• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Is Bandmix as useless as it seems?

#101
I have yet to meet anyone on bandmix. I have a paid account and have sent messages and get no replies. It is mostly my area. Our musician pool is pretty slim and nobody networks. The good players are either in bands or have a job/wife/kid preventing them from playing. I have been considering moving to a city with a bigger music scene. I am fortunate to have a very flexible work schedule, which allows me to practice and gig when I want.
 
#102
I am on bandmix...I do get quite a few responses. You should have pics and videos and a good description of what you are looking for.

Also there are a LOT of Dormant accounts on Bandmix (and I mean a LOT). Also people list WAY too many instruments that they supposedly play. If you are a bassist, no need to also list drums guitar flute violin, etc....that gets confusing.

Here me be:
Invalid Link Removed
 
#103
Bald-N-Bassy said:
I have yet to meet anyone on bandmix. I have a paid account and have sent messages and get no replies. It is mostly my area. Our musician pool is pretty slim and nobody networks. The good players are either in bands or have a job/wife/kid preventing them from playing. I have been considering moving to a city with a bigger music scene. I am fortunate to have a very flexible work schedule, which allows me to practice and gig when I want.
Click to expand...

I know exactly where you're at. However, in my case it was BandMix that put me in contact with the musos I'm playing with now.

I tried to start up a regional Facebook musicians meeting place page and ended up with 19 members after spending lots of time trawling(trolling?) FB looking for local musos, bands, ensembles, studios and the 2 shops etc. One of all those members shared the post so the FB group was still-born. It got deleted and I paid my Bandmix subscription. I was really dosappointed by the FB response actually.
 
#104
Outbush said:
I know exactly where you're at. However, in my case it was BandMix that put me in contact with the musos I'm playing with now.

I tried to start up a regional Facebook musicians meeting place page and ended up with 19 members after spending lots of time trawling(trolling?) FB looking for local musos, bands, ensembles, studios and the 2 shops etc. One of all those members shared the post so the FB group was still-born. It got deleted and I paid my Bandmix subscription. I was really dosappointed by the FB response actually.
Click to expand...

I live in a military town in eastern NC.
We have a few local FB musician pages. It’s pretty much just one guy posting trying to finding people for his Alice cooper tribute band haha. I’m a versatile player and open to a wide variety of genres. My only criteria is don’t be a pretentious jerk and know how to play your instrument.
Band mix on the other hand lists a fair amount of musicians in my area. I’ve messaged a good majority of them asking if they would be interested in starting something or just collaborating musically. The hardest part is finding a drummer and vocals.

Then we have Craigslist musicians……I won’t even get started on that site.
 
#105
No one I know uses stuff like that...you know someone who knows someone.
And you reference against how well that guy plays.
That means other people in that pool come with the same goods, broadly.

The only other useful resource is who is putting on jam nights, but if you know them, you dont bother with jam nights 90% of the time unless they feature someone you want you get introuduced to.

Even on things like FB, friends of friends is where you gravitate to...
Random is just...too random. ime.
 
#106
Curiously I just got a gig via Bandmix as bass player for a band whose bass player can’t make the gig and I don’t have a paid account. I do, however, have recordings of songs I’ve played on for others to hear my playing. With a non-paid account others can send you a message with their contact info
 
#107
LBS-bass said:
That's a universal problem, not a Bandmix problem. Keyboard players are hard to come by, good ones are really rare, and keys players who will do what you ask them to do (learn signature parts, use appropriate synth patches, play horn parts) are unobtainium.

I am not sure why, but I guess the emphasis on guitar based music that started in the 90's has taken a lot of would-be keyboardists in a different direction. It requires a lot of study and practice to play piano or organ well.

In this town there are maybe four players who get all the work. They name their price, they're good at what they do, and I still fired one of them because she wouldn't learn signature parts in a Steely Dan song.*

*I just hired her to play a blues gig which she's really good at, so we're good.
Click to expand...
I took up keys in recent years and hang out at some of the relevant forums. There's some similar discussion of (or at least the impression of) waning interest in piano / keys, and guitar-oriented music seems to come up as a hypothesis, not to mention the cheaper cost of parents buying their kids a guitar rather than a piano ...

I think it's also because despite the apparently simplicity, a lot of rock / pop keyboard parts still require a fair amount of work to learn, but without being featured front-and-center the way some other instruments are, so that may make the work-to-recognition ratio unsatisfactory for some people.

It is certainly interesting how far the piano folk on those forums skew toward classical and jazz rather than rock / pop, though with some occasional blues & boogie folks such as myself.
 
#108
Sam Evans said:
I took up keys in recent years and hang out at some of the relevant forums. There's some similar discussion of (or at least the impression of) waning interest in piano / keys, and guitar-oriented music seems to come up as a hypothesis, not to mention the cheaper cost of parents buying their kids a guitar rather than a piano ...

I think it's also because despite the apparently simplicity, a lot of rock / pop keyboard parts still require a fair amount of work to learn, but without being featured front-and-center the way some other instruments are, so that may make the work-to-recognition ratio unsatisfactory for some people.

It is certainly interesting how far the piano folk on those forums skew toward classical and jazz rather than rock / pop, though with some occasional blues & boogie folks such as myself.
Click to expand...
Yes. The keys player that I fired and then hired is absolutely the shining star in the blues-based band we play in together. She gets all the applause, and it's well-deserved. It's clear she's very much enjoying this and it's also clear that she hasn't had many opportunities like this one in the past few years.

She's semi-retired but has a busy schedule teaching from home and not much free time to work on learning anything new, but put her in front of some standard charts and give her some solos in a band with some pretty good players to back her, and she's just brilliant.
 
  • Like
Reactions: kreider204
#111
My experience:

9/2: Hey 3liter: I ran across your add and wanted to see if you would have any interest working on a fairly new project.
We are looking to play out a few times a month mostly around the immediate [ ] area. The concept is staring with an acoustic set leading into a full electric set.

We practice just above the [ ] area right off [ ]two times a week until we get tight then once a week.

I look forward to hearing from you.

9/14: Same message as I missed it the first time

9/15 (me): I'm interested in hearing a little more about your project, but that said, I might be a little too busy for a twice a week situation. What kind of music do you play? Who else (instruments, vox, etc) do you have lined up?

10/2:
Sorry for the delayed response. We are writing originals and are currently a four piece. We cover a wide range of tunes. while trying not to play what everyone else does these days.
Original music is our focus.

We are rehearsing this Wednesday if you want to sit in.

10/2 (me): I don't think I can make it Wednesday. Do you have a Dropbox or anything I can listen to? Then we can further the conversation. What artists do you sound like?


So, even if I wanted to show up and sit in, I have no idea if I'm sitting in for a metal band, a country band, or anything else. Nor, no way to contact them. I dropped the ball on the first contact (or maybe ignored it) but now I am interested in hearing a little more, but surely it's going to be a challenge.
 
#112
My past three bands found me on BandMix. When I started out and each time I left a band, I would just go update my info on there and it would show I was active recently. Always got a message within about a month and have gotten messages off an on over the years. It has worked well with folks finding me. Me going in there and trying to reach out to others, yeah, I never get any kind of response. I've been on the local scene long enough now, if something happens with my current band, I can probably just network and won't need BandMix.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Larry Cugini
#113
Larry Cugini said:
I know this post is older, but I want to add my own frustration to the list. Why do people even have an account if they never intend to reply to invitations to connect? I'm the real deal, but I get no requests and never a response. Starting to seem like a total waste of money.
Click to expand...

I paid for a while, but there was almost zero activity and then dropped it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Larry Cugini
#114
Larry Cugini said:
I know this post is older, but I want to add my own frustration to the list. Why do people even have an account if they never intend to reply to invitations to connect? I'm the real deal, but I get no requests and never a response. Starting to seem like a total waste of money.
Click to expand...

I found my last 3 bands on BandMix. 1 I gigged with for about 1 1/2 years, They still play around town about 3 times a month. The 2nd one? I loved the band members, but the singer was pitchy, read lyrics at gigs off her phone, and would start singing over the solo if she thought it went too long. The 3rd was a husband/wife team. I loved the drummer, hated his guitar tone, and she said she had perfect pitch... which is true if you consider consistently missing the intended note as a skill.
 
#115
It wouldn't occur to me to use Bandmix.
I think you just need to network...and get a list of people you are on the same page with.
Its pointless getting referrals that lead you connections that you can't or wont use too.
 
#116
pepj said:
It wouldn't occur to me to use Bandmix.
I think you just need to network...and get a list of people you are on the same page with.
Its pointless getting referrals that lead you connections that you can't or wont use too.
Click to expand...
A weak local (MA) network was why I went to Bandmix. I think my area has been victimized by Covid. So many clubs shut down that competition for gigs was ridiculous and a lot of musicians just gave up. Especially guys my age, who have begun to retire from it all. Traffic is starting starting to recover a little lately, but there is still no real action going on around here. I get a lot of views on Bandmix but no reach-outs and maybe 10% of people I reach out to will respond at all, even with a "no thank you." I have been seeking a guitarist/singer for over a year. They used to be like leaves in the trees. Now they are rare commodity. I think I'll just go with the free version of Bandmix. Let them come to me, if ever.
 
  • Like
Reactions: pepj
#119
The original lineup for my current band all came about through BM. The singer contacted all of us individually.

Six months later, when we decided to make a change at singer, we started with BM. And we found it to be the barren wasteland that everybody else here says it is. We sent out tons of messages. Most of them were shown as "read" (under the "premium" membership) but very few responses.

We finally gave up and started asking around. Found our outstanding lead singer through a friend.

I have come to believe that Bandmix is artificially inflating its membership numbers through fake profiles of people who simply do not exist (with poached Internet photos). There are some real people in there, but not many it seems. I will not be using Bandmix again to find an opening for our band, if we ever need to.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back