Has anyone ever been asked to pay to get into their own gig?

[P-T-P]

[quote name='JTUK' post='822840' date='Apr 29 2010, 11:00 AM']Pay to play......????? we'd be expecting free beer..and with or two of the bands I might go there with..that could be pretty expensive..

I agree....hang fire and see how the land lies with other bands.

Generally, I don't think that reflects well on the bands themselves if you have to consider paying. I always thought the band should be the draw.
In the cases of charity and good causes, I think bands should consider the spirit of the thing and buy stuff or food etc etc...
but we recently had an enquiry from an interesting festival down in East Sussex. We put it to the band about the freebie and there was
the possibility of petrol ex's. The Drummer dismissed this straight away. He said will all the other concessions there, bar staff, stall holders etc etc being doing it for free...? He answered his own question with
"No, so neither will I"

....Drummers, huh..? [/quote]

+1 agreeing with the drummer.

It all boils down to agents/promoters playing (preying) on band's enthusiasm and desire to play. If there's money changing hands the bands should be seeing some of it and I wish more bands would have the courage to stand up for their own worth.

In my experience, it's never hurt to say no to a gig. The gig we have this Sunday was offered to us at a fee about 20% below our usual minimum - with agent's cut and VAT to come out of that as well - I just turned it down, didn't even negotiate with them. 30 minutes later, the head honcho at the agency calls me with a revised offer involving the agent taking a hit on commission which meant we'd come out with a net fee within a pound or two of normal.

At the end of the day, promoters and agents will try anything, but they are nothing without the acts, if only all the acts would have confidence in that absolute fact.

I know that's not as easy for an original band looking for the exposure a festival might offer, but it's the "might" that bothers me and so you should look for a minimum payment in some way or other - beer, food, fuel money, tickets, passes etc. - it's the least the promoter can do.

[AttitudeCastle]

I've had to pay to play gigs,

at local pubs etc with a big scene,

and (like em or not still a fact) the band Korn spend something like $150 to play their first 10 gigs,

just the way some people do it i guess,

doesn't mean its not fair though! 'cause its not haha

[woodster]

The ska band I used to be in were 'invited' to play Guilfest in 2007 but only on the condition that we sell £1700 worth of tickets.

We had a big following AND Madness were headlining along with The Beat and Terry Hall so it wasn't a problem shifting tickets to ska fans. We were invited back the following year but there were no other ska bands on the bill so we would never have sold tickets and turned down the offer.

[tauzero]

I've paid to play at a festival that I was involved in organising.

Many years ago, the musicians in Tamworth decided that an annual free rock festival would be a good idea. We managed to get some things for free but not everything. We also charged stallholders. In the end, the 20 or so bands involved paid something like a fiver a head to play.

We kept that model running for about ten years. It was always very popular, always oversubscribed.

However, this was a rather exceptional situation, and I wouldn't advocate pay to play in more usual circumstances. I have mixed feelings on playing for nothing - I did it last night and I'm sure I'll do it again, but I don't want to make a habit of it.

[Toasted]

It's pretty popular in the originals scene - I'm suprised you've not come up against it before. Google "pay for play".

[Beedster]

[quote name='Toasted' post='824778' date='May 1 2010, 01:03 PM']It's pretty popular in the originals scene - I'm suprised you've not come up against it before. Google "pay for play".[/quote]

Yeh Joe, we've come up against it, but usually with some form of profit share, e.g., you pay £200, you get 40 people through the door, you get it back, you bring 80 people through the door, you get another £200. This scenario initially seemed a bit further down the pay to play road than we were prepared to go. Tickets are about £80, so that would have been £400 before we'd even started thinking about petrol etc, and there was no hint of profit share coming our way!

Still, all sorted now, we're auditioning the 32 piece horn section this weekend!

C

[walplayer]

[quote name='Beedster' post='824795' date='May 1 2010, 01:16 PM']Still, all sorted now, we're auditioning the 32 piece horn section this weekend!

C[/quote]

Dress 'em like this too

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIQWnOeWXPk"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIQWnOeWXPk[/url]