I've recently spent sometime thinking about the current state of the music industry for independent bands and musicians like myself. I am constantly being told how much people want to see me play live both solo and with my band Phaselock yet gigs are not forth coming. I am not alone as there are some great bands, both big names and small, out there who are having the same problems. These bands I would love to go and see but no promotors/venues want to book them. Instead they are booking what I class as un-original mass appeal commercial acts and are losing money because in a lot of cases people aren't turning out to see those acts.
My thoughts on the matter are that, as with the major labels 10 years ago, promotors and venues have seen a loss of revenue due to the financial crisis. People have less disposable income to spend on going out to shows. As with the CD, the mass public that isn't too bothered about music began to spend money on other things, Video games consoles, smart phones, laptops etc. The error of the majors as with todays promotors is that they concentrate on mass appeal. Less ticket sales = get more commercial acts. In fact for the general public music isn't that essential to everyday living. It's a background soundtrack. If you have a limited budget then the non music lover will go to a bar with friends and be satisfied with a juke box.
Ah but for the music lover gigs and albums are essential. The music lover budgets for gigs and buying music either on a physical support or legal download. The music lover will forego a night at the pub/restaurant because there's a "must see" gig coming up. I am one of those people. I will stay in for as many nights as it takes so that I can afford to go to a gig by a band that I love. I can get into a lot of gigs for free but 90% of the time I pay for my ticket to support the band and the brave venue/promotor that put the gig on. The problem is that neither the record companies, the media or the promotors are catering to that audience. They are many and enough for all of us to play often and make a living. Acid Mothers Temple understand that if you only sell between 500 and 1000 cds then it's better to release 4 or 5 per year knowing that your fans will buy them than record 1 album every 3 or 4 years. It's the same with gigs. Promotors are always trying to fill 2000 seaters upwards with crap musak that everyone who likes that sort of thing downloads as ringtones than get a circuit going of small venues and bands that guarantee a good, if small, crowd.
The biggest problem for bands like mine is communication/publicity. We played loads of gigs last year but getting the information "out there" is a full time job. Posting an event page on FB doesn't work. Yes it's part of the process but in itself totally unreliable. Sadly a lot of venues where we played seem to think that a FB event is sufficient. People will click "join (= I'm going)" then forget all about it. What works are posters and flyers but that costs money.
Another worrying trend is the amount of venues who no longer pay the bands. They don't even give more than 2 drinks to the musicians. Free beer for the band when they aren't being paid is a minimum. It's not a new phenomena, I remember back in the day, venues like the Marquee Club (Wardour street) paying, let's say 50 quid to the support band, then presenting a bill for 90quid for the use of the sound & lights plus engineer and 40 quid for drinks consumed.
Still things are different today and it's time to push for change.
