Bridging the Music: Scam or legitimate?

[mb1923]

Those of you who are saying that BTM is a scam need to take some time to think about the music business in general. I have worked through this company to play various shows through out the past two years, and they have done nothing but provide me opportunities to play on stage in great venues like cervantes.

a lot of you are saying that this is a scam because you have to sell tickets, and that they don't promote the show. In todays DIY industry the artist has to sort of be their own promoter because there are just so many shows that go on, especially in Denver.You cant be a musician and just assume that the promoter is going to sell you to fans and get people in the door. The term "promoter" is weird because, It is not BTM job to promote your band, that is the bands job. The promoters job is working with the venues so that they can even offer stage time to acts who dont have a built in following.

I first found BTM off of craigslist when i thought that I was getting decent enough to play on stage. I played the colorado solo artist awards and sold enough tickets to move on to the next round. I didnt win the contest but it was still fun to actually play in a real venue even if it isnt packed. my friends got to see me on stage and they had a great time.Because BTM liked my music style and because I had the drive to try to sell tickets, I was able to move up to playing melt your face monday which offers a longer set time. i dont think people realize the expenses in operating a venue seven days a week. not every night is going to be a packed house, you have off nights where the venue doesnt make money, you have sound guys, bartenders, various people who make a living by operating this venue. the promoter basically is renting it out for a night, and they have to generate some sort of income for the venue and the promoter to survive. playing at the MYF mon wasn't packed but I had all my friends there and I got a great youtube video out of it because they had someone running the light show, how does that guy get paid?

after playing MYF monday i saw they had a contest to be an opener for a bigger show. this was based off of facebook votes and I won a 30 minute time slot, another opportunity that they handed out to me. even better after my set the next act, a DJ let me sit in and jam guitar with him, and BTM didnt boot me off stage or get mad that i had extra stage time.

now I am playing in a band and we are doing the upcoming melt your face monday. sure a monday night is a tough night to sell tickets but if you are driven by your music you can get your friends to buy a 10 dollar ticket. BTM is also offering an incentive that if we sell 50 tickets, we can play on a better night. you have to realize that if you want to be a headliner or play on a weekend, you have to know how to build your way up by doing off nights. This is a tough and competitive industry, everyone loves music and wants to play music, but you have to somehow convert that into money because its a business! you should be thankful that there is a promoter who is trying to get new acts on stage. BTM takes a lot of chances booking new artists who dont have a built in following and can barely sell 15 tickets, and they risk their business by doing this. why do they do this? because they love music.

 

[callofcthulhu]

The term "promoter" is weird because, It is not BTM job to promote your band, that is the bands job.

Wrong. That is EXACTLY what it is a promoter's job to do. Anyone who says otherwise is taking advantage of you and your friends by taking the money you and they would have spent anyway if you had just booked with the venue directly.

What do they call it when a middle man asks you to get all your friends involved, working as a funnel point for all the potential money they could be spending on something they didn't realize they needed? Oh right A PYRAMID SCAM.

But please, keep registering new accounts and only making one post on your join date to convince readers that there are actually people out there stupid enough to fall for the scam and think they're benefitting from it.

 

[untitledtopher]

Those of you who are saying that BTM is a scam need to take some time to think about the music business in general. I have worked through this company to play various shows through out the past two years, and they have done nothing but provide me opportunities to play on stage in great venues like cervantes.

a lot of you are saying that this is a scam because you have to sell tickets, and that they don't promote the show. In todays DIY industry the artist has to sort of be their own promoter because there are just so many shows that go on, especially in Denver.You cant be a musician and just assume that the promoter is going to sell you to fans and get people in the door. The term "promoter" is weird because, It is not BTM job to promote your band, that is the bands job. The promoters job is working with the venues so that they can even offer stage time to acts who dont have a built in following.

I first found BTM off of craigslist when i thought that I was getting decent enough to play on stage. I played the colorado solo artist awards and sold enough tickets to move on to the next round. I didnt win the contest but it was still fun to actually play in a real venue even if it isnt packed. my friends got to see me on stage and they had a great time.Because BTM liked my music style and because I had the drive to try to sell tickets, I was able to move up to playing melt your face monday which offers a longer set time. i dont think people realize the expenses in operating a venue seven days a week. not every night is going to be a packed house, you have off nights where the venue doesnt make money, you have sound guys, bartenders, various people who make a living by operating this venue. the promoter basically is renting it out for a night, and they have to generate some sort of income for the venue and the promoter to survive. playing at the MYF mon wasn't packed but I had all my friends there and I got a great youtube video out of it because they had someone running the light show, how does that guy get paid?

after playing MYF monday i saw they had a contest to be an opener for a bigger show. this was based off of facebook votes and I won a 30 minute time slot, another opportunity that they handed out to me. even better after my set the next act, a DJ let me sit in and jam guitar with him, and BTM didnt boot me off stage or get mad that i had extra stage time.

now I am playing in a band and we are doing the upcoming melt your face monday. sure a monday night is a tough night to sell tickets but if you are driven by your music you can get your friends to buy a 10 dollar ticket. BTM is also offering an incentive that if we sell 50 tickets, we can play on a better night. you have to realize that if you want to be a headliner or play on a weekend, you have to know how to build your way up by doing off nights. This is a tough and competitive industry, everyone loves music and wants to play music, but you have to somehow convert that into money because its a business! you should be thankful that there is a promoter who is trying to get new acts on stage. BTM takes a lot of chances booking new artists who dont have a built in following and can barely sell 15 tickets, and they risk their business by doing this. why do they do this? because they love music.

yeah...no.

 

[callofcthulhu]

How exactly did they help you? We've established that they certainly don't help promote shows. They didn't help you sell the tickets. They gave you the tickets to sell, but it's the venue's tickets, all they did was mail them to you (which you paid for, so no help there). The only thing they could've helped you with was booking the show in the first place. I've never been to Denver, but looking at Cervantes's website, Melt Your Face Mondays take place in the side room, max occ. 400. I find it hard to believe that you couldn't book a space that size on your own by contacting the venue directly, so they didn't really help you there. Unless of course Cervantes only works with BTM to begin with, which I'm beginning to suspect may be the case - questionable business practice at best, violation of some union's rules at worst.

So, really, how do you think they helped you? 50 tickets at 8 bucks each should have gotten you $400. How is giving them $320 of your hard earned cash for no service in return a mutually beneficial relationship? 'Cause it really sounds like a scam from here.

Quoting myself for emphasis.

 

[Right_Butterscotch64]

There's no way someone would expect us to believe that. I'm not totally naive but the fact that they thought someone would buy those posts is just insane.

 

[Passinwind]

But please, keep registering new accounts and only making one post on your join date to convince readers that there are actually people out there stupid enough to fall for the scam and think they're benefitting from it.

+1 zillion.

 

[Deep Cat]

When you can draw 50, you don't need help getting venues.

 

[mb1923]

You expect a concert promoter to walk around selling tickets to your show? you expect the concert promoter to tell people how good your band is? you expect them to bring a whole audience to see your show? you think its their job their to walk around passing out handbills and street team for you? you want them to sell your music and merch for your band? you want the promoter to run your social media for you? Really? concert promoters do not promote your band, they work with venues, organize concerts, get you onstage, you do the rest. If you guys are so smart why dont you teach some of my music business classes at CU Denver, you could come in and just rewrite the books, replace my teachers. Im a real person, a student, musician, and BTM has helped me get on stage and each show has built upon the last.

here I am onstage at MYF Mon.
http://youtu.be/pUJVd6sMxgE

 

[guitar721689]

I signed up, I played, and it was totally legitimate. Got nothing negative to say about them, even though I was cautious after reading up on them in these types of forums. Gave it a shot and actually enjoyed myself.

 

[Turock]

why do they do this? because they love [DEL]music[/DEL] money.

If they (you) were really so altruistic, they (you) wouldn't be stealing kid's money.

 

[Turock]

I signed up, I played, and it was totally legitimate. Got nothing negative to say about them, even though I was cautious after reading up on them in these types of forums. Gave it a shot and actually enjoyed myself.

Give it up man.

 

[-Kramer-]

You expect a concert promoter to walk around selling tickets to your show?

Yes

you expect the concert promoter to tell people how good your band is?

Yes

you expect them to bring a whole audience to see your show?

Not the whole audience, but if they present themselves as a "concert promoter" then they should promote my band and sell some tickets.

concert promoters do not promote your band, they work with venues, organize concerts, get you onstage, you do the rest.

Sounds like a booker to me. Big difference.

Im a real person, a student, musician, and BTM has helped me get on stage and each show has built upon the last.

here I am onstage at MYF Mon.
http://youtu.be/pUJVd6sMxgE

No one has doubted that you are real. We doubt you motives for creating an account just to post in this thread.

 

[callofcthulhu]

You expect a concert promoter to walk around selling tickets to your show? you expect the concert promoter to tell people how good your band is? you expect them to bring a whole audience to see your show? you think its their job their to walk around passing out handbills and street team for you? you want them to sell your music and merch for your band? you want the promoter to run your social media for you? Really? concert promoters do not promote your band, they work with venues, organize concerts, get you onstage, you do the rest. If you guys are so smart why dont you teach some of my music business classes at CU Denver, you could come in and just rewrite the books, replace my teachers. Im a real person, a student, musician, and BTM has helped me get on stage and each show has built upon the last.

In San Francisco all my bands have worked with Neil Martinson, a promoter who books shows under the moniker SMiLE Presents. He does exactly all of those things for the events he puts on, and takes only a modest cut out of door sales at the end of the night.

I suggest anyone in the Bay Area looking to work with a REAL promoter get in contact with Neil Martinson. Try contacting him on Facebook - he has enough people who want to work with him that he doesn't need to represent himself on a slick scammy website or trawl craigslist for suckers.

And I suggest you request a refund for your tuition.

 

[Joe Louvar]

You expect a concert promoter to walk around selling tickets to your show? <snip>

No - that&#8217;s what Ticketmaster is for!!!

 

[the_stone]

I signed up for Talkbass today, I posted, and I totally convinced those suckers that BTM is not a "pay to play" bunch of BS. Got nothing negative to say about them, since in real life I'm probably some poor intern. Gave it a shot and still didn't realize I was getting shafted.

Isn't this what you meant to say?

 

[Right_Butterscotch64]

Can you at least answer me this:

Why are the only good words about BTM coming from accounts that are made within minutes of commenting, only post once, and never seem to post on anything ever again. Maybe they googled it and wanted to chime in on the subject, but you would have to think we were all morons if you didn't expect all this to seem fishy.

 

[guitar721689]

haha, I respect the effort. I'm not an intern.

I'm not saying they're perfect, and there's a lot that can be done on their side to make it more legitimate, but I'm just saying it's not a scam. I just hope that they revisit some of the things that they do and make it easier for us to participate. Maybe have better venues, better sponsors, more publicity, all that. They have potential, but as of now they need a lot of work. I hope they read forums like these and take our suggestions seriously.

 

[Joe Louvar]

But please, keep registering new accounts and only making one post on your join date to convince readers that there are actually people out there stupid enough to fall for the scam and think they're benefitting from it.

+1 zillion.

+2.

 

[seescottrock]

Those of you who are saying that BTM is a scam need to take some time to think about the music business in general. I have worked through this company to play various shows through out the past two years, and they have done nothing but provide me opportunities to play on stage in great venues like cervantes.

a lot of you are saying that this is a scam because you have to sell tickets, and that they don't promote the show. In todays DIY industry the artist has to sort of be their own promoter because there are just so many shows that go on, especially in Denver.You cant be a musician and just assume that the promoter is going to sell you to fans and get people in the door. The term "promoter" is weird because, It is not BTM job to promote your band, that is the bands job. The promoters job is working with the venues so that they can even offer stage time to acts who dont have a built in following.

I first found BTM off of craigslist when i thought that I was getting decent enough to play on stage. I played the colorado solo artist awards and sold enough tickets to move on to the next round. I didnt win the contest but it was still fun to actually play in a real venue even if it isnt packed. my friends got to see me on stage and they had a great time.Because BTM liked my music style and because I had the drive to try to sell tickets, I was able to move up to playing melt your face monday which offers a longer set time. i dont think people realize the expenses in operating a venue seven days a week. not every night is going to be a packed house, you have off nights where the venue doesnt make money, you have sound guys, bartenders, various people who make a living by operating this venue. the promoter basically is renting it out for a night, and they have to generate some sort of income for the venue and the promoter to survive. playing at the MYF mon wasn't packed but I had all my friends there and I got a great youtube video out of it because they had someone running the light show, how does that guy get paid?

after playing MYF monday i saw they had a contest to be an opener for a bigger show. this was based off of facebook votes and I won a 30 minute time slot, another opportunity that they handed out to me. even better after my set the next act, a DJ let me sit in and jam guitar with him, and BTM didnt boot me off stage or get mad that i had extra stage time.

now I am playing in a band and we are doing the upcoming melt your face monday. sure a monday night is a tough night to sell tickets but if you are driven by your music you can get your friends to buy a 10 dollar ticket. BTM is also offering an incentive that if we sell 50 tickets, we can play on a better night. you have to realize that if you want to be a headliner or play on a weekend, you have to know how to build your way up by doing off nights. This is a tough and competitive industry, everyone loves music and wants to play music, but you have to somehow convert that into money because its a business! you should be thankful that there is a promoter who is trying to get new acts on stage. BTM takes a lot of chances booking new artists who dont have a built in following and can barely sell 15 tickets, and they risk their business by doing this. why do they do this? because they love music.

The ignorance and Naïveté in this makes me physically hurt.

 

[jive1]

Closed to review for potential spam.