‘Sight For Sound' Should Be On Every Music Industry Professional's Radar

Forbes

2 days ago

Sight For Sound initiative by NEVEN Eyewear
Access to affordable healthcare has been a longstanding issue throughout the job market in the U.S. However, as it pertains to the music industry, musicians and industry professionals are rarely provided a healthcare plan in their line of work. And this is an issue across the music industry, whether it's a major label signed artist or a small band signed to an indie label. Just as mental health is often a neglected and overlooked issue in the industry, the same is true when comes to access to healthcare. On the bright side, times are starting to change for the better. Major label artists like Chappell Roan have brought these issues to the forefront in recent months, and there are a number of other artists doing the same.
In the heavy music scene, NEVEN Eyewear, a high quality eyewear company that has roots in the hardcore scene, recently launched a new initiative this year called Sight For Sound. The company was started by Jonathan Strauss, who grew up playing in the New Jersey hardcore scene, and, since launching the company in 2019, NEVEN eyewear has grown to sell over $30 million worth of eyewear annually.
With the recent success NEVEN has seen, Strauss was inspired to launch the Sight For Sound initiative – an initiative that aims to combat the lack of basic eyecare musicians and industry professionals endure by providing presciption glasses to those working in the industry. Simply put, there's no catch to this initiative - NEVEN just asks those who are accepted into the program to share their new glasses on social media to help spread the word. That's it.
As it stands now, the initiative is open to touring professionals (musicians, stagehands, crew) and music industry professionals. Whether you're a guitar tech, guitarist, or if you even work for a guitar company, Sight For Sound is looking to get you covered. Furthermore, NEVEN's director of partnerships is an extreme metal musician – Fit For An Autopsy guitarist, Patrick Sheridan.
Speaking on all things Sight For Sound, Sheridan discusses how this initiative came about and more importantly how industry professionals can get involved.
MADRID, SPAIN - OCTOBER 18: Pat Sheridan of the American extreme metal band Fit for an Autopsy ... More performs on stage at La Riviera on October 18, 2023 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Mariano Regidor/WireImage)
Patrick Sheridan: So the owner, Jon Strauss, he played bass in a couple of bands from New Jersey. He was in this band called Redline, Hardcore band from New Jersey, and I was playing in a bunch of hardcore bands back then and we kind of started crossing paths and he was a little younger than me.
He was coming up in the scene, kind of like doing his thing and we met and he was a really nice guy. We had like a loose friendship for years and then Tim, who was also in bands from New Jersey, started working with Jon on the sunglasses side of things. We reconnected and he was like, 'hey, man, like I'm trying to do this cool thing for the music industry, and I need a guy who's, you know, good at talking and is kind of locked into the scene and in all the worlds that I like, we should work together.' And so it legitimately just came from a good friendship.
PS: I don't know if it's a specific story, but I do know that Jon's a really successful guy and he feels that his roots and the way that he works and all of the things that he does, he feels a lot of those lessons came from working in the hardcore scene and from being a part of that world. And I guess, you know, being a successful person, he feels like giving back is important. And he is always trying to find ways to help people and work with people. So when he found out I wore glasses , we started talking about just the fact that he gave me a pair of glasses and how it was pretty incredible to not have to pay hundreds of dollars for something that's of good quality, it just sparked a thing. Whether or not he was thinking about it before, he started talking about helping people and it just evolved.
And he's great at coming up with ways to kind of, put the brand in positions to help people do the things that they do. He's got a lot of great partnerships. He works with people in the music industry and let's be honest, the music industry at this point isn't packed with money anymore. You have to take a lot of alternative ways to make money. And somebody like Jon who's working with people, setting up these partnerships, helping them save money, you know, he works with people on the sunglass side of things. He has partnerships with Gary Holt and Matt [Heafy] from Trivum, and he's got a pair of glasses coming out with Jim Root, but he also works with The Ghost Inside and he's working with Tim [Howley] from my band Fit For An Autopsy.
I also have a pair of sunglasses or two that are going to come out, and it's ways to create revenue and work with bands on a level where you can help these people that may not make a ton of money in the music industry. Some of these guys do, like Gary Holt and these bigger artists are definitely making money, but, you know, when you come to our world, it becomes harder to make money.
PS: Well, when Jon came to me and we were talking about him putting me in the position that I'm in, he asked me 'what do you think?' And I was like, well, we work with all these A&R types of people in the industry, you know, I work with some folks like Jackson Guitars or these different companies that I often deal with like, 'hey, I need a guitar' or 'I need something for my rig.' And there are people that basically vet you, make sure that you are worthy of whatever sponsorship or endorsement they're going to give you. And we kind of based it off of that idea.
We came up with a number of shows that we felt reasonably made you a professional. And there's outside things too, like, if you work for a guitar company or if you work for a management company – there's things that will get you in the door. But as a touring musician, you meet the criteria for a certain amount of shows, whether you're putting out music, or if your band is active, and if you are, you get free glasses. That's it. So you fill out a piece of paper, it's a short form, it's got maybe 10 or 12 questions on it, like 'how many shows do you play?' 'Are you signed to a label?' 'How many people follow you in the internet?' It's typical things that would line you up with any endorsement and it just goes from there.
But again, if you are a tech or a stage manager or a tour manager, if you work for a music company like Sweetwater or if you are a guitar builder or a pickup company, there's access for people like that too because they provide the ability to do the job. So Jon was really smart about the way he put it together. We had a lot of discussion about simplifying it so anybody could do it. And that's it, you just go to the website, click the Sight For Sound link, fill it out, and if you fall into the category of being eligible, you get it. That's it.
PS: I don't know an exact number because we haven't gone back and really done a count to see, but I can tell you that we've had hundreds of people jump in and fill out the paperwork. Like at one point, Jon was like, 'yeah, we've had over 200 applications at this point.'
I've gotten messages from some of my peers saying, 'hey, this is great.' I know I'm going to see Scott Vogel tonight, but Scott from Terror got a pair and a handful of other people. This dude Christian Olde Wolbers, who plays bass, he was in Fear Factory and now he's playing for Cypress Hill as there live bass player. He got glasses. Like there's tons of people in the industry, both on the band-artist spectrum and touring spectrum that have gotten access. So it is catching on. It's a little slower than we had kind of anticipated, but it's gotten busier and busier as people talk about it more.
Of course, people are skeptical. You know, that's a big problem. This is leading me into a different side of this conversation, but people think, oh, well, what's the catch? What do I have to do? You just have to post about it on your Instagram page. That's the only thing that we ask — if you get a pair of glasses from NEVEN, take a picture wearing them, post them, say, 'hey, thanks for this thing, this is awesome.' It's advertising.
And how is this a possible thing to do, because it does cost money? NEVEN spends a lot of money with all of these different advertising companies, Meta and all these things to advertise for their company.
But this particular branch of it, Jon came up with the idea of if I can dump a bunch of money into Meta and have profit and that's a proven thing, I can do that, or I can put the money into the industry and have these people who are industry professionals that have all these followers advertise for me. So I can help these people and still push my program forward in the same way that I would if I was dumping a bunch of money into Meta or one of these other platforms to advertise for this particular version of my company. It's a really smart marketing campaign. It's a little slower because, again, you have to get people to believe that there's no catch.
You know, you offer somebody something for free nowadays and nobody, nobody believes it. But it is free and it is smart and all you have to do is share it and get the people that follow you interested because now if Scott Vogel or some other musician posts about it, everybody that looks at their page is going to go, 'oh, this is cool. Let me check out this company.' It's the same way they might see something on Facebook or some advertisement and go check it out.
So it's smart advertising and that's kind of the way that Jon worked it, and I think it's incredible. Because it's a harder move for them, you know? NEVEN has to find the right people. We have to push it to the right hand and hope that it works, but, you know, traditional advertising is a little bit more straightforward. So it's a little more work, but I think it's really cool.
PS: I think people are just generally surprised. It's a little early on to see anything particular that stands out, but I can tell you, Scott Vogel, you know, actually reached out to me and was like, 'dude, this is incredible.' There was also a gentleman that will remain nameless, but he reached out and basically said he's almost blind, and he can't read on a computer without squinting. He has a hard time seeing, but he doesn't make a lot of money and this is going to help him be able to do his job better,. This is a guy that works in the industry.
Like I said, like, there's a lot of angles on this industry, and a lot of places that don't make the revenue that you would hope they would. They don't get paid what they deserve, you know, stage hands, these people that work at venues, so this is a really cool thing. Like this person has an issue with their eyes, they know what the problem is, but they don't have insurance. They have kids, they're not making enough money to really go out and buy new glasses every year, you know, $500 a year is a lot of money to some people.
You can't afford that. And so this is helping folks like that be able to do their jobs better. It's the hand feeding the hand, everybody is helping. And, and I'm sure there'll be more stories like that, but that stands out to me. Jon brought that to me and he was like, 'I can't believe how many of these people don't have vision coverage and can't get glasses.' And this is helping. I think, the thing that feels the best is knowing that this is going to help those folks.