Although, all that being said, one must be careful with absolutes – I believe that there are situations where one gets, for example, a low-paying gig at a festival where there will be a thousand people, and such situations are worth the low pay. However, as you rightly point out, anyone who tries to hire musicians for a private function or some other such thing and plays the “exposure” card is just being unfair.

Nice post. Looking forward to hearing the recordings from tonight! Hope it goes well…

This is a subject that I talk about a lot with my colleagues, and maybe a future blog post! And I guess my answer has to start with “it depends”.

If I’m booked in a jazz club or concert situation, I think it is reasonable for the club/venue to expect me to bring in an audience. Clubs can help promote, and some do have a built-in audience already, but mostly in those situations is is the band that brings the people along.

However, it irks me when restaurants and bars do the same. My feeling is that if your food/service/ambiance isn’t enough to bring folks in then no band can really help you. I’ve played places like that, and my friends/fans have come the first time, but if the restaurant is no good they won’t be back for a second show.

Neal – I dig Sivers! His blog is chok-full of great ideas! http://sivers.org.

We often fret over practicing specific exercises, searching for desirable gigs, and falling in the rut that greats before us have established. But when it comes down to it, there are only so many Max Roach or Art Blakey transcriptions you can do before you have to start doing your own thing. All due respect to those individuals, but if you continually mimic what musicians in the past have done, you will never develop your own voice – and that is what people want to hear.

It is imperative that you don’t forget what attracts you to the art because when you loose sight of that, you loose all truth in your voice. When you’ve lost all truth in your voice, why would anyone pay to listen to you?

http://www.patrickmclaughlin.blogspot.com

What is your take on venues that require the artist bring in a certain head count in order to justify paying them. There are many clubs, and even some restraunts, coffee shops, and book stores in my area that require the artist bring in 25-50 people (that wouldn’t otherwise be there) before they agree to payment. On the surface this sounds fair, a win-win situation for all involved, but it’s a catch-22 for those of us who are still trying to build a fan base, but need to play these kinds of shows in order to build that base.

Alex – great addition. I think this goes along with setting goals, which will be the topic of a future post.

icastico – thanks for stopping by. I suppose it is true that exposure means different things to different people, but I also believe that the decision must come from the artist, not the venue. When venues use words like that it is usually to cover up the fact that they don’t want to pay. And as for your analogy with recorded music, I think there’s a difference. When we play live, we are almost always in a setting where a few things hold true: there are other people working (servers, managers, hosts, cooks, dishwashers, etc) who are all being paid for their time and their services. In fact, it is required by law that they are paid to a certain standard, i.e. minimum wage. And while some of these folks are doing jobs that actively bring people in, some are not. However, musicians are often asked and sometimes expected to bring people in and yet somehow it is OK to ask us to play for free or well below minimum wage. This is a much larger issue, and one that I will tackle in the future. But it reeks of inequality and leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Brandi – I didn’t know you were a band manager! We’ll have to talk about that one day. I’d love to hear about your experiences and thoughts on the music business.

Jacob – D’vo is one of the good ones, in so many ways.

I love this post because I’ve been there. I used to manage a band here in dallas and we would bang our heads against the wall in frustration over that very phenomenon.

But also, the lesson is one that we can all use. Thank you.

A similar situation exists with recorded music these days. And again, there is a tension between free music and sales. Research on the topic of file sharing indicates, again, that it depends on where you are in your career whether it is a good ideas to give songs away. For artists who are not well known the research indicates quite clearly that giving music away increases sales. At some point, however, the curve flips and sharing hurts sales.

To me, that’s where licensing comes in…but that’s another issue.

Anyway, just found your blog. I’ll be coming back.

http://aboombong.bandcamp.com/