Bit of a rant

tlwaps · #1 03-06-2007, 08:33 AM

So earlier this year my band played a show and impressed a small time booking agent, well after our set we were loading all of our gear into our car and he comes up and offers us a spot opening up for a band called Sinaria. Now mind you the whole show will be hosted by Mistress Juliya of Fuse TV and Maxim Magazine. So we're like hell yeah. Well the deal was that we would have to sell 30 pre-sale tickets at $10 a piece which totals out to $300. Ok no big deal. Well a few days before the show we finally come to the conclusion that our drummer will no longer be playing in the band because he wants to play god rock stuff. Ok, whatever. So I get a hold of the booking agent and tell him what's going on, so to keep everybody happy I offer to pay $150 or however much we need to cover what we didn't sell of the tickets (because we signed a contract that we'd sell 30 or be responsible for the make up). So on the day of the show I go up to the venue and pay the guy, then 10 minutes after I pay him i'm talking to one of the bands and they tell me that Mistress Juliya and Sinaria cancelled. What was I paying for then? What was everybody paying for? So then I find out that he knew they cancelled over 24 hours in advance which is enough time to give everybody a heads up on what's going on. That guy is lucky he got my money before I found out that they had cancelled because he wouldn't have got a penny from me or anybody else in my band. The terms of the contract were to sell 30 tickets for mistress juliya and sinaria, they cancelled so the terms of the contract were broken on his end. Why should all the bands still have to pay? And further more, why was the ticket price not changed? I don't think we'll be using that promoter anymore.

HomeBrewTJ · #2 03-06-2007, 08:46 AM

get your money back.

uprightbassghos · #3 03-06-2007, 08:48 AM

This sounds like a scam from the start. The promised "hosts" probably were never actaully going to be there.

invader3k · #4 03-06-2007, 10:14 AM

Another reason to never do "pay to play." Demand your money back, since the terms were broken.

srxplayer · #5 03-06-2007, 10:32 AM

Every band at one time or another gets suckered into this scam with or without bigger named hosts.. We need to let the younger bands know that should they should never agree to do this. Of course they have to be willing to listen...Here is an example.

My daughter has several friends who are in bands that always fall for this crap. I tell them every time they say they have to sell tickets to play that venue they are being used. They never listen. They are so caught up in the fact they are going to play at a larger venue they do it anyway. They come over with a roll of 100 tickets that they had to purchase for $500.00 or they have to sell so many or they don't get on the billing. They end up paying up to five hundred bucks out of their own money because most of the losers they hang out with don't have jobs or money and can't buy one of the tickets. They get desperate and ask their parents, uncles, friends parents (me) to buy several tickets to help them out. I always refuse and tell them "I told you not to do it". Their friend end up going to the show for free because the tickets weren't sold and nobody will show up to support them with their own money. Four months later they are doing it again at a different venue. I'm sort of mean and tell them "if you were that good the venue would be paying you".

It's just a scam that promoters and venue owners use to get fill in bands bands to play without paying them. It's pathetic.

HomeBrewTJ · #6 03-06-2007, 11:07 AM

In the mighty words of Lance Hahn (Cringer):
"Pay to play, no way, just f*@k off and go away"

Eilif · #7 03-06-2007, 11:18 AM

My band paid once for a "show". It was a one time fee of 75 bucks for entering the "Emergenza" competition. It was well worth it for the exposure (we made it to the third round show), they ended up giving us almost that much in swag, Strings, sticks, drumhead, etc. and they set it up where if you sell over a certain # of tickets (you return the ones you don' t sell, you don't pay for them), you get the $.

I can't think of any other situation where I would be willing to pay to play. Even the worst bars in Chicago that pay you by the door after their cut (sometimes you don't make squat) don't make you pay.

A booking agent takes a cut of what you make, you don't pay him for gigs.

Juniorkimbrough · #8 03-06-2007, 11:38 AM

I don't really care to play for free but I will given the right circumstances, but there is no way I would even consider paying to play. It's ridiculous and a disgrace to musicians and bands.

Salizander · #9 03-06-2007, 12:38 PM

Since there was a signed contract, wouldn't both parties simply just be legally obligated to follow it? If one of you backed out or broke the contract, then all fincial responsibility of yours should also be broken. I always assumed that these are the exact kind of things that contracts were at least partially designed to take care of. Too bad getting legal council or assistance in this matter would probably be impracticle unless maybe theres a lawyer in the family or as a friend?

MakiSupaStar · #10 03-06-2007, 04:24 PM

Don't use that guy again.

tlwaps · #11 03-06-2007, 04:33 PM

When I first told my guitarist that Mistress Juliya didn't show yet we still had to pay the first words out of his mouth were "We're gonna sue them." I said what's the point? By the time we get done with everything the $150 I gave him would just go to lawyer fees, court costs...etc. The guy put out a statement saying that all the money went towards paying for sound, extra security, printing the tickets and he supposedly paid to have a model come in for everybody to look at. Now this guys is flat out trailer trash so if he picked out a model she probably looked like she came straight off of Springer's stage. Pretty much we got f**cked. Lesson learned.

Zappstorius · #12 03-06-2007, 04:45 PM

Pay to play sucks and that's why it doesn't work anywhere outside of LA.

Rattman · #13 03-06-2007, 05:09 PM

You should have looked before you leaped. There is NO WAY I would have agreed to anything on the spot like that. A few phone calls later... maybe. We never learn do we? Musicians and performing artists are so easily taken in by a few soothing lines by people that know an 'easy mark' when they see one.

Just be glad the $$ loss for you was so small. Yes I'm sorry you got taken however.