Bridging the Music: Scam or legitimate?

[LiquidMidnight]

The owner Jonah is a musician himself and started playing the same way by doing opening acts that don't have the best genre fit or having to sell tickets on a night that doesn't draw a lot of people.

Then perhaps he should have recognized why that's such a horrible way of putting a bill together. Many innovative business people become successful by being incredibly insightful. It sounds like Jonah's not very insightful, since he apparently paid his dues and now is continuing to perpetuate the same crap model he himself went through.

Some of these people I've seen at these events don't know how to go about booking or getting gigs. Some performers I've seen are very grateful for having a chance to play in a nice venue, and have never performed live before.

Ignorance is not a sin, but choosing to remain in ignorance is. I'd suggest that if these people are wet behind the ears in the music biz, they'd be better served by playing with older cats, hanging out at music stores, and getting good mentors. That's how many of us learned how to navigate this world. That will serve them much better in the long-run than being bilked by some pay-to-play organization.

The way I see it is that they are giving people a chance to try to sell tickets and learn how to build their own fan base.

While I find the idea laughable that it's somehow awesome to be given the opportunity to sell tickets, this idea is completely illogical. People who aren't your fans aren't going to buy your tickets. That's how these organizations work: They know that they can make a few bucks off of you because your family and close friends will buy tickets, but strangers aren't going to buy tickets. And pro tip here: Your mom, dad, girlfriend, and best friend from high school aren't a real fan base that can sustain a musical project.

They give you a couple bucks back, give an amount to the venue, and keep what's leftover. You can't call that a scam, that's how this industry works.

If you consider these BS pay-to-play/BOTB things the "industry," then yeah, I guess that's how it works. But considering these things the "industry" is analogous to thinking that your local mini-golf course is the PGA.

As far as it being a scam, I think the person who runs this website made a pretty easy to follow diagram at the bottom of this page to show how these things are scams: Link Removed

Besides the tickets are cheap, 10 dollars, it's not like they are turning over a huge profit on bands that only bring in 15 people. It hard enough to break even. They let anyone play as long as you can bring in some people which is fair.

I don't know the inner-financial workings of BTM, but don't make the mistake of confusing revenue with profits. Something may not seem like its bringing in a lot of revenues, but with low overhead, it still could be a decent profit.

When BTM is putting on a show, does it rent a large professional line-array PA with a sound engineer who has extensive national act experience? Does it hire security? Does it rent backline? Does it hire catering? Does it contract with a company to build a stage with professional trussing? Does it obtain any necessary licenses and permits to put on the show? Does it take out radio advertisements for its shows during peak listening hours?

...or does it maybe rent a room and hire a local "sound guy" for $50 a night?

It's obvious that some acts are more talented and dedicated to trying to bring in people, others think they are entitled to having an audience there for them that the promoter brings in.

Nobody automatically deserves a crowd, but that doesn't mean that you should take it up the posterior either because you're new.

It just doesn't make sense that you think the promoter should do all the work for upcoming bands. With the amount of new local acts they work with and the number of small shows that go on, while also doing bigger primary shows, the promoter cannot promote every band or act. They just don't have the time to market acts who don't even try to market themselves. You have to self promote, and eventually you can get to a point where you get on better bills, play better nights, and have to sell yourself less. BTM provides opportunities to move on to bigger and better shows, but you have to prove that you work hard to sell yourself they just aren't going to hand you a headlining show with a packed house. That's all I was trying to say with my previous post.

Total strawman. Nobody is saying bands shouldn't have to promote or develop themselves. Our beef is with the BS pay scheme. I sell a ticket for X amount of dollars, the "promoter" gives me back some piddling amount. I essentially made that promoter a lot of money and got basically nothing in return for the privilege of gracing the stage.

I'm sure many of you that bash BTM have never worked with them or even lived In their primary market Denver, it's not fair to them that you diminish their image by making accusations online.

In the immortal words of Steven Hyde from That 70s Show: "Well, I've never been to the dentist either, but I don't need to go to know it's lame." You don't have to take a crappy deal to know it's a crappy deal.

 

[LiquidMidnight]

"I'm not JUST pushing people into the mud; I'm teaching them HOW to get pushed into the mud."

LMAO!

 

[MonkeyBass]

Also to monkeybass I think that was you. If you are referring to jay bianchi the owner of the grateful dead theme bars, he doesn't own Cervantes anymore he sold it in 2009, that's why it's called the other side and Not quixotes anymore. Quixotes has a different location now, he has Sanchos, and just opened an other one near mile high stadium the donkey O.T. I don't know when you played, what happened, Not trying to start another controversy here...

Really? Good to know. That issue with Mr. Bianchi was in 2008. I didn't know he sold Cervantes. Didn't care enough to try to find out. But I'm glad he's not in control of that building anymore. Maybe I'll play there again.

 

[MarkMgibson]

Thanks fdeck you seem to be the only constructive and helpful person on this thread. Everyone else seems to twist my words around.

I'm not saying I'm an expert I'm just a college student trying to figure out the business, I've done four shows through this company and have improved in playing on stage and also networking and getting people to come see me. They provided a good venue a sound guy and venue staff willing to sit through a bunch of sub par sets, and I had fun even if I put my own money into it. I care more that my friends got to see me perform because I haven't been able to get gigs anywhere else yet.

I'm not saying it's not their job to promote acts. They put on bigger shows and promote established acts who may be touring or have a following. This is what they are mainly promoting shows and bands that have potential to profit.

Besides these main shows they put on off night showcases. These feature a bigger volume of musicians who may not be as talented and may not have the drive like I did to bring people in. If you can prove that you have the desire to work your way past the initial phase of selling tickets and promoting yourself than you can move past playing an empty room and find better opporunities.

Like I said playing at these shows may not have been the best turnout and i spent my own money but I try to use it to my advantage by getting a good YouTube video of my drunk friends cheering for me with a nice light show, or by networking with other musicians I meet there. BTM has seen me progress show to show and each time has gotten I've gotten better time slots and got more money back from ticket sales.

Many people have bad experiences but there are some who have good ones and that move up from the bottom rung of paying and selling because they are passionate bout sharing their music with others.
I don't expect the promoter to have a full house for the showcases and promote me very much because I am not as talented as their larger and profitable acts, it takes time and work to start drawing people.

If these forums represent countless years of experience the people posting on it could at least offer more constructive advice of how their bands moved up or got better gigs other than posting vague responses. Pointing out grammatical errors in peoples posts or saying dumb stuff like they don't shower and making accusations doesn't help at all. I'd like to hear your stories of how your bands started out and how you all got people to come see you play huge shows. You could at least have the decency of not going out of your way to be a total dick to people online

Since you're a young college student just starting out, perhaps you should listen to all the people here with years of experience. I've been a professional musician for 30 years, and I've seen these scams all over the world. No matter what the name of the organization, these pay-to-play scams are all basically the same, and I guarantee they'll do nothing to help further you or your band's career. They only thing I know about BTM is that in 5 years they'll be working under a different name ripping off the next generation of young bands. Trust me: these people have got nothing you want and nothing you need.

 

[Bass Viking]

If these forums represent countless years of experience the people posting on it could at least offer more constructive advice of how their bands moved up or got better gigs other than posting vague responses. Pointing out grammatical errors in peoples posts or saying dumb stuff like they don't shower and making accusations doesn't help at all. I'd like to hear your stories of how your bands started out and how you all got people to come see you play huge shows. You could at least have the decency of not going out of your way to be a total dick to people online

Frankly, you come across as more eager to defend BTM than to actually listen to advice.

Liquid Midnight makes some great points above.

 

[thisisreylo]

We're fresh off a weekend of an experience with BTM. I'll lay out the sequence of events and you can judge for yourselves.

Our interaction with BTM was in two parts.

PART I
We were first contacted to do a showcase with BTM a couple of months back in Austin. Having already worked with another "pay to play" company, we had no illusions regarding what we were getting into. Our main motivation was that it was an opportunity to play at a 6th Street venue in Austin.

While we didn't sell a huge number of tickets we did win that showcase and advanced to the finals. More importantly, however, was that we connected with an amazing band who ended up putting a show together for us in their community. That connection was the real payoff for us that night.

The venue was also very supportive of us and it's not insignificant that the person at the door said this would be his last event with BTM. He was very upfront that he did not care for the way they handled the event and he did not like being the "face" of the company to the artists.

PART II
When we were first contacted to perform at the finals they asked what slot we would like to pay. What we observed from the first show was that the early slots pretty much guaranteed a nearly empty room. We requested a late slot, which we had done previously and were granted.

Not long after - maybe within a day or so - we received an email that we would be playing the very first slot. We attempted to negotiate a better time with the rep via email. He said the venue would allow us to play the last slot but that we would have to provide them with another band who would be willing to sell tickets. I thought this strange since the second show was supposed to be for bands that had won previous showcases.

After some discussion, we decided to just take the time they gave us and make the best of it.

A couple of days before the event they sent an email asking us to show up at 4:30 since our slot was at 5:30. They emphasized not to be late to allow for setup. On the day of the event as we are pulling into the alley behind the venue, we received a text message from one of the reps telling us that one of the other bands would be providing the drum kit and that we would only be allowed to use our snare and cymbals. I indicated that they had already given us a less than desirable time slot, against our request, and that allowing us to use our gear was the least they could do.

Now, I know it's not uncommon for a venue to provide a drum kit but that detail is usually hammered out at the time of booking. I told the rep that we had our gear loaded up and had come from San Antonio and that our drummer would probably want to use his kit. They wanted to "make it easy for the soundman" and that the venue was making this request because there were a lot of bands and we needed to stay on schedule.

When we walked into the venue there wasn't even a drum kit set up and the band whose kit we were being asked to use wasn't even at the venue yet. We went ahead and used our kit, but not without BTM saying we had to shave two minutes off our set.

Interestingly, the kit they wanted us to use didn't even arrive until ten minutes before showtime and it would not have been a desirable set to use. Had we not insisted on using our equipment the show would have started late, which was what was driving the issue to begin with.

On our way home we received a phone call from a BTM representative. He started off asking us how our show went and then went into letting us know that we were the only band that complained and that bad attitudes don't make for a long career in the business.

I told him that from the registration for this event to the drum kit debacle, if the artists are the customers then there were customer service issues that left a lot to be desired.

He then asked me about our fan base, which is strong, and also asked me if any of their reps had been drinking. I had seen one of the reps drinking a beer earlier, but I told the representative that I didn't care anything about that as he seemed to be clearly of age to drink. He made a comment that they have strict rules about that, but that seems to be an issue between for the company to work out.

What was odd is that in that moment the tone of the rep changed completely and he said that he'd love to work with us again and told us to let him know when we were ready to do another show with them.

After reading this entire thread, though, I'm fairly certain that we're going to steer clear of any of these types of organizations in the future. While we are a new band, we have a pretty significant network and a few seasoned mentors who really care about us. We'll work hard to be our own promoters and develop our own relationships with venues. Please and thank you.

 

[Bass Viking]

PART II
When we were first contacted to perform at the finals they asked what slot we would like to pay.

Is that a typo or a Freudian slip?

 

[thisisreylo]

Is that a typo or a Freudian slip?

Clearly in my subconscious.

 

[hanales]

The two times I played one of these types of shows (years ago, not for BTM) a few things happened.

1. They rented out a well known (small - 400 people max) club on an afternoon or evening. They had employees working the event (Bartenders, door folk, a sound man (who's that sound man that will work 6 hours for 50 bucks? I've been looking for one for years)), and provided PA equipment, including mics, stands, drum mics, bass DI, the whole shebang.

2. The event was rushed, but everyone got to use their own equipment (for one) and then they had bass/drum back line for the other (Not terrible equipment, but not amazing).

3. They said to sell the tickets for ten, and we would keep two bucks off of every ticket we sold (meaning we paid them 8 bucks, we sold them for 8).

4. We met a bunch of other regional up and coming bands to play other shows with.

5. One of the shows, there was 300 people there hanging out. Not a single drink was sold that I could see (we were the oldest band there, in our early 20s). The other, there were 30 people, but at least they were drinking.

The one show we made no money. The other I think we made 60 bucks. Both times we were bands with no following, and just wanted to meet some new people. Both times were fun.

I did not then, nor do I now see the problem with this. Let's be honest here, how much money are these "promoters" actually making? Most of the bands playing these kinds of shows either have little to no following, or if they do are generally a much much younger crowd who isn't providing the lucrative alcohol revenue (where the real money is at.

I don't hear a lot of stories about "They stole money from us". I hear a lot of people who are just unhappy with the way the local original music scene is. However, that's how it is. There is little money to be made in original music, in case you haven't noticed the clubs constantly shutting down or retooling. At least this is a way for bands to get out there and have some fun. I realize everyone on this site has 50 years of experience, is a first call session player and has that original song that if only there weren't all these **** bands around would make them a millionaire, but for the rest of us who love to play, I think it's fine. Let's be honest, these shows are doing nothing to your real scene, if it has even existed since 1985 or so.

All that said, I play in cover bands nowadays, and I always get paid, but even that has become completely cutthroat competing with franchise bands.

 

[Joe Louvar]

Originally Posted by thisisreylo View Post
PART II
When we were first contacted to perform at the finals they asked what slot we would like to pay.

To funny - perfect too.

 

[Aleister462]

A little update to what I posted a year ago on the first page of this thread...notice this is my second post. Haha. The only reason I was reminded about posting here once, was because my band recently got facebook-spammed by a Gorilla Productions rep for a BOTB event. Needless to say we marked the message as spam. In case you didn't know already, Gorilla has a worse reputation and business model than BTM; it only took me a google search to figure that out, and I wish my band had done the same before signing on for our second BTM event last year.

Our first show with BTM was pretty much a wash, money-wise. We didn't make anything, but we sold enough tickets to avoid paying out-of-pocket for the ones we didn't sell. The second time we signed on, even though it was a Friday night show, we were unable to sell nearly as many tickets and ended up paying a hell of a lot more than $6.50 postage to get onstage and play. We seriously got screwed, but then again, we should have known what we were in for. Fool me once, shame on you... you know the rest.

The show itself was almost exactly like colonelpan1c described on page 1, just below my post. The judge(s?) pretended like they knew and/or cared about the bands performing, but it was obvious that they were oblivious to anything beyond collecting tickets and money, and sitting in front of a laptop doing who knows what. They also pronounced our band name wrong. As a progressive rock band, it can be hard to fit us into a bill.. but this lineup was kind of ridiculous. There were 2 other bands that reflected *some* similar musical interests with ours; the rest were cover bands, and a couple of guys who we believe did the gig as some kind of publicity stunt because their idea of music was absolutely unlistenable. I'm pretty sure people laughed at them more than cheered, maybe that was the idea...to each his own I guess. Attendance was low until the end of the night. The winning band (a blatant Sublime rip-off) had the end-of-night slot, they brought in the most people, got the most crowd response, and won the "battle," all of which were the result of selling the most tickets.

Today I've gone through this entire thread since I first posted in it over a year ago. I've noticed a lot of resentment from people with similar experiences to mine. I've noticed a lot of skepticism from people who haven't dealt firsthand with this organization, but are seasoned enough as working musicians to know better (kudos to you). I've also noticed a lot of obvious damage control from people advocating or affiliated with Bridging The Music. I honestly have to say that, even though my band will NEVER AGAIN sign up for one of their gigs or anything similar, I don't really think this particular organization is a TOTAL scam like, say, Gorilla or Afron. At the very least, they have a charity. You can make a little bit of money, even if it's only ~10% of the ticket sales, but be aware that you will have to work hard for it. (In fact, you would probably have better luck starting your own street team, assuming you have the means.) You might come across some random people, other bands or audience members, who just might take a real interest in what you're doing and help to advance your band's career in a much more fruitful way. Or, more likely, the whole thing will be a ****show and you'll learn your lesson the hard way. My only advice is to know what you're getting into. Do some research. If you're reading this, you're obviously on the right track. Read between the lines and do your best to fully understand the mechanics of a promotional company before you sign on with them, no matter how long you've been on the scene.

 

[Pajama_Bottoms]

Their main charity from what I can find is [Invalid or Expired Link Removed] which records a personalized song for children in hospitals with the child's name, favorite activities, etc. in the song. Between 2006 and 2012 they had a revenue of Link Removed. Their site states that since 1996 they have recorded songs for 24,481 children. Given the most charitable possible interpretation from the information I have available - that is, disregarding ANY income during their first ten years of operation - that gives a per song cost of $360 dollars. Note that the songwriters are volunteers who are expected to complete the recording of a song fully before sending it to sound of love, at which point they package it as a "personalized CD".

I'm not sure what expenses the Songs of Love Foundation incurs given that graphic design of a CD can be completed with basically minimal training or printing cost for a graphic designer. As someone who has had small runs of CDs manufactured before, $360 would be enough to cover a basic design and production run of around 100 cds in sleeves or slim cases.

Additionally, "Songs of Love Foundation" holds the "Best in America" Independent Charities of America Seal - Invalid Link Removed.

One of the members of "Songs of Love Foundation's" board is Jonah Lipsky, CEO of "Bridging the Music".

 

[Downunderwonder]

Bottom dwelling blood sucking parasite is as bottom dwelling blood sucking parasite does.

 

[Major Softie]

As long as Aleister has dredged this zombie back up:

Looking back through this thread, I noticed that lots of people expressed that they didn't understand why this company bothered with the little $6.50 fee. If you look back at Iheartjohnny65's horror story, the reason is very very clear. It is not for shipping, and it is not to pay for the printing of the tickets. The purpose of the seemingly meaningless $6.50 fee is to get your credit card number.

He mailed me new tickets and charged my card WITHOUT MY PERMISSION!!! Then when I said AGAIN I was not available on the Oct date he immediately (his excuse for not waiting for a response from me is because they have had a long track record of bands actually closing their bank accounts once they are in it to the point they find out about the cancellation fee-it is not mentioned in the initial sign up process)CHARGED MY CARD A $50 CANCELLATION FEE WITHOUT MY KNOWLEDGE OR CONSENT!!!

If you do not sell enough tickets, they will charge your card. If you cancel, they will charge your card. As soon as you send them the first $6.50, and they send you the tickets, you owe them more money, and if you don't pay up, they will charge your card.


Without even getting into the repeated issues about what exactly this company actually does for the performers, etc., one thing is absolutely clear: when someone says they want you to work for them, and the first thing they need is your credit card number, they have identified exactly what they are.

 

[mellowinman]

SCAM

With all due respect, you'd be wrong. These bands are led to believe that there will be hundreds of paying guests, and that they are likely to make money. They are led to believe that industry insiders will be in attendance and that there is a high likelyhood that they will be discovered. They are led to believe that they are supporting a charity, when they are really supporting a promoter.

Man, you're killing me here!

Two Cents.

I happen to think most people in bands believe any publicity is good. My band?

Dirty Lixx.

SCAM.

Go ahead, google it.

Dirty Lixx is a scam. We don't even really play our instruments. We are from the Soviet Union.

In Soviet Union, you do not play instrument. Instrument plays YOU.

Holy crap. What's scary is that someone thought that we would buy this shill.

Personally, my intelligence, (what there is of it,) is feeling just a bit insulted at the moment.

Well there's your answer. The first hand experience of the above poster says these guys are dirt bags.

Color me surprised.

Wait; that's not a color.

Color me persimmon.

What I'm getting here is, it is not the job of the PROMOTER to PROMOTE.

So what IS their job?

Apparently, their job is keep all the leftover money

Much of it involves damage control on message boards apparently.

Stand at the door and collect money, that has been my experience.

This is my favorite thread on talkbass. And the more I go back and read all the posts, the more I think that no one in their right mind should be involved with Bridging the Music. It is a sucker bet, from the word go.

And I hear they don't bathe.

Not that there's anything wrong with that...

Thanks fdeck you seem to be the only constructive and helpful person on this thread. Everyone else seems to twist my words around.

I'm not saying I'm an expert I'm just a college student trying to figure out the business, I've done four shows through this company and have improved in playing on stage and also networking and getting people to come see me. They provided a good venue a sound guy and venue staff willing to sit through a bunch of sub par sets, and I had fun even if I put my own money into it. I care more that my friends got to see me perform because I haven't been able to get gigs anywhere else yet.

I'm not saying it's not their job to promote acts. They put on bigger shows and promote established acts who may be touring or have a following. This is what they are mainly promoting shows and bands that have potential to profit.

Besides these main shows they put on off night showcases. These feature a bigger volume of musicians who may not be as talented and may not have the drive like I did to bring people in. If you can prove that you have the desire to work your way past the initial phase of selling tickets and promoting yourself than you can move past playing an empty room and find better opporunities.

Like I said playing at these shows may not have been the best turnout and i spent my own money but I try to use it to my advantage by getting a good YouTube video of my drunk friends cheering for me with a nice light show, or by networking with other musicians I meet there. BTM has seen me progress show to show and each time has gotten I've gotten better time slots and got more money back from ticket sales.

Many people have bad experiences but there are some who have good ones and that move up from the bottom rung of paying and selling because they are passionate bout sharing their music with others.
I don't expect the promoter to have a full house for the showcases and promote me very much because I am not as talented as their larger and profitable acts, it takes time and work to start drawing people.

If these forums represent countless years of experience the people posting on it could at least offer more constructive advice of how their bands moved up or got better gigs other than posting vague responses. Pointing out grammatical errors in peoples posts or saying dumb stuff like they don't shower and making accusations doesn't help at all. I'd like to hear your stories of how your bands started out and how you all got people to come see you play huge shows. You could at least have the decency of not going out of your way to be a total dick to people online

Because you've been so honest with us, right?

Let's have a link to that YouTube video, OK?

Here it is (from post #89):

Frankly, I don't think it's promo quality.

A little update to what I posted a year ago on the first page of this thread...notice this is my second post. Haha. The only reason I was reminded about posting here once, was because my band recently got facebook-spammed by a Gorilla Productions rep for a BOTB event. Needless to say we marked the message as spam. In case you didn't know already, Gorilla has a worse reputation and business model than BTM; it only took me a google search to figure that out, and I wish my band had done the same before signing on for our second BTM event last year.

Our first show with BTM was pretty much a wash, money-wise. We didn't make anything, but we sold enough tickets to avoid paying out-of-pocket for the ones we didn't sell. The second time we signed on, even though it was a Friday night show, we were unable to sell nearly as many tickets and ended up paying a hell of a lot more than $6.50 postage to get onstage and play. We seriously got screwed, but then again, we should have known what we were in for. Fool me once, shame on you... you know the rest.

The show itself was almost exactly like colonelpan1c described on page 1, just below my post. The judge(s?) pretended like they knew and/or cared about the bands performing, but it was obvious that they were oblivious to anything beyond collecting tickets and money, and sitting in front of a laptop doing who knows what. They also pronounced our band name wrong. As a progressive rock band, it can be hard to fit us into a bill.. but this lineup was kind of ridiculous. There were 2 other bands that reflected *some* similar musical interests with ours; the rest were cover bands, and a couple of guys who we believe did the gig as some kind of publicity stunt because their idea of music was absolutely unlistenable. I'm pretty sure people laughed at them more than cheered, maybe that was the idea...to each his own I guess. Attendance was low until the end of the night. The winning band (a blatant Sublime rip-off) had the end-of-night slot, they brought in the most people, got the most crowd response, and won the "battle," all of which were the result of selling the most tickets.

Today I've gone through this entire thread since I first posted in it over a year ago. I've noticed a lot of resentment from people with similar experiences to mine. I've noticed a lot of skepticism from people who haven't dealt firsthand with this organization, but are seasoned enough as working musicians to know better (kudos to you). I've also noticed a lot of obvious damage control from people advocating or affiliated with Bridging The Music. I honestly have to say that, even though my band will NEVER AGAIN sign up for one of their gigs or anything similar, I don't really think this particular organization is a TOTAL scam like, say, Gorilla or Afron. At the very least, they have a charity. You can make a little bit of money, even if it's only ~10% of the ticket sales, but be aware that you will have to work hard for it. (In fact, you would probably have better luck starting your own street team, assuming you have the means.) You might come across some random people, other bands or audience members, who just might take a real interest in what you're doing and help to advance your band's career in a much more fruitful way. Or, more likely, the whole thing will be a ****show and you'll learn your lesson the hard way. My only advice is to know what you're getting into. Do some research. If you're reading this, you're obviously on the right track. Read between the lines and do your best to fully understand the mechanics of a promotional company before you sign on with them, no matter how long you've been on the scene.

I just want to point out that from the very get-go, I was cynical, confrontational, bitter, twisted, and did NOT show an open mind.

I would like to apologize for that, but I can't. I was absolutely, beyond a doubt, 100% RIGHT, and will continue to exhibit this attitude towards people and organizations whose purpose is to exploit musicians and artists.

I've had about enough of these leeches, and they would be advised to steer WELL CLEAR of me in the real world.

 

[ChrisB2]

(Whew) so glad the beatdown will happen in the Real World and not in here. I get queasy around violence...

 

[Joe Louvar]

I don't know about BtM

I don't know about the "xtra mile high club", but BtM is a scam - checkout the thread.

 

[Moe Monsarrat]

Our club hosted BTM for a while. Left a bad taste in our mouth, so no more!

 

[r370dd]

This is my first post here. I'm a long time lurker though, and have gotten some great info on gear on this site.

I just received an e-mail from these "Bridging the Music" guys offering us a gig. They made no mention of paying anything up front, but were trying to get me to contact them for details. The fact that they were even contacting me was a red flag. The band they were contacting me about, Jazz Crab, had only played a couple gigs in town at that point. Why would anyone but the venues we'd played at be contacting us? I mean, we ARE awesome and everything, but...

Anyway, here's the e-mail I received. Funfact: The fact that my name isn't "Tyler" was another red flag:

Hi Tyler,

My name is Connor from Bridging The Music. I ran across your music online and I wanted to see if you would be interested in playing one of our upcoming shows that we throw in Austin. We have our festival style event "INDIEcent Exposure" on June 25th and our Local Band Showcase/TX Solo Artist Awards at the Flamingo Cantina coming up soon on June 29th. Its a great opportunity for you, to shine on stage and network with other local bands and artists. You'll get paid and we also donate a portion of ticket sales to an awesome organization called Songs of Love. Our production company is all about helping bands grow and this is an awesome way to kick that off. I would love to talk with you more about getting booked for this event. Please get back to me with the best phone number and time to reach you so we can discuss details for the show. This show is coming up soon so please get in touch with me ASAP. Thanks and I look forward to speaking with you soon!

Thanks,
Connor xxxxxxxxxx (number removed by poster)
Bridging the Music (he posted a link here to the org, but I can't do that here because I'm new to the forum)
​

I thought the whole thing was fishy, but didn't want to miss out on any legitimate opportunities to share my music with the world, so I responded:

Thanks, Connor
I'm talking to the band about this now. To ensure "Bridging the Music" is a legitimate organization and not pay-to-play, please answer this question for me at your earliest convenience:
Do we have to give your organization any money or do any work (other than loading in and out and playing, of course) in order to participate? How will Bridging the Music be promoting this event?
I'm sorry for even having to ask this, and don't mean you any offense. Please let me know ASAP, and if we don't have to pay anything to participate, I'll give you a call.
​

If he responds, I'll let y'all know what he said. Otherwise, big thanks to everyone in this thread for keeping us informed.

 

[r370dd]

Our club hosted BTM for a while. Left a bad taste in our mouth, so no more!

Moe - You might want to see the e-mail Connor from BtM sent me (above). He claims The Flamingo Cantina will be hosting one of their events.