Bands, don't pay to be "considered for a show"

I'm seeing many posts about these shows, conferences or festivals that require a band to pay money for a possible slot on thier show. Which means that show is collecting money from aspiring bands & then either telling many bands (in no uncertain terms) "sorry your not good enough for us" or simply putting them on ignore. That's poison on this industry.. it's arrogant and bullying imo. Like who tf are you?

02. Pay To Play vs. Ticket Sales vs. Buy on.

PAY TO PLAY
your paying money to be put on a bill. Now if you feel this would be a good opportunity for you then that's your choice. Rule of thumb for me is, do you feel 100% confident you can go out there & crush it, make your $ back in merch and network for bigger things? I'm not a fan of pay to play but I am not knocking someone if they feel it'll help. No 717 Entertainment doesn't offer that...

SELLING TICKETS
if your band doesn't believe in selling tickets that's totally cool. I feel it's a good thing. I'll never have a band leave w/out getting $ for a show. I can tell when your bothering to put effort in & when your not though. I think selling tix & being offered a good % of what you sell is very fair. A band can be a hobby but if you wanna get somewhere it's a business. The idea of Tickets is simple. You get on a show w/ say a national & 3 other locals. You & the other locals move 30 tix each & the national let's say does 50 (just to be on the minimal side) that's 170 heads in the room & 140 new faces for each local. Go out & kill it, network and sling merch. Thank the staff, bartenders and other bands. Make good impressions, trust me that'll get you so much further than showing up, playing and leaving.

BUY ON TO A SHOW
You’ll give the promoter money up front to play on the show. Theres a few ways this works. Some willl give you tickets to sell in order to make your money back, now some will only give you enough to make it to the point you break even, or possibly even not enough to break even. For example if you buy on for $1000 and the show is $25 you’d need to sell 40 tickets to make that back. Some will give you no tickets, some will give you 30, some 40, somre more. Personally I think its fair to give the act 50+ and at very least let the act keep half what they sell beyond 40. I don’t feel thats a great way to make $ obviously but it could lead to a great oppurtunity for your band. I would probably say here’s 75 tickets, if you go past 40 keep what you make. I am not into the buy on thing. I’ll admit to doing it 1 time and I hated it. I also did give bands everything they made beyond the break even point for them.

*Sidenote on that: promoters & venues, let's be fair. Yes it's a business but this having bands move 75-100 Tickets and giving them $50 is bullshit. The sad thing when I see this is, I know how much these shows cost and it's all about lining pockets. Buying big houses and sports cars on the back of young kids trying to make a dream come to light.

SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO?
some bands come before load in and stay all night until doors close. Some show up at load in and bounce after thier set. Bands are not obligated to be there for longer than load in until after thier set, however I don’t think its in good taste. I feel if you have a gig that’s your night. Don’t agree to a gig the same night you have a bachelor party or some other plans. You should commit to that show because that’s how you grow your band. I’m gonna tell you first off when you play and pack up your shit and leave its a bad look. Venues, bands, promoters all will have a bad taste in thier mouth about it. Its not a good look. It does absolutely nothing to help your band. Sure you played in front of some people, maybe made a few bucks but that only goes so far. Your looked at in a bad light by at least 75% of the people in the building, you miss valuable time to converse w/ potential fans, friends and business networks and your not giving yourself time to sell merch. So again, do you have to stay? No, but its a good idea. Remember there might be bands on the bill that traveled 6+ hours to play this show so it’s not only about helping your band its also about respect. Huge thing in this business.

What to do at shows besides play?
Talk to people. Talk to EVERYONE. Network w/ other bands. Talk about doing shows in the future. Talk to the venue and employees, you want them to want you back. Ask the promoter what else they have coming up that you could be a part of, don’t always expect an answer on the spot on that but put a bug in thier ear. The idea is to show you are dedicated and want to come back and appreciate the spot on the bill. Talk to audience members, don’t wait for them to come to the merch stand. Take your stickers around and hand em out. Get your band’s name in everyone’s hands!! If you play a place like Lovedrafts get your stickers in the bathroom and wherever else. You want your band name everywhere.

Stay Away From Certain Acts.
Sure there is a well documented feud between myself and the band Trapt but there’s a reason for it. The singer is a douchebag and just terrible human being. Putting them in your venue or putting your band on a bill w/ them is a dangerous move. you WILL get people turned off because it’s guilt by association. Do I believe in free speech? Of Course but people forget that goes both ways, a band like Trapt can say whatever they want online but people are also free to say “i’m not listening to this band because they associate w/ a certain band” or “I’m not listening to them because of …” absolutely anything. You can not listen to a band because they have a name that’s 4 letters, you have that option so free speech goes both ways and sometimes these people like them, they like to claim they are not allowed free speech but then they do the exact thing to others w/out realizing how hypocrtytical that is. This is just my opinion of course and if you want to do a show w/ anyone your clearly free too.

Do Not Buy Streams or Followers
Nothing irks me and other promoters more than getting an email inquiring about a band wanting to play a show, requesting a ridiculous amount of money based on thier 50,000 spotify streams. Bands are paid based on thier draw, that’s just the cold hard facts. If you draw a shit ton of people you get paid a shit ton of money. It makes sense too. If your drawing 400 people those people are buying tickets and you are entitled to that money or at least a high percentage of it. These bands that are touring the US asking for $1,000 a night because they have 50,000 streams and 75,000 followers on facebook are likely scamming you. Unless they draw. If I’m paying a band $1,000 and I see 5 people walk in the door that’s not equal, right? unless your charging $200 i’m getting my ass handed to me on that night. When you have a band doing this all over the country that’s a scam and it’ll bite you in the ass because promoters, agents and venue staff talk. Don’t think your just gonna go in make your money each night and nobody is gonna be the wiser. We know and we aren’t happy. Everyone has off nights, there’s no shame in that, but when you have a band drawing 10 or less people every night, you need to build yourself before going on tour. Especially a headline tour. You can’t depend on every promoter stacking the bill w/ locals and the venues to put $400 in advertising your show in every town. an unfortunate high majority won’t bother getting locals or even printing posters, you’ll show up and nobody will give a shit. Its very important to be able to bring people to that room when playing it. Perhaps getting on a tour w/ a larger act or two. Play in front of thier crowd and win people over. That leads me to another interesting thing…

BUYING ON A TOUR:
So when bands go on tour they sometimes take “Buyon Bands” w/ them. These are bands that pay the headliner money to participate in certain dates or possibly a whole tour w/ a band. Some promoters hate these type of bands because they sadly don’t add any monetary value to the show and honestly take $ away as that slot could have been used for a local that would actually bring heads and make the promoter money. The promoter is losing a chance to make $ while the headline band is making it in two ways, 1 by thier gaurentee and 2 by getting paid from the buy on bands. I truly don’t know how I feel about it. I think buying on a tour is not a bad thing for bands as they get to see what its like to tour, get to make contacts, have the chance to win over audiences and build a following city to city in an attempt to do thier own tour in the future. BUT… I obviously see the side of the promoter as its true that slot could have been better used for us. Here’s my biggest thing. If your a buy on band come to shows w/ respect and no attitude. Be greatful to be on the bill, thank everyone in every city that you can. Do NOT come in acting like a rockstar and your shit don’t stink and giving the sound guy shit. Because your rendering your buy on pointless, as nobody is gonna book you in the future. Sure you might be gaining a following because the crowd may not know what arrogant dorks you are but burning bridges w/ promoters, venues and staff is not good. Especially like I said earlier, we talk. If you piss off one rinky dink venue in bumfuck nowhere you might think its no biggie. That shitty place might have a guy who talks to alot of other venues and insiders that have influence on many places. Your depending on word of mouth to help get your name out there, remember word of mouth on the negative side can stop your career before it starts just as fast.

The Music industry is like any other, it's full of greed and its just sad imo. Do I wanna lose $? Of course not but I'm not gonna go home w/ $5,000 while bands are paid in peanuts.