While its interesting to think about, theres some logical fallacy in the analogy of comparing talent booking to a doctors appointment. This would more refer to the relationship between a medical firm and the company who they pay for office space. In that relationship, the medical firm PAYS to use the space in order to make money in it from CUSTOMERS. So yeah, if youre a doctor, and you see an ad on craigslist saying, free doctors office. come practice your medicine talent, make money from your customers, well pay all the bills and even serve your customers food and drinks, Im pretty sure that would be worth looking into. The point is, a bar is not a rock bands customer. Thats why its called a venue. This fallacy is the result of entitlement issues, both from bands who feel entitled to throw a nonprofitable party at someone elses business, and the other side, professional musicians who feel entitled to a significant share of a bars earnings because they were sitting there playing Oasis awkwardly in the corner to a captive audience of people who would otherwise have no interest in seeing this performance.... Its not a perfect analogy. Its just a better one. Art is a bizarre form of business. Its inappropriate to assume that subjectively valuable intangible services of a basically spiritual nature will have a perfect one to one correlation with the science of fixing the human body in terms of its applicable business model. The system works fine, and is just as reasonable and fair as anything else in nature. The victims are all the people who thought for some reason that being above average at a service with unfathomable, limitless competition on the supply side, and a market which is so over-saturated that demand is virtually zero even for world-class level products... would result in profit. Thats just stupid business, and thats the actual reason why its not worth any money. Musicians basically produce the product without regard to whether anyone is interested in it (theyre very averse to selling out), which from a business perspective, would be equivalent to going around digging holes, then checking with the property owners if they needed a hole dug and whether theyre willing to pay for it. And here with the whole 7-Year war of every towns craigslist, these people are becoming outraged that nobody wants to pay them. Anyone who isnt big on economics, just trust me. Being an artist is a stupid business move. If youre an artist for money, get real. Youll make better money for your time at taco bell. You have to be outstandingly talented, hardworking, and above all lucky to make money at art. Even given those ingredients, the odds of making better than minimum wage all told are very low. I mean, its just such a silly analogy. A hairdresser doesnt book bars. They open a business, and they cover the rent by performing a service which there is demand for. Want to know if theres demand for your rock band? Open an office, sit in the office and play your music, and see how many people walk into the office throughout the week, willing to pay you to listen to you play. Thats what hairdressers do. Place an ad saying youll come to somebodys house and play music to them for $30 an hour. Thats what plumbers do. You cant do what other businesses do because the simple fact of the matter is that regardless of how much youve invested into your talent and gear and all the effort thats gone into it, you werent producing a product which strangers were interested in purchasing. And its not because you arent good, necessarily. Its just because society only wants like 0.0001% of the population to be rock stars, and 5% of the population think they have a shot at that. Or at least, theyve given it enough thought that it seems correct to blame bars for their lack of success. Believe me, Im not on the side of bars here. I hate bars. I just dont like things being hated for the wrong reasons. For the vast majority of bands that come into existence for whatever brief span, bars are the only public place where theyre even allowed to play. Why not just go and complain to banks and grocery stores for not handing out paying opportunities to artists? It makes about as much sense! Wannabe rockstars, myself certainly included, are not performing a service which is as valuable to people as treating their cancer. Its not a bars responsibility to pretend youre a profitable commodity. The value of live music to bars is perfectly reflected in how they treat artists--shitty. I work very, very hard at art. I dont work hard at the jobs which pay my bills. This has nothing to do with bars letting people play free shows. Its because Stein, my passion, my love, my baby, is of no value to humankind. Or, it comes out to like $30 a month, but of course Im paying several times that much into it. Its very, very easy to see why my music is worthless. Youll need a haircut sooner or later, youll need a tooth filled, but youll never be sitting there thinking that you need someone to write a song about their own life for you. It might please you to know that a new grocery or liquor store opened up by your house, but would it interest you at all to know that four high school dorks just started another band? Would you get excited that another Top-40 country act is now booking shows in your area? Its not unheard of, but its an awful lot more likely that your toilet will clog up with shit and flood your bathroom. You want money? Do stuff that people want you to do. Rule of thumb.
Posted on: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 14:53:01 +0000
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