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:	post by ArrowHead likes Pie at 2007-07-25 18:36:16

Bands nowadays already DO pay to play. Most bands around here have CD's they self-funded, as well as shirts, merch, vans, and thousands upon thousands of dollars in gear. When it comes to budgets for promotion, we spend ours on all of these things. We record the music, bust balls to play anywhere and everywhere to expose and sell it, and spread as much word of mouth promotion as we can. I don't think I've ever met a single kid in a band who didn't make me AWARE they were in a band withing the first ten minutes of meeting them.

So since we already have our promotion spending cut out for us, it's always struck me as foolish for "promoters" to try and pass their own expenses on to us as well. Pay to play is not just some bullshit scam, it's in general a piss poor business model.

Look at clubs like CBGB. (RIP). Build up a client base. Create a unique and interesting atmosphere. This is the entire point of a club hiring a "promoter". Live entertainment is only one manner of bringing in this client base, but to us musicians it's the only one that matters. We WANT your client base, so we can expose our music to them. If you insist on making your live acts the FOCUS of your club's draw, then your selection is smaller, your draw eventually will suffer, and you make little to no progress in creating this thriving club culture you want.

Build good bills, and offer any and everything else you can to get people into your club. Now, build some strong and musically consistent bills to entertain these people. Expose new bands, discover unheard of talent that may eventually become a large draw, and try to procure some bands that are already established draws on every bill.

Pay to play is a cheap excuse by promoters to guarantee a good draw or breaking even for a night. Instead of having to do the research, go to shows and see who will and will not make your old customers happy and bring in new ones as well, you just make the bands do all that legwork for you. Not only that, but with pay to play you can hold the BANDS responsible for a misjudged bill, or a poorly publicized event.

I would much rather see more bars start doing "Pay to Promote".

But in a contrary sidenote, I must mention that Mike at Zero loses ultimately on this one. He came across as a hot-headed asshole, thus justifying and misgivings this guy might have had against his band in the first place.

In another sidenote, maybe you shouldn't be having the guy that cannot spell book your shows and write emails on your bands behalf?

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