I'm playing a show with a friend of mine (singer-songwriter) at the Kn1tting Fact0ry soon - I guess my main band had been getting decent enough (though not incredible) gigs that I'd forgotten what these entry-level deals can be like.
Six bands, ten bucks cover, tiny space. Venue keeps 100% of door for first 10 people for each band, after that the band gets $7/head.
First, it's pretty hard to get people to come to a $10 show where in all likelihood you're going to play a 30-35 minute set and where there's no real headliner so your friends probably don't care to see the other bands.
Second, how many people does the Old Office space actually hold? Is it even 75?
Third, the venue can hypothetically make $600 off that tiny room before it pays any band a cent, and that's not even counting the bar revenues. Even if each band brought only FIVE people that's $300 they make on the door plus probably a good 55 drinkers if you count the band members (after they use their one drink ticket each, or whatever), and that's just on the smallest space - meanwhile they've got the tap bar and mainspace shows.
What is it about the music industry that makes it so everyone besides the musicians not only wants an outrageous profit, but wants to do whatever they can to ensure the artists themselves don't see money?
― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Thursday, 9 November 2006 01:30 (eighteen years ago)
Six bands is too many. That sounds lame. I don't ever really do shows with more than two or three other bands, and it's enough of a pain in the ass getting people to come (and stay) for those.
― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Thursday, 9 November 2006 02:31 (eighteen years ago)
Oh yeah, believe me I'd never take a show like this for my own band. My friend just hasn't played out in NYC as much so I guess this is a stepping stone.
― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Thursday, 9 November 2006 02:43 (eighteen years ago)
DANJER: what is the shitty venue you played when I was visiting? On Western? GARBAGE.
― gbx (skowly), Thursday, 9 November 2006 02:46 (eighteen years ago)
That is pretty wack. I've made up my mind not to expect ANY MONEY EVER from the rock band I'm in.
Also, the coolness of the venue is inversely proportional to the amount of $ you will make. Lame corporate gigs = $$$$$!
― Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 9 November 2006 15:02 (eighteen years ago)
Yeah, that's pretty much the case. Even opening for big acts the most my band ever made in a night was a few hundred bucks and we probably average under a hundred. The whole original rock band circuit is an eternal carrot-on-a-stick system - You play the crap gigs for a couple years to get what you think are better gigs, only to find out they still don't pay that well because hell, you're getting the privelege of your band name on the bill at a name venue. One band I know toured with a huge national band and barely saw a dollar (because, again, this was a step in their career, see [and where are they now?]). You do all this in the hope of landing a manager and booking agent who will probably end up taking larger percentages than any member of your band sees.
Again, I don't even have a problem with outrageous profits for the industry so much as the fierce determination to screw artists.
[ / cliched rant about teh music biz ]
― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Thursday, 9 November 2006 15:33 (eighteen years ago)