Pay to Play

FOREWORD: All names of parties will remain anonymous. I trust that you, the reader, will be able to discern the truth from the gimmicks yourself.

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Let’s talk about the concept of “Pay to play.”

There are many groups and organizations which use this model to gain money from the efforts of young, unassuming musicians.

How they present themselves, however, is supportive of the arts. They will contact bands directly, explaining that they want to help expose the fledgling performers. They come off as friendly, personable, and hip. They usually hire young people to deal with the bands, since they know how to relate. They claim that they will do all of the promotional work. All that the band has to do is sell tickets.

I know about this type of lechery because my own band agreed to work with one of these groups in the past. Never will we work with them again.

I was contacted on behalf of my band directly via phone. It was a young lady, telling me all of the details of how the show would work. They had contacted over a dozen local bands and we were all given the same offer: We would all receive 50 tickets to sell for $10 each. For every ticket we sold, they would take 90% of the sales. So that’s $1 for every ticket going to the band.

Now, I know that venues take cuts regardless, either from ticket sales, merchandise, or both, but these venues have never been so staunch in their policies as these guys have.

To make a long story short, we agreed to play the show, but we didn’t sell any tickets. And that was on purpose. Instead, we set out to make flyers which pointed out the selfishness of these groups. We looked up reports from Snopes and Ripoff Report, printed them, and then passed them out to people at the show and others on the streets.

I remember loading in to the venue and talking to the organizer – an older lady who clearly didn’t care about the show since she took off long before we took the stage. I watched her take $500 from a guy whom had sold all of his tickets, only to hand him back $50. If that isn’t lecherous, I don’t know what is.

And I looked for posters around town to support these bands. I looked across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other pages for any sign of support from these groups. I found nada, zero, zilch.

We ended up playing to a near-empty room. We had originally planned to call out this organization while on stage, but since there was no one to hear our message, there was no point.

So, my point is this: if you’re contacted by a group who promises to help promote your show, look them up first. The music industry is especially vulnerable to charlatans whom claim they want to help. But the reality is that the best method to promote yourself, if you’re starting out, is through your own efforts.

If you’re a young band or musician, your best resource is your own efforts. You have the fire and drive to support yourselves. Don’t let a group of hucksters tell you otherwise.