Band Exploitation

The Volt

Sorry if this is the wrong place for this, felt the need for a rant.

We just got asked to play this battle of the bands next month with the folllowing rules:
Bands sell 20 tickets @ 7 euro each
Each ticket counts as a vote. Each fan gets 1 vote on the night, hence whoever brings the most fans wins as its hard to see people not voting for people they've paid in to see.

Effectively this kind of 'Battle of the fans' happens too often in my opinion and I'm sick of it. Contests that aren't judged by talent should be left to the Eurovision etc.

whodoo

who's running it?
also who gets the €140 that you could potentially bring in?

The Volt

Some crowd called 2beatdband on bebo.

As far as I gather we make a little off each ticket after 20 sold.

stevood

Heard of these, they might aswell just get the bands to sell the tickets and whoever sells the most wins the competition, you dont even have to play!!

Just dont enter the competition. There are far better comps out there. If everybody feels and does the same eventually these things will become extinct.

This is a promoter with no risk.

The Norm is €10-€50 per band and audience voting on the initial few nights (first round). These encourages a good turnout and then judges come in on the final nightto ensure that a bad band with loads of fans doesn't win.

Dont ever sell tickets for a competition

The Volt

thanks man good to know I'm not on my own on this.

kev_s88

im pretty sure that nearly every young band in dublin has been in this situation at least once. i always managed to steer clear of those wan*er promoters who made ya sell tickets. a swift FU*K OFF was my method when they approached us

DerKaiser

kev_s88 wrote: »

im pretty sure that nearly every young band in dublin has been in this situation at least once. i always managed to steer clear of those wan*er promoters who made ya sell tickets. a swift FU*K OFF was my method when they approached us

Absolutely, the mentality is "no, you pay me", if you get into a downward spiral of playing ticketed gigs for so called promoters (who I've yet to see do any "promoting") it's hard to get out as you're eyeing a sure gig, but not earning or moving forward. It's a.) a way of milking your friends and family (or fanbase if you have, most starting bands don't) and b.) having to do very little work apart from rent the venue and book the bands.

These contests are all dodgy, even the higher profile ones, very few competitions are actually won by the best band, it's sad but a fact, this is a scam, refuse to play and advise your mates to circumvent by a mile too

Savman

This has been done to death recently. It's hardly "exploitation" if you all consciously agree to sign up to it in the first place.

It's a poxy deal, sure, but you can walk away.