Pay-to-Play

[Sc'Eric (aka darkFIN)]

Pay-to-play is kinda like when Crowbar (in State College) hosted a  battle-of-the-bands event over the course of several weeks... Each band  (of any genre) had to pay an entry fee, and each night they would go up  against a random selection of five bands.  Entry fee was something  like $50. The nightly winner might've won something small like $15 and  move on to play in the next week's round.   (Not sure if they  made the band "re-register" or not--but knowing the scumbags at  Crowbar... probably.)  
  
  Winners were chosen by audience applause--so it didn't matter how  talented a band was, but whether your friends showed up that night  and/or folks like that genre of music.  The winner at the end of  the month won a whole $50 and the honorable privelege of opening for a  touring act.  (Read with as much sarcasm as you like.)   Needless to say, the most generic, un-original sounding act won on the  particular night I was there, AND the winner's groupies were only there  for the duration of their friends' performance.  The ebm newbies  got almost no respect at all. 
  
  It's funny, I always thought that opening for a touring act was already  as low as you could get on a venue's bill.... with the possible  exception of open-mic host. When you consider that the bar had every  seat full on a Monday or Tuesday night, folks in the dancefloor/pit  area all drinking... that each band shelled out $50... AND they charged  $8 cover at the door....  You'd think the winner could walk away  with a bit more than that. 
  
  Anyway, Pay-to-play: No. But pre-selling tix: ABSOLUTELY--esp. to  encourage any regional opening acts to bring friends. I think Matt is  dead-on with his point. 
  
  ~darkFIN




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