Pay-to-play (was; my response)

[Jeremy David]

I wouldn't call this pay-to-play, but I would call it work-to-play,
which is a similar principle, since it's the basic idea that you have
to do something other than actually make music in order to play a show
while someone else gets all the profit.

I have occasionally gotten tickets for friends for shows, but if a
promoter asked me to sell tickets for him, I'd probably just laugh. It
would be totally unprofessional. If a promoter isn't going to take
responsibility to *promote* when why would a musician need him at all?

The most fundamental job of a promoter job is to *promote*  in order
that people show up at the show. There are also the other jobs of
making sure the venue is booked and ready, making sure that there is a
sound man, paying the band, supplying food and a place to sleep,
travel accommodations, etc. but all those can be negotiable. However,
the most basic part of a promoter's job is to promote. Now, in return
for doing all of these jobs, the promoter gets the musician to make
music from which the promoter gets to keep all the profit, so it's
hardly a raw deal to be a promoter. If he needs help with his job from
his clients, the band, then he's probably not very good at his job in
the first place. Can you think of another job where you hire someone
to do a service, and then they make you do part of the service anyway?

It would be like going to a restaurant where the cook asks you to help
him peel potatoes. Sure, I *can* peel potatoes, but if I wanted to,
why would I be at a restaurant in the first place when I could have
just cooked for myself? Likewise, if a promoter tried to get me to
promote for him, I'd think that I'd be better off without him and just
do it myself.

On 3/5/06, DennisCraigLee at aol.com <DennisCraigLee at aol.com> wrote:
>
> In a message dated 3/5/2006 5:07:47 A.M. Atlantic Standard Time,
> arcane93 at comcast.net writes:
>
> I was suggesting that tickets be made available to band members to sell
> beforehand.  No pressure, no *requirement* to sell them . . .  But
> obviously, if they want an audience, it would be in their best interest
> to try.
>
> Matt
>
>
>
> Matt, What has often been described as pay-to-play, further back than when
> Nirvana protested it in their song of the same name. It's not the literal 'pay
> the clubowner' for the privilege of using the stage' one might imagine - the
> way some of the larger cities require erotic dancers in strip clubs to pay for
> their stage time. That's usually referred to as 'How many lap dances do we have
> to do to make our money back?'
>
> >From a DIY standpoint, I don't feel this marketing technique is necessarily
> unfair, and has the potential of succeeding in bringing more people to shows.
> For those acts vehemently against it, to my knowledge Manny has never
> subscribed to it. So cut him a little slack here.
>
> evamo,
> DCL
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