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Local Live Music Is Dead
- Thread starter Altitude
- Start date
Fair enough. I guess for me the killer was not being a singer, I had to play in bands doing other people's material. If I could talk to my twenty-year-old self I would say "find a project where you can develop your songwriting" but instead I found myself working with a series of bands built around singer/songwriter/front person types which limited my creative control and my ability to be that part of the band the record company won't be able to dispose of.
That plus winter, when work was thinner on the ground and you had to be a bit less selective about the gigs you took in order to pay the rent.
Did touring get to you? I did some, not all that much, but enough to hate it. But I had young kids at the time. Spending half the year in cheap accommodation in a strange city killing time between gigs or driving long distances got old pretty quickly for me.
Gearing shows to the tastes/wishes of 46-year-olds at the expense of 26-year-olds is a quick way to go out of business.
- Jun 3, 2009
- 3,330
- 398
- Disclosures
- Bassgearu, Music Industry Consulting and Sales. Tech 21, NBE Corp, Sonosphere.
The OP is not wrong. The bar crowd now is split along geNerational lines. Your local dive still has cougars and old bikers who love the music that requires guitars, bass and drums. They will still pack a bar for their fav cover band. Your popular clubs cater to the new 21s, who are used to mash ups, Justin Bieber and a host of artists who don't use a guitar of any kind. They are a DJ crowd.
Live local music has become increasingly harder to sustain, especially in places where the age to drink is 21. Where in the '80s and early '90s kids who were 18-21, essentially THE college kids, went out three to five times a week and looked for good places to party, 21 year olds are now working there first jobs and only heading out weekends and not looking to stray far for the experience. So the number of venues is automatically smaller and the available free cash is less.
The festival style tour has also destroyed local music, as you can now go to three events a year and hear 100 or more bands. And it comes with a variety of "experiences" all in one place. If you live in a place not known to have decent venues and this type of tour is coming you are screwed.
I have yet to see a current cover band that plays real current tunes. That is the other problem. Find me a cover band, that does Katy Perry, 311, Rhianna, Adele, Cold Play, And even that transformers type music and I am sure it will draw. Jam bands don't draw in the bar scene, ever. Young guys doing Doors, blues and Mustang Sally don't appeal to their own demographic. So they won't draw.
So, it's true, by and large live local music is dead.but that is why we have to change this.
Live local music has become increasingly harder to sustain, especially in places where the age to drink is 21. Where in the '80s and early '90s kids who were 18-21, essentially THE college kids, went out three to five times a week and looked for good places to party, 21 year olds are now working there first jobs and only heading out weekends and not looking to stray far for the experience. So the number of venues is automatically smaller and the available free cash is less.
The festival style tour has also destroyed local music, as you can now go to three events a year and hear 100 or more bands. And it comes with a variety of "experiences" all in one place. If you live in a place not known to have decent venues and this type of tour is coming you are screwed.
I have yet to see a current cover band that plays real current tunes. That is the other problem. Find me a cover band, that does Katy Perry, 311, Rhianna, Adele, Cold Play, And even that transformers type music and I am sure it will draw. Jam bands don't draw in the bar scene, ever. Young guys doing Doors, blues and Mustang Sally don't appeal to their own demographic. So they won't draw.
So, it's true, by and large live local music is dead.but that is why we have to change this.
Live music, or at least the profitability of it, as whole is in decline due to DJs, karaoke, downloaded music, DUI enforcement, anti-smoking legislation, more people staying at home playing video games and browsing Internet, saturation of musicians and people trying to be musicians and playing for free or low pay, etc. However, it is a very regional issue. The LA and Nashville scenes are bad for making $$$ playing live because of the number of people performing for exposure and the number of extablished musicians people performing in ratio to demand for live music.
Live music is still plenty alive in some regions with musicians making money. I know several people living on live performance full time here in Louisville. There are dozens of concerts each week, and some venues are packed to the gills.
Live music is still plenty alive in some regions with musicians making money. I know several people living on live performance full time here in Louisville. There are dozens of concerts each week, and some venues are packed to the gills.
I dig the "Dude" Lebowski attire front and center. That rug really tied the room together.
First of all, bringing Bach into this conversation is a little pointless. Genius of that level has always, and will always, rise above.
As to you other points, who cares if they never design another advance in studio technology? They have everything they need to capture the sounds created by musicians playing. Just about every advance in studio technology since the early 1980s has served to make bad musicians sound good, allowing record companies to focus on marketability over talent. I'd gladly take a couple hundred reproductions of Rudy Van Gelder's home studio scattered around the country and give up all the digital, pro tools, fix-it-in-the-mix crap that has contributed so much to the decline of popular music.
Besides, while this thread may be about the death of local live music, the fact is that recorded music is in much worse shape. That fact alone portends well for live music.
You made some great points, and the way to change it is not from the stage, but from the audience. Go see shows!
I spent most of the 1990s on the road, but that was before I was married or had kids, so it was a lot of fun (even when not making money and staying in some real dives...)
Now that I have a family, the longest I've been away is about 3 weeks, and that's only been a couple times in the past decade. I mainly play locally, or within a short distance of my city.
I wish I could play in a band like that (well, minus the 311 and Coldplay, aren't those rock bands?), but musicians just want to play old and retro stuff. Even when they see the crowd reactions that modern stuff gets, the drummer who's 24 and makes electronic music and works as a DJ in clubs ASKS IF WE CAN ADD MORE TRADITIONAL SAMBAS TO THE SETLIST. I have two bands which could each currently do a 12-song 45-minute set of all modern stuff (with about 4-5 songs overlapping) but no more.
If you did have a band with a full setlist of really modern music, around here you couldn't play weddings (which is where most of the money is) because you gotta cater to the older generations of relatives, but you could dominate the corporate parties for younger sectors like IT, product launches, store openings... and fill clubs, too, but you won't make much money doing that no matter what.
My band plays a mixture of old and new. We play most of the older stuff in the first two sets and the newer stuff in the later sets. As the older crowd leaves around 10:00 the younger crowd takes over. We think this will work.
Not going to scan through the countless pages in this thread but I think this should be pointed out if it hasn't already:
If you are a cover band, your primary income will be coming from gigs. It is unlikely that you will ever record a cd of covers and it's also unlikely that you'll have big merch sales. The best thing you can do is get steady gigs and keep your calendars full.
As an original band, your primary income should probably NOT be coming from gigs (although you should still be getting paid for them) Your primary income should be coming from album and merch sales. Only when you become a very popular band that is in high demand can you command big bucks for live performance. If you are unsigned and relatively unknown outside your local scene, don't expect offers of big money to play out. That being said, if you have a live show that you are proud of and past the "we're desperately looking for exposure" stage, then you should be paid. As my guitar player says "If you're good at something, don't do it for free"
If you are a cover band, your primary income will be coming from gigs. It is unlikely that you will ever record a cd of covers and it's also unlikely that you'll have big merch sales. The best thing you can do is get steady gigs and keep your calendars full.
As an original band, your primary income should probably NOT be coming from gigs (although you should still be getting paid for them) Your primary income should be coming from album and merch sales. Only when you become a very popular band that is in high demand can you command big bucks for live performance. If you are unsigned and relatively unknown outside your local scene, don't expect offers of big money to play out. That being said, if you have a live show that you are proud of and past the "we're desperately looking for exposure" stage, then you should be paid. As my guitar player says "If you're good at something, don't do it for free"
Actually, do read the thread if you are interested in the topic. There are a lot of highly experienced players discussing the trends of audience attendance, pay scale, and cultural phenomenon around live music over the last 20 years. It's a good read.
I agree with all you have said here. My band is right on what your thoughts of a originals bands are. We are out there, past the exposure thing (almost) and want and to get paid for all gigs. The difference is it is allot of times less than a cover band,sometimes the same and a few times more.
We do great sometimes on CD sales but sometimes we can't give them aways..you just never know. The bottom line is we all enjoy doing our thing and getting people out who enjoy us and working on gaining a following for our music.
Fine... but you'll have to throw out all the pre-1980 advancements too.
You know - stuff like multi-track recording.
Say what you want about the QUALITY of current recorded music - but economically recorded music is doing much better than live music in terms of profitability.
I've read a lot of it, quite a bit actually and it's full of great info and experiences, but the thread is reaching the length of a Jules Verne novel hhaha. Thanks for starting it by the way, great to hear all the players around the country chime in about their respective scenes.
The exposure thing never really loses validity, it's just less and less valuable over time. Hey if you're offered an opening spot for Megadeth or something don't squabble about pay, just TAKE THE GIG (and hopefully get paid too)! But I have seen a lot of bands who will pack a local dive bar and not ask for anything because they like to play. There's nothing wrong with that, but IMO if you don't treat your music like it's worth something, nobody else will either. Gig pay will usually be less than a cover band because their main objective is to get people to drink and dance in the bar, as an original band that's not the point at all. Hopefully you can use merch and CD sales to augment the low gig pay. If done right you should be more profitable that any cover band and not always have to play a show to get income.
Thought a lot about this and I see where you are coming from but I don't reckon it's that simple.
Sometimes the technology is a two edged sword. For example, your computer-based workstation may be loaded up with auto-tuners and stuff, but it also puts a serious recording studio within the reach of a lot of musicians. This in turn makes it possible to distribute more of your music in recorded form, and combined with the internet, has actually loosened the grip of record companies on the industry. I don't need massive advance tied to a punitive contract to explore the medium any more.
Carried over into the live arena, the quality of amplification and signal processing now available means that more musicians can walk on stage with decent production at reasonable volume levels from gear that is compact enough to be transportable without a truck.
The notion of technology being used to compensate for the limited skill of a musician is also not new. All of us should remember why Fender's first bass was called the Precision.
And on a sadder note, anyone who thinks genius will triumph is welcome to send me a photo of Mozart's grave.
