Is Your Band Driving Business?

[Bluewine]

Bar/Pub Band Level

Is your band consistent in terms of the crowd you draw and the alcohol sales you drive? I hope so , if not it might be a goal to consider and work towards. It's not easy and doesn't happen overnight.

When we have these great nights where we're clearly driving the revenue stream are we using it as leverage for more bookings, better nights ( holiday dates, like NYE, Holloween, St. Paddy's ext...) As well as our fees? Other businesses do.

Comments, thoughts.

Blue

 

 

Edited March 27, 2018 by Bluewine

[Bluewine]

I'm hoping we do. I'm a hired gun so I'm not directly involved and have no contact with landlords.

Blue

[Lozz196]

Not sure about crowd sizes or alcohol sales as mostly we play supporting bigger bands, but our gig fees and merch sales pay for hotels/flights/tourbus & driver/more merch/recording etc, we stopped having to chip in ourselves a good while back, so I`d say yes, we are driving business. We just don`t take any money out ourselves, it all goes back into the band. We all prefer it that way, rather than take a sum from gigs and sales but then have to book own hotels, put hands in pockets for recording sessions etc.

[Bluewine]

6 hours ago, Lozz196 said:

Not sure about crowd sizes or alcohol sales as mostly we play supporting bigger bands, but our gig fees and merch sales pay for hotels/flights/tourbus & driver/more merch/recording etc, we stopped having to chip in ourselves a good while back, so I`d say yes, we are driving business. We just don`t take any money out ourselves, it all goes back into the band. We all prefer it that way, rather than take a sum from gigs and sales but then have to book own hotels, put hands in pockets for recording sessions etc.

 

Hi Lozz,

I get you point regarding how pro touring originals have expenses and things to pay for most bar/pub bands don't.

My concern is really more about the business challenges Bar / Pub Bands face. For those of us taking our fee home with us and more directly responsible for drawing a crowd and selling alcohol.

Blue

Edited March 28, 2018 by Bluewine

[Happy Jack]

I always look forward to Saint Paddy's Ext.

 

[Bluewine]

I keep a sharp eye on the crowd, the size, the age and what they're drinking as well as how often the bartenders are in and out of that cash register.

Thing is, on these really good financial nights I'm not sure all landlords know or understand the relationship between those sales and the band they booked.

I remember recently some landlord had the nerve to tell us he'd try us out on weeknight (for free) and if it went well he'd book us for our fee on a Saturday night.

We didn't even bother to tell him we were  12 years an established act and we were trying to throw him a bone. 

Keep in mind even though we're a known commodity Milwaukee is a large metro area. Every landlord does not know who we are.

Hell, there are some Milwaukee landlords that don't know who "home town boys" Greg Koch ( Joe Banamassa)or Daryl Stuermer (Genesis) are.

Blue

Edited March 28, 2018 by Bluewine

[machinehead]

This is something we (one of my bands) actively promote ourselves as- the good-time band that get the punters dancing and drinking.

We recognise that that's our job and that it's what we're getting paid for.

Frank.

Edited March 28, 2018 by machinehead

[Bluewine]

56 minutes ago, machinehead said:

This is something we (one of my bands) actively promote ourselves as- the good-time band that get the punters dancing and drinking.

We recognise that that's our job and that it's what we're getting paid for.

Frank.

Yes, funny guys that have been in this business for years still don't get.

Even for me it's been slow to sink in., We're far from the best bar band around. So why do we pack bars on our circuit with loyal local fans?

It's simple, I think

1. We have a talented young female front, she's an awesome 70s style rock guitarist with a great voice  a sincere personality and sense of humor that transends to the audience.

2. We have decent material. Could be better, but we don't rehearse so, oh well.

3. We interact with each other, were fun to watch ( it wasn't always this way, we sort of evolved into it). IMO

Blue

Edited March 28, 2018 by Bluewine

[Bluewine]

1 hour ago, machinehead said:

We recognise that that's our job and that it's what we're getting paid for.

Frank.

Excellent, "our job" a label many misunderstand and struggle with.

Blue

[Lozz196]

8 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

Hi Lozz,

I get you point regarding how pro touring originals have expenses and things to pay for most bar/pub bands don't.

My concern is really more about the business challenges Bar / Pub Bands face. For those of us taking our fee home with us and more directly responsible for drawing a crowd and selling alcohol.

Blue

Hi Blue

Well I wouldn`t say we`re a pro band - def hobbyists, though a great hobby it is. My reply was more along the lines that originals bands might think they`re not seeing any money, but could look at the overall picture and might realise that their band is actually driving business pretty good. I think the challenge is still the same, crowd size and bar takings, after all venues want those bar takings, whether it`s covers or originals, that`s what they`re in the business for. For us originallers we then have another challenge, getting the product out there, but in all honesty to me it doesn`t matter how good your product is if people don`t come to see you, which comes back to the bums on seats/drinks across the bar aspect of your query.

 

[musicbassman]

48 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

but in all honesty to me it doesn`t matter how good your product is if people don`t come to see you, which comes back to the bums on seats/drinks across the bar aspect of your query.

Well, this is a bass players forum, and bass players are practical and realistic people, so we can easily agree that we're really just doing 'a job'

Playing in a pub or a bar is mainly about entertainment, you're not playing a b*****y Arts Centre.

And don't forget some bands or individual band members might like to view themselves as strictly  'musicians' or 'artists' and regard the grubby business of whether the sums add up for the venue as completely beneath them. And as a result have a problem accepting that their jazz noodlings in 7/4 aren't likely to bring that many punters in  ..........................

 

[BrunoBass]

Blue, you’ll have different perspective on this because as we all know you play to pay your bills and eat. 

From my perspective, we book gigs in (usually busy) bars and pubs, and while we promote the gigs on our social media it’s really the landlord’s responsibility to push the event. We have a small ‘following’ (for want of a better word) who come to our shows, sometimes in pubs they mightn’t usually patronise but they wouldn’t travel to see us in an out of town gig. My point being that we play places where there is already a decent crowd, our presence in merely coincidental. We don’t add to the pub’s on-the-night revenue significantly because the clientele is already there. We always get paid, we usually get asked back. We don’t think in terms of ‘how much money can we help the landlord take tonight’.

We played a village pub last year where a maximum of five people were there. We still got paid, the pub must’ve lost money paying us. They did no promotion whatsoever (we did). Makes no sense really.

[Bluewine]

17 minutes ago, BrunoBass said:

Blue, you’ll have different perspective on this because as we all know you play to pay your bills and eat. 

From my perspective, we book gigs in (usually busy) bars and pubs, and while we promote the gigs on our social media it’s really the landlord’s responsibility to push the event. We have a small ‘following’ (for want of a better word) who come to our shows, sometimes in pubs they mightn’t usually patronise but they wouldn’t travel to see us in an out of town gig. My point being that we play places where there is already a decent crowd, our presence in merely coincidental. We don’t add to the pub’s on-the-night revenue significantly because the clientele is already there. We always get paid, we usually get asked back. We don’t think in terms of ‘how much money can we help the landlord take tonight’.

We played a village pub last year where a maximum of five people were there. We still got paid, the pub must’ve lost money paying us. They did no promotion whatsoever (we did). Makes no sense really.

Some clubs help promote and we promote and do a pretty good job on making sure people know where and when we're playing next. But IMO you can only promote a bar gig so far.

And yeah some places have a " built in crowd" and if you have a bad night you can clear out that crowd. Nobody wants that.

5 people, it happens. Usually if the crowd is that small I've heard that landlords will pull the plug and pay the band half the fee.

In the States we don't have a choice, you really have to think in terms of the landlord having a good night. 

 

Blue