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Nov.13
2009

Geez Up, Hoes Down...

I was just perusing this article in Times Online, which may or may not have been written by Tom Whitwell of MusicThing fame. (I don't think it was; doesn't seem like Tom's writing. I assume he'll chime in to correct me.)

In general, it shows that in the UK at least, income from live performance is about to overtake actual sales of recorded music. No real surprise there, especially in a recession when live performance generally does better. What caught my eye was this bit:

The PRS report gives a figure for annual live music revenues but it does not indicate what percentage of that goes to venues. [...] The closest we came to an answer was a remark from a senior industry source said ‘only a small percentage of live goes to venues’. That’s the best we had to work with."

And that brings up the other dirty secret of the touring industry. Live music is a loss leader for venues, almost uniformly, unless the venue is all-ages and doesn't serve alcohol. When you're in a position where you're doing proper tour booking, with contracts and such, you'll pick up one of those contracts one day, and look at the ticket price, the capacity of the venue, and your advance and back end, and you'll say "hey, wait a minute. This dude ain't making a dime, even if we sell the joint out."

Nightclubs are machines for turning music in to beer sales. Don't ever forget that. With some rare exceptions when the owner of the venue actually likes music (and this is something that is eventually beaten out of him, 100% of the time) the whole point of hiring you to play his joint is to get people in there that might drink. That's why 21+ shows pay more than all-ages shows, and that's why venues that don't serve alcohol pay far less than those that do. The more shit a venue can tack on to the patron's visit (parking, coat check, etc.) the more you'll get paid as a result.

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"With some rare exceptions when the owner of the venue actually likes music (and this is something that is eventually beaten out of him, 100% of the time)..."

See JWZ/DNA Lounge as exhibit #1.

posted November 13, 2009 by brandon daniel

Or the Warehouse in LaCrosse.

-CR

posted November 13, 2009 by Chris Randall

one thing that bugs me about the article is the assumption that increased PRS revenues equates to the "music industry" making more money. wrong...
the "music industry" also includes tv/film/ad composers, and these composers are increasingly seeing their prospective jobs replaced with licensed music. thus, while the licensed music means a bit more money filtering through the PRS/PRO's, it means less going directly into the pockets of working composers in the form of their up front fees.

posted November 13, 2009 by scientist

And those people hardly ever see any touring revenue to add icing to that particular cake.

-CR

posted November 13, 2009 by Chris Randall

>>it means less going directly into the pockets of working composers in the form of their up front fees.

Word.

posted November 13, 2009 by Wade Alin

so why are Pogues tix like $50+ ? imagine how much alcohol those shows! ...oh yeah, it's to pay for Shane's new choppers.

posted November 13, 2009 by PhilTH

I had a friend once who rented a warehouse and turned it into an all ages venue, all for the love of music. There hadn't been any decent venue in town where kids could hang out and see bands for years. We were all psyched about it, and even had some national acts lined up. It lasted for about four weeks.

On week two a bunch of kids pissed in the neighboring warehouses' mailboxes and vandalized some property. This brought a huge backlash down upon the venue from the manager of the property. So, the next weekend my friend gave this big speech about how he created this venue for the kids, and how he wasn't making a dime, and about how he put his heart and soul into it because he wished he had a place like this when he was a kid. He told them that "he didn't care what they did. Just don't piss in the mailboxes or do anything to get him into trouble with management, or the place would get shut down."

So, what did the kids do that night? They shit in the mailboxes. That's right. SHIT. The venue promptly had their lease revoked and my friend got a harsh lesson on what ungrateful little shits teenagers can be. This is why you don't see underage venues. If they aren't buying drinks, it aint worth it.

posted November 14, 2009 by afreshcupofjoe

Great post... I spent about 5 years playing in an indie-trio and it was unbelievable that you could play a bar, watch the bar sales all night, and then get the old "sob story" at the end of the night and end up with little or no pay. So even if you do generate beer sales, it isn't magic. It also drove home the idea that organizations with entertainment budgets are a much better place for the real independent to look for gigs. Coffee shops, galleries, arts organizations, and yes, farmer's markets! In my lowest moments I decided that live musical performance was an anachronism, and has become the equivalent of Civil War recreation, or SCA-ish costume night. I'd have a hard time arguing against that. Live performance IS much more important to the performers than it is to most of the audience.

posted November 14, 2009 by bleepbloop

The other thing I've noticed is that a bands are cutting back production because the money pie is getting smaller. Few bands are carrying LDs and even fewer with their own lights (I'm referring to a 575-cap and a 650-cap, here in Boston, so I don't know how it is at the bigger clubs), but lately it seems like a lot of headlining bands are even opting to use house sound guys (one band with a nationally played hit single and a sold-out show spelled it out to me in so many words: "we don't carry an engineer because we don't give a shit how it sounds out there, we just want the extra money"). Of course there will always be those bands who have a $4000 guarantee, sound engineer, LD who blows strobes in everyone's face, guitar tech, and tour manager, but somehow only manage to draw a hundred people.

posted November 14, 2009 by inasilentway

*raises hand*

One of the reasons I stopped touring wasn't that the guarantees weren't there, but rather the tour support wasn't there to make up the difference and get me my LD, sound man, stagehands, and strobes to blow in people's faces. I felt that the shows I was able to put on completely independently were nowhere near what I could pull off when TVT was willing to drop $75K a month in tour support.

Which is sort of the counterpoint to this whole thing. There's no way the guarantees will possibly cover a bus, crew, and production, so you need to be getting tour support. If you're making your records in your basement, and putting them out with TuneCore, there is no fucking way you're gonna be able to pull off anything that is remotely impressive unless the stars are really lining up.

-CR

posted November 14, 2009 by Chris Randall

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