Live & Touring

Extending The Power Of “Free” To Live Performances

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The practice of offering free access to your recorded music has now become commonplace. The free single, or even free album download, has been around for what seems like eons, and although bands offering free live shows has always been accepted, the embracing of this endeavor could not be more timely than now.

Venues offering pay-to-play “opportunities” for naïve and eager bands wishing to be seen on a bigger stage, are just as damaging to your career, as they are your pocket. The idea that cajoling your friends and acquaintances into parting with their hard earned cash, to see you play an apparently happening venue, is setting them up for a make or break introduction to your band. The fact that these venues offer no sound check time, a limited set time, and demand you fill the venue with your followers or suffer the damning consequences, is reflective of how much they actually give a shit about your career – absolutely nada. 

Playing a bad show due to your own fault, or that of the shoddy management of the venue, will reflect directly on that person’s decision to ever see you again.

Though social networking is now associated with virtual likes and perpetual pins, there is this great social network called reality and it is happening right outside your door as we speak.

Just as with selling music, our long-term aim as musicians is to also sell tickets. But whereas giving your mp3s away for free often ends up with your music falling into someone’s digital dumpster, the experience of a great live show will forever remain with them as an actual experience. Etched not onto a hard drive with a shelf life, but cemented into living tissue that gets jerked into action every time a smell, a song, a sound, or a feeling, kick starts a memory of that evening.

Of course the deciding factor of your performance bringing up fond recollections for them, is how good you actually are. This is why steering clear of high door prices and embracing alternative outlets for your live appearances, allows you to find your feet with your fledgling shows, and not perch on a cliff edge with every note.

Bands eager to throw unscrupulous venues a handful of dollars, should alternatively buy a bunch of beer and offer it to their friends for free if they attend a show. Act like a college couple discovering the joys of sex for the first time, and do it in a living room, in the back of a bus, or in a middle of a field. Wherever you can play and draw a crowd is ultimately going to serve you mountainously better, than playing a high priced, has been dive, living off past big hair day glories.

The resulting positive effect on your online social networks, will be the bounce down effect of enthusiastic tweets and updates from gig goers. Mentions of free booze and good sounds go a long way both virtually and actually.

Robin Davey is an independent musician and the Head of Music and Film Development at GROWVision. Follow him on Twitter @mr_robin_davey.

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3 Comments

  1. Parties trump bars just about 100% of the time, in terms of crowd response and merch. Granted I’m a rapper with a lot of drug & sex material, so take that into account, too.
    Also: One of my best gigs last year was in Madison, Wisconsin, playing a free show on the waterfront. “Free” meaning nobody there paid a cover, yet we still got paid — the miracle of a thriving student union valuing & prioritizing artists. People just come out for the food and entertainment, knowing it will be as good as any club they can hit that night. Seems to be a thriving system.

  2. ahh…”pay-to-play venues”, the cut’n’paste of the indie music journalism screed… this is a sad, sad story that just will not die. “Venues took my money and kicked my dog” And your solution is…play a party?
    I love a good party, but I never recall a party with a sound system that did not spend the evening in technical difficulties limbo.
    If this is about Changing the System, then why not talk about, ahem, Changing the System.
    I mean, none of this is new, but…what if?
    Venues often employ an in-house booking agent, along with outside promoters. Some Promoters are fair minded individuals, who have a love for music and community…some promoters would eat their own shit for a Members Only blazer. Find out which one will cut you a deal, and, this is important…make the deal.
    Selling tickets is part of a contract between a venue (or promoter) and a performer. The actual components of that contract vary, venue to venue. If this was a sports metaphor, let’s look at it like this…
    You are not the #1 draft choice. You are not #2. You are a walk-up. We’re going to see how you do, then we can negotiate. So what do you do? You go through training, scrimmages, a season in the minors, or three…
    Alright, it’s either that, or you can put on some big boy pants and rent a venue for the night and feel the burn.
    Or rent a hall. And a PA. And an engineer. And security…my favorite is when it’s all one guy…
    Free is for the internet. But venues and halls are Brick’n’Mortar establishments. So unless the new music elite want to eliminate a thousand years of tort law and property rights…well, we do have a 3 day weekend coming up…

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