Writing about the evil machinations of the industry is two parts paranoia and one part frustration. My general lack of achievement in music is my own fault really. Too many years treading water left me sodden and lacking agility.
That’s why I’m 29 and only just now making a concerted effort to do anything with my stuff. And that’s mostly thanks to my current crew: Jamie, Kenny, Steven and Al. Inspiring people.
Back to the machinations… gigging. It’s tough making money out of live music – it requires an investment of time, money and intelligence. And even with those things you ultimately rely on the bands. A lot of those bands aren’t really in it for the right reasons. They want to be in a band, but they don’t want to actually BE a band with all the energy and commitment that requires.
As a promoter, you could book out a venue, ask three bands to come along and sell as many tickets as they can. They turn up, having sold nothing, and play to no one before complaining they had no audience. And you’ve lost money.
So, naturally you think you won’t take that chance again. Instead you apply “ticket minimums”. It sounds officious and, more than anything, it’s not pay to play, because that’s awful and you wouldn’t do that to bands. But it’s just a variant and in some ways it’s worse.
Pay to play was awful. Basically it’s when promoters expect bands to pay their way onto a bill. If they can’t, they don’t get to play. Shameful stuff, right? The Musicians Union barred many venues in the 90s and early 2000s on account of it. Many venues blacklisted promoters. But in the last few years, spurred on by the struggling economy, it’s made a quiet and malicious comeback.
Here’s how it works: promoter gives you 20 tickets, says he needs the money from the first 10 sold. I’ve seen promoters say the extra sales are yours or need to be split 50-50. They claim they have costs to cover (venue, equipment, promotion) and that they’re giving you a great stage to play on.
How much of that is true? Not a single part of it. Let’s look at venue costs. A decent small venue like The 13th Note in Glasgow costs £50 to hire for the night. That gives you the stage, PA plus extras, staff for the bar and a sound guy. You need to bring amps, drum kits, etc. Let’s say you can source all of this or the bands agree to bring and share. Promotion is a bit trickier. Most of the local newspapers and culture type things have free event listings. You might have some posters but at local band level these are generally laser printed so even 50 will only cost maybe £5. £55 for the night.
Let’s say the tickets are £5 each and the four bands playing (often the number on these shows) give their minimum, even if they’ve not sold enough tickets (why do they do this? Because they don’t know better and think they won’t be allowed to play if they don’t have the money). That’s £145 straight into the promoter’s pocket, with the bare minimum investment.
The promoter hasn’t brought anyone along, hasn’t spent any time promoting the gig, and hasn’t done anything that will get the bands any attention. All the promoter has done is profited of other people’s hard work. The band ends up with nothing to show other than a gig that probably cost them money to play at.
That is not promoting, not the way I understand it. It’s profiteering. There are better deals out there if bands work together. You don’t need a promoter, you just need likeminded individuals to share the cost and all put effort in.
That’s what we’re going to do. We had one semi-successful shot already and we’re going to do more. Small venues, good bands, low cost, all working together to help each other grow. I sound like a hippy… 
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Some would say that typing your retrospective on the first day of the new year is a little too late. Those people would have failed to take crippling flu into account. 
