Shoot The Patriot

Now although this blog is about everyday injustice in the world i feel that this most definitely constitutes that.

Now for those of you not in the world of music, pay to play is a scheme whereby bands must pay promoters for the “privilege” to play the show. Which is of course backward to what the common conception would be. The common conception however is still correct and that is how it should be done, but recently a lot of these “Pay-to-play” schemes have been cropping up. The justification they use is that they need to guarantee that people will turn up for the show and they do this by selling tickets to the bands prior to the show. The band must then sell them on to their fans in order just to break even. Now in my view it should be the promoter’s job to ensure people come down to the show they are putting on. Afterall that’s why they are known as the promoter is it not? It is their job to promote the gig. However I do feel that bands should also do the best they can to promote the gigs they are playing but should not be forced to pay up front just to play the show simply to cover the backs of the lazy promoter.

There has also however also been a trend of bands beginning to use a similar method to try to get more people to their shows. Whereby they are the headline act and when looking for support acts insist that they buy for example 25 tickets off them up front at say £5 per ticket. This adds up to £150 just for the band to play the show and there is no guarantee that they will get their money back and is much more likely that they will make a significant financial loss as a result of playing it. This is a moderate example since i personally have seen cases where it has been more than twice that amount of tickets and larger prices per unit also. If the band can’t fill the room or get a decent amount of people there then maybe they shouldn’t be playing, or maybe just get a smaller venue to start with.

Now i appreciate that it does cost money to put on the shows and the bands do want to be able to try and make some money, but that should never be at the expense of other bands just trying to make their way in music. I long for the day when bands will be put on shows because of their musical merits and whether people like them as opposed to how much money they can afford to put up front to play gigs. This current way of doing things paves the way for bands with money to stomp all over poorer bands that do what they can to make ends meet and continue playing.  

It’s nice that there are good promoters out their that are doing things right but there are still plenty that are simply taking bands for a ride by taking their money but doing little in return to promote gigs. This attitude has even featured in national battle of the bands competitions which have extorted £100’s from bands that naively feel it could be their big break.

If you have actually taken the time to read this then reblog it to get the word out there about these practices!

I decided that my other blog was somewhat limited in the content that could be posted on it due to the topic it’s based on. This one however is much more broad but with one main aim. To highlight the injustice in the world and bring things to peoples attention that would otherwise be ignored and swept under the carpet by the establishment media. Other times it will be my media for ranting about the everyday stupidity in society and nearly every day has me wondering how the human race has survived this long.