I used to pay in a band called absoulte zero then colbalt casing. We played all around the east coast and had met some of the top people in the music scene by playing shows that we had to sell tickets for. I can honestly say It was the time of my life. We went from playing local shity dives to larger local dives and this is when we started selling tickets to our shows. We went from playing infront of 50- 100 people on a regular to 300-3,500 (depending on the venue and other bands). I know first hand that the promoters are not getting rich or taking advantage of the bands they book. A promoters job is to get as many people possible to a show and there best weapon for this is to have the bands promote themselves. It costs over $2000 dollars for radio adds and marketing tools. Where do you think the money comes from to promote a show at this scale? In todays market there is no more $50,000 record deals just given to a band for being a good musical group. Large record labels want to see you bringin a ton of people to shows as well as over all cd's sold. I agree with some of you about the art end of the musical spectrum but don't agree one bit with your cause to boycotte a club or bussiness just cause you can't do the work needed to bring a few hundred people out to the show. Mike you sound like a little kid with your insulsts of insecurity. Companies like the one pre mentioned above can truly help take a band from local status and make them national.