Musician Forum - Band Discussion Board - BandMix

"This is an emotive ideology at times, and many people have differing views on this, so I thought it a good idea to tackle this subject. Out in the real world many bands play for free, just to be heard in a bar or a pub, online this changes the position somewhat, so this week I thought I would concentrate on the various web applications and sites that musicians will know from a personal perspective in use. This is a brief on some sites, not all, with an overview........" More here >>>>> http://chipfryer.com

My declination though unseen from star gazers, down below. Thwart off all evils whilst decent allows the machine to grind and carve the platform on which I will come to rest.
Chipfryer

I play for "free" . . . because we are a mission band. Somewhat different a situation than most musicians are presented with.
That said . . .
We walked out with $850.00 at our last show.

Something special about receiving compensation when none is asked for.

I will not "pay to play" . . . no . . . ain't gonna happen.

Others may disagree but I think pay-to-play is death for musicians. I'd much rather play on the street corner or out by the pier for tips. Your exposure to future gigs is far better and you can hone your live music craft to any audience who chooses to listen. YMMV

Thejohnny7band wrote:Others may disagree but I think pay-to-play is death for musicians. I'd much rather play on the street corner or out by the pier for tips. Your exposure to future gigs is far better and you can hone your live music craft to any audience who chooses to listen. YMMV

I agree with you. I won't "pay to play" either.

Not gonna happen for me. I inquired of a 'event booker' about some events around here, multi-player, split the incoming covercharges after a certain point, must stick around to closing to get paid.
Found out from someone else who played one of these that she was charging all the perfomers the covercharge too! He said 'F that, I'm not paying' and in the end didn't even hang out until closing as there were so few paying people in the place he knew he wouldn't get anything.
Other places have offered deals with (usually) 3 bands in a night, each doing a 1 hour set and each has to 'sell 25 tickets' to friends/fans - and pay up front for the tickets - $10 and up per ticket. Then, as long as the promoter thinks a big enough crowd showed up, you 1/6 of the ticket sale money per band. No thanks.
Like J7 says, it'd be better to busk out on the street.

They must pay me to play LOL! Min. $150.00 a night per man! I ain't the best player but I am far from being the worse! We have been making $200.00 to$250.00 per man a night! Even at that I say I get paid to load in and load out I still play for free!

What Jeff said

I may have to pay people to take my CD, but I'll be damned if I'll pay for all the labor involved in packing my gear for the gig, setting up, tearing down and loading my gear after the gig, and then unloading again and setting my stuff up the way I want it when I get home again.

Yeah, I might play for free if circumstances merit it, but the loading and hauling sucks even when I get paid well.

Slacker G wrote:What Jeff said

I may have to pay people to take my CD, but I'll be damned if I'll pay for all the labor involved in packing my gear for the gig, setting up, tearing down and loading my gear after the gig, and then unloading again and setting my stuff up the way I want it when I get home again.

Yeah, I might play for free if circumstances merit it, but the loading and hauling sucks even when I get paid well.

Amen . . .

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J-HALEY wrote:They must pay me to play LOL! Min. $150.00 a night per man! I ain't the best player but I am far from being the worse! We have been making $200.00 to$250.00 per man a night! Even at that I say I get paid to load in and load out I still play for free!

Well you guys are doing alright down there in Tex-hot-as! Up in this area the per-member is less than half that, as an average.

How much you make depends on if you want to do original music or covers. I make twice as much playing covers as I do our own music, but I enjoy doing both. Both bands are in demand - The Farleys have a show every week in September. I'm trying to keep the cover band to twice a month.

jimmydanger wrote:How much you make depends on if you want to do original music or covers. I make twice as much playing covers as I do our own music, but I enjoy doing both. Both bands are in demand - The Farleys have a show every week in September. I'm trying to keep the cover band to twice a month.

It is the same here Jimmy. You make next to nothing playing original here! Having said that the best approach is to play covers and strategically play your originals throughout the night. There are clubs and venues here that cater to original music and you can typically make pretty good money in those. The problem with that is the competition to play in those venue's is VERY HIGH and as a result they are hard to get into!

There are a lot of great posts, but I think the point of the post was totally missed
This was a post about online FREE givings of sorts and a personal view on offerings there of.

Well, you did title the thread "Paying for the right to be heard"! I just read your site article, where you really are talking about paying for the right to be heard ONLINE. Jango - never heard of it, what kind of listener does it have and how many?

Chip,
I've thought about using Reverbnation and it's tools/options but I don't have "real quality" recordings to offer. And most artists have a finished product to present.
And I don't think much of the pay to play radio offerings out there that just seems silly to me. I would rather my songs collect internet dust than pay for 100 fans on some internet pay to play scam. It's like saying "here's a dollar please listen to my song."
I've not read or heard of it being very helpful to anyone using those services...
but Reverbnation has a pretty good track record. Even if you have to pay for the good subscription to play.
My .02.