Quote:For those of you who live in normal cities, with normal music scenes, Los Angeles pay-to-play works like this.

The band or artist must purchase X number of tickets prior to the show; in this case, it was 40.

Those tickets are sold to the band at a discount from what they’ll be the night of the show; for NOH, it was $10 to them, $15 at the door.

Theoretically, the band can sell these tickets for $15 and make $5 each on them. That is how the band is supposed to earn money from the show. If they don’t sell them all, they lose money – basically paying for the pleasure to play

Quote:Ultimately, the only bands who do this are the new, shitty ones, who don’t know any better, or out of town bands who don’t know any better and definitely don’t know enough people in L.A. to sell those tickets. As you can imagine, after 1 or 2 of these experiences, you stop falling for it. That means that the only bands that these clubs book are crappy bands with no following. And, since there aren’t a wide variety of those in every genre, they make no effort to book complimentary acts. So, not only do you get no exposure to fans that the club brings in, but the fans of the other bands probably won’t like you either.

I believe in capitalism. If there is demand for something, sell it. But what’s happening here is basically misrepresentation. Clubs are selling bands this idea that playing there will be a good way for them to build up a fan base, then they do no promoting, have no crowd of their own, and make no effort to put together a good lineup for the bands, the fans or anybody. Then they wonder why their club draws no regulars – it’s because on any given night they’ll walk in and see 4 bands who are playing their first show, that sound nothing alike, and are all pissed that they’re paying $300 for the pleasure of playing some shithole.

http://blog.earbits.com/online_radio/the-los-angeles-pay-to-play-scene/

(01-13-2012, 02:24 AM)Miguel Wrote:

Quote:For those of you who live in normal cities, with normal music scenes, Los Angeles pay-to-play works like this.

The band or artist must purchase X number of tickets prior to the show; in this case, it was 40.

Those tickets are sold to the band at a discount from what they’ll be the night of the show; for NOH, it was $10 to them, $15 at the door.

Theoretically, the band can sell these tickets for $15 and make $5 each on them. That is how the band is supposed to earn money from the show. If they don’t sell them all, they lose money – basically paying for the pleasure to play

Quote:Ultimately, the only bands who do this are the new, shitty ones, who don’t know any better, or out of town bands who don’t know any better and definitely don’t know enough people in L.A. to sell those tickets. As you can imagine, after 1 or 2 of these experiences, you stop falling for it. That means that the only bands that these clubs book are crappy bands with no following. And, since there aren’t a wide variety of those in every genre, they make no effort to book complimentary acts. So, not only do you get no exposure to fans that the club brings in, but the fans of the other bands probably won’t like you either.

I believe in capitalism. If there is demand for something, sell it. But what’s happening here is basically misrepresentation. Clubs are selling bands this idea that playing there will be a good way for them to build up a fan base, then they do no promoting, have no crowd of their own, and make no effort to put together a good lineup for the bands, the fans or anybody. Then they wonder why their club draws no regulars – it’s because on any given night they’ll walk in and see 4 bands who are playing their first show, that sound nothing alike, and are all pissed that they’re paying $300 for the pleasure of playing some shithole.

http://blog.earbits.com/online_radio/the-los-angeles-pay-to-play-scene/

I can see how this would have evolved out there with so many new acts hitting the scene trying to make a name for themselves.