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Craigslist-- garbage IMHO

obimark

obimark

Sep 1, 2011
3,900
2,411
Atlanta, Georgia
#1
Sorry for the rant, but want to see other peoples experiences, and start a new thread.
This is my experience recently with craigslist in Atlanta. 80% of people posting on it are out and out crap. (Either people who jsut can't get there act together or messing around)
out of the remaining 25% - 20% are ego trips--- it usually goes like this- "since you are responding to my ad, I make all the rules, you have zero input on what we play, which songs, etc.." I have now learned to spot this fairly quickly, and bail the second I get this vibe.
5% may be legitimate but out of that- 10% might be close eough to your style and what you want to do/location.
Its' funny with the shortage of good bass players that more bands don't understand, if I play bass very well and you want me in your band, then I have a say over what we play and the direction of the band. Period! Auditioned for a band recently- who were like after the first audition "You are really good, if you want in your in." my reply "Fine, but out of 40 songs, I want to add 4-5 that I want to play. Pretty reasonable as I am 1/4 of the 4-piece band. So the "leader" sends out the revised setlist for next weeks practice. Surprise, not one! of the songs I suggested is on there. Been there done that before, reply email, "thanks for your time, thsi isn't a fit for me." Seems he thought, to add a song I have to sing it myself!! Which isn't good for anybody ;-)
I post my ads, and am very specific now, but you must have a lot of patience.
 
#3
Yup, 90% is probably crap. But that's true of just about everything.

Sounds like you're getting the hang of it though. I found my band through Craigslist. I talked to liars who claimed to have played for Taylor Swift, and did a bunch of auditions before I found my place.

That's the game. I get why you might be on a rant about it, but I'd try to get over it ASAP. IME, Craigslist works.
 
#4
The city has more to do with it than the site, I think. I had great luck in the Boston area finding gigs/musicians, and for buying and selling. Moved to central-NC, and have had a really awful time finding musicians, and buying/selling is just OK.

I think factors such as size of market, economy, number of colleges, etc. will really effect who posts and views a specific CL site.

Generally, though, I am a fan of the site. I started out before the internet, and I prefer websites to the old days of newspaper classifieds and want ads.
 
#5
I like CL, but you're right, it does have a higher level of complete crap than some other ways to buy/sell used stuff. The problem is due to it's advantage. It is free. There is no barrier to entry. Absolutely anyone can go on there and post or respond to anything. Very democratizing, but it makes you realize how low the level of responsibility in our society is. So it's not really CL's fault. It's everyone you know. :-)
 
#6
That could be it, it may be that Atlanta just isn't a great town for live music. I mean Hell, what I want to do is an all 80s cover band with a female singer who is smoking hot, which should have quite a bit of popularity and giggability. Have played out with several of my old bands at "bars" with poor turnout as well.
 
#8
I'm in Atlanta, every once in a while, so if you can pull the band together, let me know and I will come to the show :-)

I tried to just find a decent singer in central-NC for years, unsuccessfully. Could be that my music is not very good, or not what folks in the area care for, but eventually, I just decided to give up and go instrumental.

In Boston, we could always get a new singer in a month or two - and have multiple good ones we tried out, and had to choose from.

Good luck with your search.
 
#9
I responded to a Craigslist add (just one) and that's all it took for me, but I got really lucky I think. I also live in a town that is fairly good for my genre of music... blues. anyway, found a guitarist who wanted a bassist, then a got a new drummer for our next practice on Craigslist and now we are a three piece.

buying/selling around here is decent. not great. but I can't really complain. I would say that with CL you just have to have good intuition and a good understanding of people. and when you get that little tingle in your spine that says run, you run like hell!
 
#15
Your search is strategic, which is good.

You want a "turn key " opportunity with a gigging 80s cover band with a female front.

The con is well established working cover bands don't usually have to post ads. They have guys waiting in the wings.

While many tbers do not believe in going out to see bands. I would go out and see some of the local cover bands and do some networking.
 
#16
bluewine said:
Your search is strategic, which is good.

You want a "turn key " opportunity with a gigging 80s cover band with a female front.

The con is well established working cover bands don't usually have to post ads. They have guys waiting in the wings.

While many tbers do not believe in going out to see bands. I would go out and see some of the local cover bands and do some networking.
Click to expand...

That is great advice- and the feeling I get too, the good bands aren't posting because they can easily fill there spot if it comes open. Have went out and seen some good bands, but they are so good, noone leaves them. Catch-22, which leaves a lot of far less than great stuff on CL.
 
#18
Curmei said:
I'm in Atlanta, every once in a while, so if you can pull the band together, let me know and I will come to the show :-)

I tried to just find a decent singer in central-NC for years, unsuccessfully. Could be that my music is not very good, or not what folks in the area care for, but eventually, I just decided to give up and go instrumental.

In Boston, we could always get a new singer in a month or two - and have multiple good ones we tried out, and had to choose from.

Good luck with your search.
Click to expand...

Where are you located in central NC?
I'm central NC as well and was working on trying my hand at singing more as opposed to bashing because I'm apparently not great at doing both at the same time (darn ADHD).
 
#19
We lost our drummer a while ago and found a great addition to the band (both as a friend and a player) on craigslist. We had to go through about 10 guys first who were Flakes, Egomaniacs, tweekers, Not skilled, on and on. He said he had the same experience we did till he found us. Just a numbers game. You run through all the people it takes to find the right fit.
 

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