all day, you'll be a mess when you finally hit the stage. It works best just before or just after. Groupies are great, but when you uhm, "finish", maybe you just want to catch up on Thrones.

But if I'm going to be honest, we didn't have either.

Re:best practices

[Anonymous Coward]

Q: How many Drummers does it take to change a lightbulb?

A: None. They have machines that do that these days.

You can have fries! but need a mobile server

[Anonymous Coward]

No. If you're ruining yourself paying for the deliveries of fries and burger everyday, stop doing that. Buy potato and oil and make the fries yourself, it's rather easy, downside is not ever wanting to eat fast food fries ever after that. Buy large bags of frozen fries, this might be even cheaper and you only have to drop them into frying hot oil.
Hell, get large bags of frozen fries *delivered* to your home if you really want to and stuff them in your freezer.

You need to get all those fries and cola to your home and store them. But they're also immediately available and 10x cheaper.

Here it's very similar in that you can have a huge amount for data on hand. 2TB 2.5" hard drive is cheap enough and stores a huge ass amount of 480p H264 video. Even a 128GB SD card affords some sizable amount of 128K AAC, 320K MP3 etc. although a 1TB 2.5" hard drive costs about the same. (You can also have two hard drives in case one fails)
Like with the fries, you're stuck with your frozen potato bags but you don't have to pay for the restaurant and delivery man, and you can have immediate access as well. I.e. when reading from hard drive on a LAN, you only have to wait 20ms when skipping through a video or a huge ass playlist, not wait for some slow web streaming and buffering.

Now, you can expect the bus passengers to have androids and iphones and crap and that's the complication. So you likely do need some "mobile NAS" (file server) with a web server that allows to play movies, music etc. which is where this gets more complicated as well as the networking itself (laptop as the server, wifi router linked by network cable to the laptop? and can you find a battery operated router?). There is such "multimedia NAS" server software with local web streaming and companion "apps" for android, iphone, even windows phone. E.g. Emby Server. Maybe things like Kodi and Plex.

Hahahaha!!!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

That's your solution, to teach self control? To a ROCK BAND?

HAHAHAHAHA!!!

Re: Quotafy

[Aighearach]

I saw a fun one on a sign today, it said

"owner managed"

And I just can't stop wondering if the assistant manager is passive-aggressive, or the owner and sign company are both just idiots.

Re: Quotafy

[stealth_finger]

your write about some pacific points their but i really could care less.

Re:best practices

[stealth_finger]

What's the difference between a drummer and a drum machine?

You only have to punch information into a drum machine once.

Mmmmm

[nospam007]

Marty DiBergi ist that you?

We told you to get a better band.

Calyx Institute

[Anonymous Coward]

I read this story on BoingBoing a while ago and it sounds like exactly what you need:

http://boingboing.net/2016/09/22/i-have-found-a-secret-tunnel-t.html

However, it also sounds too-good-to-be-true / magic. I cannot verify whether it works, as I do not live in the US

Caching players

[Anonymous Coward]

Play the music through a computer with a large hard drive, use something like Spotify, and allocate all the drive to its cache. You'll only download songs on the first play then and most of the music will be repeats.

Don't waste everyone's time.

[Anonymous Coward]

Please don't comment on a story to try to show how superior you are.

Verizon unlimited for $50

[wmelnick]

http://bgr.com/2017/06/14/veri... Become a member of FMCA for $50 then sign up using their deal.

Re:Verizon unlimited for $50

[pnutjam]

Looks like that deal is already dead
https://www.fmca.com/verizon/

Re:Verizon unlimited for $50

[Anonymous Coward]

no longer an option, cancelled

Re:best practices

[sabbede]

You've clearly never been in a touring band. Things are crazy, hectic and stressful. They work nights, doing something very high-energy that leaves them wound up instead of sleepy. They may practice some on the bus (they're already good at what they do), but idly, individually, and preferably while watching something more interesting than telephone poles out the window. It's half working your ass off and half vacation.

Last time I did it, I don't think we even had a cell phone. Having the internet would have been a godsend, because most of it is incredibly boring. Riding around on a bus all day isn't exactly entertaining.

Get Some Board Games

[bwanagary]

Talk to each other.
Look out the window and see the world around you.
Read a book.
Ever heard of the iPod?

Seriously, get a life.

funny shiny discs ?

[DrYak]

Do they not buy albums and then listen to them? They have to stream it?

What's that funny shinny metallic disc ?

And how am I supposed to put it inside my Apple iGadget 8 ? I keep tapping it against the phone, but the bluetooth doesn't seem to react.
Now my screen is scratched, and I'll need to complain about it on instagram (once I figure how to take a picture of the phone itself. I'll have to borrow a friend's phone)

Those discs remind me the thingy that my old uncle puts in he Microsoft Xbox 1080....

Service providers

[DrYak]

Just unplug the goddamned thing and dole out small portions out as a reward.

Which seems to be the general policy of *any* service providers in the US, from what we hear over on this side of the atlantic pond...

Greed

[Anonymous Coward]

Greed drives it here in the USA. All cell phone plans are geared to drain your wallet. The recent trend is companies offering *unlimited internet (freakin lie because it isn't constant; they turn speeds 90% down after 8GB usually on single plans) and they remove the mobile hotspots from the fastest, largest cap, plans. So you can use up to 22-23GB of data on the phone itself, but heaven forbid you want to use it on a pc that's using the wifi hotspot from the phone.

I even had one idiot from AT&T tell me that it's the companies right to determine what you use, or if you can use a hotspot, because that costs the company more.

This is incorrect. Mobile hotspots are a function of the phone and have nothing to do with the company or their hardware. This is the prime example of greed and the monopolies that companies have going.

Comparing a hotspot as a company right? That's like the power company saying you can only use a dishwasher if you pay them extra.

Business accounts

[Chewbacon]

My company has me on a corporate plan with unlimited and I throttled data. My coworkers and I have burned through it on extensive travel (100s of gigs) and it just keeps chugging along. There are such things out there.

Call Ian Faith - He'll set you right up.

[Anonymous Coward]

...not sure if he's available, may be out on tour already.

T-Mobile

[PortHaven]

Get T-Mobile Unlimited data plan, 4 for $160. Then on one of the lines, pay $25 to add the unlimited tethering option so you can use your laptops and streaming devices.

Then add a cell booster antenna onto your vehicle.
https://www.amazon.com/Travel-...

aka

[Osgeld]

I am too fuckin lazy to shop for myself, you are working with a "well-known rock band" and yet trying to crowd source a phone plan

JFC

Google Fi

[Anonymous Coward]

You could try https://fi.google.com/about/

I don't know much about it but it could work.

Does Wal-Mart allow you to connect to wi-fi?

[kfh227]

I ask because they are very kind to people with busses and truckers. They actually welcome them to sleep in their lot overnight and provide free coffee in the morning from what I understand.

Why do they do this? Because these people then go get their short term needs at Wal-Mart. Need milk, bread, a small grill, etc, it's right there.

See if Wal-Mart allows use of their Wi-Fi.

Spinal Tap...

[mchall]

... is touring again? Don't bother buying a data plan for the drummer.

calyx institute

[Anonymous Coward]

Calyx institute, I really recomend it.

Honestly, your best option...

[thomn8r]

Take a shower, cut your hair, and get a real job.

Shouldn't You Be Practicing

[Anonymous Coward]

So come down a notch or two and live like normal people. Or just pay for what you use like normal people.

The simple awnser is "dont"

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't stream music and movies. I used to frequently travel to places where mobile data cost was outrageous, slow and mostly unreliable given weather conditions. The work around? Micro SDs pre-packed with video and audio. Weeks up on weeks of television packed into matchbook size stack of SD cards because I had enough foresight to know that mobile rates were dumb. Save your data for your emails and communication.

I'm tried nothing and ....

[Duckz]

Physics. Things get cheaper, and .. I can't bring myself to give help. Of course unlimited hotspots exist. This is as close to hidden sponsored-content as I can image.

Re:best practices

[amicusNYCL]

They're not engaging the fans, they're consuming other people's content.

It's only one or the other, huh? The tour buses that I've been on over the past year have included plenty of people who are actively working while on the road. The tour manager, for instance, he's lining up the details on the next few shows while they're going down the road, he's checking in with his other clients, etc. After the show the people in the band typically just want to relax and hang out, but once they get on the road they're either sleeping, posting whatever they want to post, or entertaining themselves. It's not like everyone does one thing and one thing only.

Re:best practices

[Obfuscant]

It's only one or the other, huh?

I didn't tell everyone the reason or make it up, I'm just telling you what you missed in the summary.

You don't need 12Gb per day to "engage the fans". You don't distribute videos of your performances from a tour bus, you upload them once to a server somewhere. If you are tweeting 12Gb of stuff per day, you are seriously misusing Twitter.

What am I missing? Why streaming?

[gosand]

Sure, being on the road is boring... but why stream?
Between everyone on the bus you can't come up with a collection of Videos/Music, put them on a laptop with a wifi hotspot and serve up the entire bus?

This just sounds like a nonsensical problem with an obvious solution.

Negotiate Aggressively

[Anonymous Coward]

Simply call BS on the option. Demand unlimited data or offer to rent the bus only as long as the data feed is top notch. See how fast the rental company comes around to your way of thinking when they understand you'll rent from another company over this tiny detail.

Re: Quotafy

[Anonymous Coward]

"more pedantic".

I laughed out loud on this one, but beat you

[Anonymous Coward]

to the Tap with my Ian Faith comment an hour and a half earlier :]

https://unlimitedville.com/plans

[Anonymous Coward]

Welcome to https://unlimitedville.com/plans

Re:best practices

[amicusNYCL]

You don't distribute videos of your performances from a tour bus

You don't? If you want to upload some stuff to YouTube, are you supposed to tell the driver to pull over so you can get out? What if some of the videos are from the actual bus?

Kids these days, I tell ya...

[Jupiter Jones]

I used to tour a lot back in '90s. We didn't stream squat because there was nothing to stream. Most of us didn't even have cellphones.

But we did have VHS players in both the front and back lounges. We had walkmen and whatever tapes/CDs we brought. Sometimes I'd bring my SuperNES and hook it up for some rousing drunken games of Mario Kart. If we were lucky, we'd wind up in one of the nicer buses that could get satellite TV if it wasn't too cloudy.

We had books and magazines. The kind made from trees.

If I wanted to check email, I'd just find a phone jack at the venue or hotel room and plug the ol' dial-up modem in. Assuming I brought a computer in the first place, which I often didn't even bother with.

We went out there, played music, had a blast, and survived just fine without a data plan.

So can you.

Touring Band

[dac56]

Hi SEMLogistics,
      I realize the mobile data costs is the main issue here. This is just a FWIW post for all small bands, creating original content and ways to increase their revenue thru music sales. Face it, it's no real news that the streaming model is breaking down as evidenced by the recent exiting of Pandora execs, SoundCloud layoff and Spotify being heavily leveraged with VC $$ despite millions of paid subscribers. The $$ is not going to the content creators. See the recent music
docu: lastsongwriter.com On a recent trip to Nashville to do a session, I got turned onto a startup called crowdmusic.com\281 They are attempting to change the model and out of every $1 they are allocating 0.40 to the artist. It's taking the Kickstarter model of vetting talent, combining it with social media. Right now it's a chicken and an egg but if talent at the very top has the wherewithal to pull off the other streaming platforms and release exclusively on CrowdMusic, the tide can turn. Also follow musicbusinessworldwide.com as they are posting a lot of news stories like Spotify creating fake artists in an effort to NOT pay artists, and Sony Music hiring an AI specialist to "create" hit music. messed up....