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What is your job?

#21
Plectrum72 said:
If your gig is at a venue that sells a product, your job is to entertain people and promote sales. If your gig is at a venue that does not sell a product, your job is to entertain.
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Know I am nitpicking now, and I think get your general point, but just for the sake of getting annoyingly specific about details:

Doesn't that depend on the politics and nature of the individual venue to some degree?

I at least have played on some venues who's primary objective was to provide live music, even if beer was being sold too, but with the beer actually being sold for the purpose of making listening to music more attractive to people?

And as far as my impression goes to an even larger degree also depending on who you are.

I am pretty sure for example Lady Gaga or Metalica doesn't see it as their job to sell beer at their concerts even if the venue they play at sells it.

Also I slightly dislike the word entertaining, though it might be the most correct word to use in many cases, such a passive or even somewhat apathetic concept.

I like the term "providing an experience" better, much more inclusive and encouraging engagement.
 
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#22
TuneSalad666 said:
Know I am nitpicking now, and I think get your general point, but just for the sake of getting annoyingly specific about details:

Doesn't that depend on the politics and nature of the individual venue to some degree?

I at least have played on some venues who's primary objective was to provide live music, even if beer was being sold too, but with the beer actually being sold for the purpose of making listening to music more attractive to people?

And as far as my impression goes to an even larger degree also depending on who you are.

I am pretty sure for example Lady Gaga or Metalica doesn't see it as their job to sell beer at their concerts even if the venue they plays at sells it.
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Perhaps a bit of nitpicking ;), but Metallica and Lady Gaga are still promoting sales of tickets to their concert (primary income of the venue) and sales of their music/merchandise by attracting fans/pleasig fans with their performance. Beer sales at those venues is just bonus for the venue or beer stand owner.
 
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#24
I don't see point why it must be alcohol?
On my last gig I paid one drink to all my friends, half of that were beers, but also Cokes, tea and juices. And they all remained there for three hours, more drinking and feeling good. After the gig nobody was drunk and bartender (my friend) was happy with sales. In my country VAT on non-alcoholic drinks is smaller than on alcohol, and they even make more money on Coke and tea than beer.
I think that my job is to keep people happy and that they stay as long as possible, but not to get them drunk.
Urging someone into alcohol just isn't mine thing.
 
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#25
My job is to play bass. My band's job is to draw. I believe the theory is that the more people you can get into a room, the more booze you are likely to sell. But that's just a theory. Someday the crowds will stop coming, and that will be the end of Redhead. In the meantime, I'm enjoying life: I'm part of an entertainment enterprise that makes people happy and makes me some money. As my tag says, "I'm not an artist. I'm in the service business."
 
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#26
Cover band playing in bars - increase alcohol sales.

Originals band - sell tickets.

Function band - entertain the client/client's guests.

Worship band - promote spirituality.

Most of my playing has been in bar bands. I drink moderately and I don't like the idea that my job is to egg people on into alcoholism. I remember going to a certain well-known blues club in Chicago and the owner would take the mic and have this whole schtick, "We're here to listen to blues and get real drunk. Ain't no designated drivers in my bar!" Sure, I get the persona, but it rubbed me the wrong way.

I think that ultimately, band-as-beer-salesmen is a failing model. It's just not that likely that a bar will consistently sell enough more beer with a band there to justify paying the band decently, compared to what they would sell with no band and no expense for the band. Bands are fragile things that break up easily, it takes time to build a following, and by the time a lot of them have been around long enough to have gained the experience to be any good and have a following, they're mostly middle-aged and so are their friends and probably not hard-partying kids any more. That means a pretty high risk for the venue that the old reliable bands will have broken up and you're constantly trying out new bands that don't bring the extra sales in you'd hoped for.

I think that any future in local cover bands would need to be as image promotion, not product promotion. In other words, if you count on the band to bring in a "following" of crowds of raging alcoholics to prop up your beer sales, it probably won't work. But if you have a broader marketing strategy of building a reputation for your joint as the cool place in town to go because it's where the cool music is, then whether or not an individual band boosts sales is not as important as the consistent clientele you build up with that reputation.
 
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#29
I already have a job.

When I gig, my goal is to deliver the best performance I can and to enjoy myself with my bandmates, and that's it. I already have enough pressure from my day job - I don't need to worry about beer sales objectives on top of that. We don't play top 40 stuff (we play mostly originals), but we're not on a mission to educate the "great unwashed masses" musically, either : We play music that we enjoy, but that others can enjoy, too. We usually get called back, so we must be doing something right...

I've done the whole "let's do something artsy and complicated for the sake of being artsy and complicated" thing in the past, and while some interesting elements always come out of it, it can get quite depressing when you try to take this material out of the rehearsal space and into the wild - playing for the same handful of people in the sketchy, near-empty dive bar circuit gets old quick.
 
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#30
hrodbert696 said:
Cover band playing in bars - increase alcohol sales.

Originals band - sell tickets.

Function band - entertain the client/client's guests.

Worship band - promote spirituality.
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I think you pretty much nailed it there, even if I believe you missed a pretty important point namely simply "providing a musical experience".

Well, I guess that is somewhat covered under the point "entertain the client/client's guests" you got under the category "function band", even if I am not sure what that term implies.

Now I only ever played in original bands, and mind never any hugely successful or popular ones.

I have never seen it as my job to sell tickets though, even if that has been the objective for some of the venues I played at.

I've always seen it as my primary job to provide a musical experience.

As I see it that is how it should be, it's not mine but the venues job to sell tickets, my job is to provide music.

The venue hired me to provide music, right, even if they did so with the objective to sell tickets that part is still their job, not really my concern, I dare say even if it is part of the agreement that I get a share in the ticket sale.

And honestly I doubt my viewpoint would have been any different had I been in a more successful and popular band getting a pay that would have counted as more than just a few extra pocket money.
 
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#31
TuneSalad666 said:
I think you pretty much nailed it there, even if I believe you missed a pretty important, if I guess fairly rare category, namely simply providing a musical experience.

Now I only ever played in original bands, and mind never any hugely successful or popular ones.

I have never seen it as my job to sell tickets though, even if that has been the objective for some of the venues I played at.

I've always seen it as my primary job to provide a musical experience.

And as I see it that is how it should be, it's not mine but the venues job to sell tickets, my job is to provide music.

And honestly I doubt my viewpoint would have been any different had I been in a more successful and popular band getting a pay that would count as more than just a few extra pocket money.
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That you provide a musical experience is a given for all of the above. It depends on how you take the OP's question, who the "you" is exactly and what's meant by your "job." Obviously in any setting we're musicians and our job is to play music. Tickets actually get sold by the box office and beer gets sold by the bartender. But I took the OP to be asking, how is our playing supposed to translate into business? What goal is it supposed to achieve, that warrants the venues booking us? Bars sell liquor, theaters sell tickets, churches worship, etc. So whatever musical experience we're providing, it needs to be aimed at that goal. You don't play in a church the same repertoire or the same style as you do in a bar.
 
#33
hrodbert696 said:
That you provide a musical experience is a given for all of the above. It depends on how you take the OP's question, who the "you" is exactly and what's meant by your "job." Obviously in any setting we're musicians and our job is to play music. Tickets actually get sold by the box office and beer gets sold by the bartender. But I took the OP to be asking, how is our playing supposed to translate into business? What goal is it supposed to achieve, that warrants the venues booking us? Bars sell liquor, theaters sell tickets, churches worship, etc. So whatever musical experience we're providing, it needs to be aimed at that goal. You don't play in a church the same repertoire or the same style as you do in a bar.
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Well, guess we have different ideas about exactly what OP meant by the word job then.

I didn't interpret his question as necessarily concerning ones job in a strictly economical or business minded sense, but was of the impression that it was meant in a bit more abstract and much less literal way, hence the nature of my initial post in this thread, just as you can speak about someones job as a parent, even if that has nothing whatsoever to do with any kind of business, or like a teachers job include a lot of ethical and general human aspects not really included in his job description.
 
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#38
I don't have a "job" when I play music any more than with any of my other artistic endeavors. That said, If I'm performing I hope that it brings a positive response and people are glad they took the time for an enjoyable experience.
That's my goal.

It's why I don't do bars any more.
 
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