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Do You Trust Craigslist Musicians?

#81
Toastfuzz said:
However, I will say the Personals are rather bottom-of-the-barrel...
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...and how do you know that??? :smug:

The Rideshare section is great, and I've used that alot. I've met some really cool people that way, too.

For musicians, it sort of depends where you are. The smaller the town, the better it probably is because there aren't jams or a college to get really good connections.

In larger cities, it's pretty lousy. The good musicians usually already have good connections, so why would they need to go onto CL for a new drummer? For truely professional level gigs and situations in bigger cities, CL is pretty much a joke, with the very, very rare diamond in the rough. In smaller cities, it can be a pretty good tool.
 
#85
Icarus26 said:
I'm pretty sure we all know what craigslist is. For those who don't, its the classifieds where people can post ads and things like that. I'm looking for a band to audition for and have been posting ads on craigslist. My question is do you trust craigslist? Do you think people on the other end of the computer are legit musicians? Ever have any bad experiences with meeting musicians over craigslist? Good experiences are welcome too.
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You get everything from beginners to seasoned experienced players on CL.

Just sort through and hook up with the right guys.
 
#89
i joined 3 cover bands off craigslist-(2) were kind of lame- Typical ex-star basement wannabes who at one point were all in more sucessful bands (lots of that in Hotlanta).
The next was a weed-fest- I mean non-stop weed smoking throughout practice (decent players though to be fair). The 3rd gigged about 7-8 times, mostly through me and the drummer getting gigs, then imploded due to lack of interest at our gigs. I am on my 4th now, but doubt it will go anywhere (but who knows).
I really think the world is turning away from live music period and I may be a dinosaur of a forgotten era at the tender age of 43.
 
#90
I was a craigs list find. And I did suck... never played in a band before. They were patient and I worked hard and we have been together for almost a year now. We haven't had any drama to speak of, and it is fun working with them. I don't suck any more and that is kind of nice.
 
#91
I trust nothing that has anything to do with CL so I don't even acknowledge it's existence anymore.
Co worker bought some studio reference monitors from a guy in Houston via CL. Box showed up and was filled with crumpled up newspaper.
Our former drummer, a big CL enthusiast, hired a sound guy for one of our gigs via CL. The guy actually showed up but he was a complete buffoon and caused us a 45 min delay in getting started, then we had no monitors all night. I knew we'd get what we paid for...he was cheap and brought out a bunch of worn out consumer grade junk to set up a sound system for a 7 pc band.
There are just too many low enders & bottom feeders on CL for me.
 
#92
No offense- but you don't EVER buy anything, that you can't go pick up in person on CL. EVERYONE knows that.
Shipping on CL?? No way.
Biggbass said:
I trust nothing that has anything to do with CL so I don't even acknowledge it's existence anymore.
Co worker bought some studio reference monitors from a guy in Houston via CL. Box showed up and was filled with crumpled up newspaper.
Our former drummer, a big CL enthusiast, hired a sound guy for one of our gigs via CL. The guy actually showed up but he was a complete buffoon and caused us a 45 min delay in getting started, then we had no monitors all night. I knew we'd get what we paid for...he was cheap and brought out a bunch of worn out consumer grade junk to set up a sound system for a 7 pc band.
There are just too many low enders & bottom feeders on CL for me.
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#93
Craiglist serves a purpose…

You just need to do a lot of screening..

These days I don't even bother with anyone from Craigslist unless they can supply me with audio or video of what they can do…and anymore there is simply no excuse to not have a recording of yourself.
 
#94
I found a fantastic bassist for a band in which I play drums on CL. We had to fire our last bassist for freaking out on the hot singer chick one time, and had a hard time finding someone.

I posted a very simple ad, scheduled some auditions from the replies, and I swear, the first guy that showed up was it!

When he walked out, he said, "Hey, I hope the other guys SUCK!"

and while the next 3 - 4 guys didn't suck, none of them could compare to this dude. I called him back that night, and said it's yours if you want it.

That was a little over a year ago, and wow, quite a bargin on CL!
 
#95
I think CL is a pretty good "sample" representation of the entire human population on this planet......most are absolutely worthless, disgusting, under-evolved neanderthal humanoid creatures, but there are a select few who have worth and bring value to the table. The overwhelmingly high percentage of those in the former category makes it challenging to find those in the latter category.

Since music is so fun to play, we accept what a PITA it can be to weed through the tripe to find folks who actually have their shite together.
 
#96
Braaaaaaaaaains!!!

I'm trying to use it to find a guitardist for me and my drummer to abuse, got one hopeful , but I'm small town. too many emails asking if the guitarist is still for sale, that they agree on my price and will pick it up after putting the cash in my paypal!
I will say any ad on CL will get you tons of junk mail, especially when you reply to the wrong one and they sell your email address.
 
#97
I'm a weekend warrior type and I've had some limited success both placing and replying to CL ads. Two tips I'll share:

1. Don't use an email for the response, use a phone number. It's like a built-in barrier to entry. If someone's taking the time to call, they're probably more motivated.

2. When using the phone number, get yourself a Google Voice number ( www.google.com/voice). This way you're not giving out your personal info, and listening to the voice mails you get serves as another level of evaluation (i.e., can they leave a coherent message?)

I also use these methods when selling equipment, and it seems to keep away all the BS 'buyers.'
 
#98
sacbill said:
I'm a weekend warrior type and I've had some limited success both placing and replying to CL ads. Two tips I'll share:

1. Don't use an email for the response, use a phone number. It's like a built-in barrier to entry. If someone's taking the time to call, they're probably more motivated.

2. When using the phone number, get yourself a Google Voice number ( www.google.com/voice). This way you're not giving out your personal info, and listening to the voice mails you get serves as another level of evaluation (i.e., can they leave a coherent message?)

I also use these methods when selling equipment, and it seems to keep away all the BS 'buyers.'
Click to expand...
Good idea. Met our current drummer through Craigslist and he posted his phone number on Craigslist so we spoke and clicked right away. It has been fun with the guy.
 
#99
I've joined four bands using Craigslist. The 1st one was weak, but all the other ones have had good to excellent musicians. My bands have done some auditioning with Craigslist also, and it is a mixed bag of talent, but we've found some good people that way also.

Like anything else, you have to screen the applicants well to find what you want.
 

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