Bands! Food for thought

BANDS!!! Food for thought

Note: I (Trans-Fusion Ent.) did not write this peice. This was found while surfing myspace, and I felt like it might hit home with some local bands and even semi national bands out there that are on the edge of making their dreams come true. Credit for this piece goes to Dan Jansen.
Ticket Sales and your ability to bring people to shows..

"It's less about how many you did once than how many you can continue to do." Who you have played with does not matter if you didn't gain any of their fans.

The cold hard truth about playing shows, is that although we are all musicians and it is 100% about the music and the love for it deep down inside. You always have to keep in mind that the minute you step out of the garage and into a club it becomes YOUR own personal business. Its about "bodies in seats" and if you are signed mostly but even unsigned "how many CD's you can sell".

A short story about my experience with the Cleveland music scene and really any scene for that matter. I played in a band called Last August. We started out playing shows by just showing up, telling a few people and blindly hoping they would show. There was no myspace, or facebook. For a year we played shows in front of crowds of 2-10 people. We complained with the other bands about "the scene", and how it was "dead". Then after a really bad 30 person show at peabodys, I made a decision.. To do whatever it took to get people to shows. I realized it wasn't the clubs and promoters we were playings fault it was mine? We took some time to improve our skills, and made a great CD(A good demo and producer will move your band further than anything in the world) www.myspace.com/junglerecording
and we started taking responsiblity for ourselves and our career. Whenever we had a show we divided the tickets up 20 a person in the band. From that point forward we started making sure no matter what we would sell ALL of them. All of sund, the clubs that we were fighting against started giving us better shows, bigger shows, bigger opening slots, guarunteed time slots, ect. yes we were making them money and producing results so in turn they helped us and our music got out to more people, bigger crowds!! The other people in the clubs saw our friends/fans rocking out and wanted to join in. Everyone talks in this business, if you do well and bring people to shows we all know who you are! Also, if you screw someone we all know that as well. My point is within a year of actually working hard and promoting ourselves for each event. Yes, if you can bring 100 people to a show you can open for lots of nationals, we did Trapt, 30 seconds to mars, The Calling, and more.. Two of those shows were sold out almost 1200 people.. In December of 2002 we headlined the downtown club known as The Odeon. That 2 -10 person fanbase expanded to 400-500 in just a year. Through hard work and taking the bull by the horns in our own career, producing for clubs, promoters, and having a CD that was produced extremely well.

True, its not all about ticket slaes, but that guarunteed pay for your band, its also peace of mind for you and your band to know FOR SURE how many people are going to be there for your band. So... If your sick of playing in front of small crowds take this advice "DO WHATEVER IT TAKES" Its not the scene, its your success.

Club owners, promoters, and labels can only stay in business and countinue to give you good shows, if you are producing results for them. If no one produces then the bands have no where to play, no one to play for, and no labels to sell their music.

Its YOUR career, YOUR dream, we aren't a "system" or "the man" we really are trying to help you take your music to the next level! Its business and its yours, what are you going to do with it?




Just something to think about.


Have a great day! Much Love and Respect to all the bands that put themselves out there, its not easy. If it was everyone would do it

Nice post.

I don't believe in pre-sale tickets AT ALL!!! Here's why... and yes I did write this:

There is something that has been on my mind for a few months now and I
just feel the need to let it rip here, so I am! This is more on a local
aspect as opposed to a national aspect, but I know a LOT of bands can
relate.

Playing locally for a band is hard because you are
pushing yourself to become a better musician on stage and in practice,
showcase new songs or jam out to songs people know and like, attract a
fan base and be able to keep it where it is all proven on stage! Most
of the time it is just warm up shows for touring bands, whereas local
bands kind of get smurfed!

The thing that pisses me off to no
smurfing end is promoters. Not all promoters are bad mind you, but the
majority of them are clueless on what the hell is going on. They want
to book bands because they love music, but most think they are going to
make money at it. The thing is, it is just like any business, it takes
money to make money.

When a band is booked, all of a sudden
it’s the new thing to make bands to sell tickets. In a sense, I can
understand the motive. I do understand that a band has to draw people,
but making any band sell tickets to a show is plain wrong. That should
be up to the promoters to make sure they are sold, not the bands. If a
promoter prints tickets, obviously something is wrong right away.
Promoters are normally a lot like bands, meaning they are as broke as a
band member is. So to a promoter perhaps making tickets will solve the
problem. Now that the promoter is making tickets, some of the costs of
the show are being spent instead of spending that money to where it
could count more. But now the promoter puts the hassle of selling a
stupid ticket to play the show on the band members.

The thing
is, if you are into a certain genre of music and you follow the bands
you like, you talk with your friends, you already know who's playing
where and when. Tickets are wrong for local shows anyways. If tickets
are involved then the promoter should book the bands, sell the tickets,
and most importantly, ADVERTISE! Fliers are only 25% of the solution to
getting people out to the shows and it helps to a bigger degree
than most because they are grasping it and reading it. Myspace,
facebook, or any of that other type of web site is only another 25%.
Again though, it’s just like a flier only on a screen but easier to
forget unless you keep on it and eventually pissing people off. The
other 50%, well that is where things go wrong on a promoters end. So
how is any promoter encouraging making bands sell tickets when the
promoter don’t do anything other than book the show with the club and
make fliers? Where is the advertising? Where is the publicity? There is
NONE on a promoters end. -----------------------------------

Lets look at that word for a second. Promoter: The suffix “er” refers to “one who”.
Promote – (verb) to encourage the sales, acceptance, etc., of (a product), esp. through advertising or other publicity.

Does
it all have to do with money? Well if so, then STOP FUCKIN BOOKING
SHOWS if you don’t have the monetary funds to pay the bands, the bar,
the soundman, the bouncers, and whoever else needs to get their cut.
That’s a number one rule!

By making bands sell tickets,
promoters are only hurting the scene that you have because it pisses
bands off that they have to do even MORE work than what is called for while promoters don’t do anything.

Let’s move on to the bands. Bands need to stop this from happening and
not give in to selling tickets to play! Boycott that horrendous
practice and get back to the basics of it all. By selling tickets to
play a show, you are giving in and letting promoters have their way
screwing yourselves and bands that will emerge in the future.

Bands
that are more known on a bigger scale should encourage the bands to
stop this practice as well! How is that helping the more known bands?
It’s not! The reasons being is because they’re either clueless on it or
just don’t care. But they should care!

Tickets to a local show
anyways, is a really god damn dumb idea to begin with. If people are
going to attend, they will and they will pay at the door. When you go
to McDonalds, you don’t need a ticket. When you go to a hardware store,
a CD store, movie store, bar, casino, do you need a ticket for that
too? NO! So why make it a ticket deal? A person comes to a venue to see
live bands play and they pay for that the same way one does anything
else.
When you go to a movie theater to see a movie, sure you get
a ticket to go see that movie that starts at a certain time. That way
you don’t have to wait or have it sold out. To a local gig though is
completely uncalled for.

Now you are thinking “well then
what’s a solution?”. Well I’ll tell you! How about perks to get people
to the shows? How about advertising? How about dropping the prices to
get in the venue? Not have so many bands play the show! Start the shows
at decent times with GOOD bands and not make every show last until the
butt-crack of dawn?

This deal of selling tickets is a joke and it has to stop! Ok so I think I have proven my point!

Quote :

Now you are thinking “well then what’s a solution?”. Well I’ll tell you! How about perks to get people to the shows? How about advertising? How about dropping the prices to get in the venue? Not have so many bands play the show! Start the shows at decent times with GOOD bands and not make every show last until the butt-crack of dawn?

I've never understood this practice...book six bands on a Friday night, start them at 9pm and make them play til 3am?? How does that make any sense?

Book 3 bands, have them start at 8, play longer sets, drop ticket prices and ADVERTISE. The clubs want to leave it up to the band to let people know they're playing. Usually all they want to do is put the show on the calendar you see at the club itself and that's it. The only way you know about it is if you're at some other show at the club.

But, I am a firm believer in bands advertising as well. They should not have to sell tickets (an absurd practice for a club anyway)...the fans should pay at the door. BUT, I do think bands should participate in the promotion of the show they're on (helping the promoter, not replacing him). When I was in ORACLE, I'd make tons of fliers and go to grocery stores, book stores, drug stores...anywhere Metal mags were sold...and I'd put fliers in the front covers of every Metal mag they had...I knew Metal fans came in there and read the magazines and would get them in their hands. I posted them at music stores and CD stores too. I knew even then that you can't totally rely on the club or promoter to advertise anything.

My opinion is that more bands with shorter sets is a better practice. Hopefully get some of the bands to share backline to minimize set-up time.

Most bands aren't worthy of anything past a 30 minute set IMHO.

In the old days, didn't a band have to audition for a club before they were booked? That would kinda weed out the bands that sucked...

Ticket sales are to get money from people who may not bother to show up.

I agree that the shows last WAY too late for us old fogeys and it discourages me from going to more shows. If I knew the shows would start at 9 and end around 12:00 or so I would to more. I have to go to bed early and eat more fiber these days.

If you weed out the bands that suck you won't have much a scene at all because it won't give sucky bands a chance to hone their craft. Just don't let them play long and make em move out quickly when they're done.

Quote :

I have to go to bed early and eat more fiber these days.

Sucks, doesn't it?

Temple of Blood wrote:

If you weed out the bands that suck you won't have much a scene at all because it won't give sucky bands a chance to hone their craft. Just don't let them play long and make em move out quickly when they're done.

I say keep them in the basement until they can at least play in time and get through their songs...

There goes 70% of the metal scene.

Temple of Blood wrote:

There goes 70% of the metal scene.

Good riddance...too many mediocre bands cluttering up the club stages playing for their girlfriends anyway...

There goes the WHOLE metal scene then.

Temple of Blood wrote:

There goes the WHOLE metal scene then.

At least let the good ones play...

I get the thing of having to get better on stage, hone your craft, etc...but IMO playing w/ precision comes first (for Metal, anyway)...if you can't keep time or get through your songs cleanly then you've not earned a stage...IMO.

I guess we were lucky. We had an wonderful promoter, he basically handled everything, all we did was show up, set up & play. We never made much money, just enough to keep going & have a little left over. We had no problem getting folks to show up, we did'nt gig too often, once a month or so. It wasn't our goal to get a record deal & there was never any pressure at all we were just in it to have fun & play music we all enjoyed. There is no greater feeling than to have a riff in your head & have it turn into a song without ever worrying if it will ever become a "hit".

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

Temple of Blood wrote:

There goes the WHOLE metal scene then.

At least let the good ones play...

I get the thing of having to get better on stage, hone your craft, etc...but IMO playing w/ precision comes first (for Metal, anyway)...if you can't keep time or get through your songs cleanly then you've not earned a stage...IMO.

A couple of places around here have a "New Faces Night" for new bands at least once or twice a month. There is no cover and you only shell out cash if you feel like drinks. Most of these bands have done a fair amount of practicing and usually are proficient but you do get the occasional unprepared one. This seems to work out great since there seems to be a new band in the area every few weeks or so and you don't feel cheated moneywise at all.

Shawn I agree in bands having to help! Fully behind that. It's up to the band, promoters AND the club to get the people in the doors of these bars or venues the show is held at. So bands should pass out fliers, take up ads in magazines and and entertainment weekly/monthly newspapers (just as promoters and clubs SHOULD do).

My main jolt is that bands should not ever have to sell tickets to play at a local club!

Another thing I was thinking of relating to that subject is why do promoters do this? A promoter wants you to presell tix at $10.00 each and give you 40 tickets to sell. Then the day of the show, you pay your 400 dollars whether you sold all the tickets or not, and then to make things more lame, they pay you 40 bucks for playing. HAHAHA! How the hell does that make any sense what-so-ever?

I agree about the tickets thing...stupid.

Personally, I stopped caring for the most part, when it comes to local matters..we have promoted just a stupid amount before and it has rarely done much...and that printer ink and that gas costs some $$$$ that one eventually needs to ration. Most everybody knows who we are, however, noone is in seats. To put it bluntly, I have led them to the water, but I have not been able to force the two groups of horses - kids that follow only the hardcore and indie scene - and adults who are in bands who want to sound as much like Nickelback as humanly possible - to drink it. This description, as much as I hate it, is absolutely not an exaggeration. I love where I live but musically, things just go..nowhere here. However, we have drawn the 10 metalheads who like the sort of thing we do (the ones that don't swear by Pantera) time after time with great success. In any case, I never set out to conquer the local scene and stop there, there is an entire world out there and that's what I'm really focused on. Even elsewhere in the state it's better. We played a small Florida Cornerstone tent and got a bigger pop then 99% of the hometown shows, and they didn't react that way to every band that played prior. It's like playing to the dead here.

Also, when every song you have is around 7 minutes, but you have a good hour and a half catalog, the half hour set really sucks.