Play for free to keep a venue open....

[solo4652]

A local music venue has posted this on Facebook:

 

"We need your help now more than ever!!!

Along with 100s of other music venues in the UK we are really struggling with the increased bills and drop in numbers due to the cost of living crisis.

We are putting on a show next weekend called [----], it's going to feature some of North Devon's incredible covers bands who are all donating their time to help out this iconic music venue......"

 

What do we think?

[Len_derby]

In principle, I’d be supportive of the idea but it would depend on the venue. Are they genuine supporters of live music who deserve to carry on? Sometimes venues fail because they’re rubbish and badly run. I guess the fact that bands have already signed-up indicates the former.

Edited 15 hours ago by Len_derby

[Beedster]

I would, don't see it as an unpaid gig, see it as a free rehearsal 

 

All joking aside and re this....

 

17 minutes ago, Len_derby said:

Are they genuine supporters of live music who deserve to carry on? Sometimes venues fail because they’re rubbish and badly run

 

.... I'm not sure what a genuine supporter of live music is or isn't, but if it's a genuine music venue as opposed to a pub that just wants free acts, I'd be in. 

[Burns-bass]

Why don’t the pubs ask the brewery for free beer?

 

If the bands have volunteered to help, then that’s fine as a fundraiser for a treasured venue. I’ve seen that and done it.

 

My band plays in a friends pub each month at a third of our normal fee as we love the guy, love the gig and it helps put an amazing venue. Win. Win. Win.

 

But if the economics of running the place don’t stack up, it’s just a matter of time before it all ends. 

 

 

[Franticsmurf]

If it's a venue with a reputation for having run decent live band nights (not open mic) I'd certainly offer up my services. If it was a new landlord starting out I'd be more sceptical but open to it in principal.

[Beedster]

43 minutes ago, Len_derby said:

Sometimes venues fail because they’re rubbish and badly run

 

This is true, but many are simply struggling. Live music is an ecosystem, bands depend on venues, venues depend on bands. The venue side of the equation is facing hell at present, costs are going up significantly, revenues are coming down significantly. Too many bands expect the same fees they were commanding in 2021, so it's easy for a venue to give the appearance of badly run when they're in a lose/lose situation much of the time (by that I mean they lose if the don't put bands on and lose if they do)

[Mudpup]

Reality check....is it really going to save the venue?

 

If it's genuinely due to increasing costs and declining numbers it's not going to save it.

 

One single gig where they've saved a few hundred quid by getting a freebie is not going to turn a venue around.

 

Morally it's nice to be able to pay something back if it's to help a genuine venue but it's unlikely to stave off the inevitable

[gjones]

Is it like a rent party, where everybody pays an entrance fee to a party at a friend's house, which allows them to pay the rent for a month or two. 

 

As has been pointed out previously, a night where the bands are playing for free where they pack the place out for a night, may help the landlord pay a few bills and keep it open for a month or two but is unlikely to keep it afloat in the long run.

 

It might be more helpful if it was a monthly thing though? It depends how valuable the place is as a venue and how much the bands, who play there, want to keep the place open in the long run.

[Sean]

9 minutes ago, Mudpup said:

Reality check....is it really going to save the venue?

 

If it's genuinely due to increasing costs and declining numbers it's not going to save it.

 

One single gig where they've saved a few hundred quid by getting a freebie is not going to turn a venue around.

 

Morally it's nice to be able to pay something back if it's to help a genuine venue but it's unlikely to stave off the inevitable

@Mudpup you saved me half a post 😀. I’d be asking them what their plan was after the event and for the future and how this gig is going to do the trick.  In a business plan to save the venue this gig would (in my mind) be part of a greater plan. If it’s meant to re-establish the venue and make it a draw for audiences in the future, then how? What’s the plan for the next three months? 

[Jackroadkill]

1 hour ago, Beedster said:

Too many bands expect the same fees they were commanding in 2021

 

 

I'd kill to get the fees we were commanding in 2000!

[MacDaddy]

2 hours ago, solo4652 said:

A local music venue has posted this on Facebook:

 

"We need your help now more than ever!!!

Along with 100s of other music venues in the UK we are really struggling with the increased bills and drop in numbers due to the cost of living crisis.

We are putting on a show next weekend called [----], it's going to feature some of North Devon's incredible covers bands who are all donating their time to help out this iconic music venue......"

 

What do we think?

 

 

Are the bar staff also donating their time to help out?

[Beedster]

31 minutes ago, MacDaddy said:

 

 

Are the bar staff also donating their time to help out?

 

Fair point but probably not because it's their job -  i.e., how they pay their rent - not their hobby. For most musicians, in real terms it's their hobby not their job. Those musicians for whom it is their job would, like the bar staff,  say 'not unless you're paying'.  

[Beedster]

50 minutes ago, Jackroadkill said:

 

 

I'd kill to get the fees we were commanding in 2000!

 

That's my point, I doubt many people are getting them but I know people who are expecting them

[TimR]

Our 'local music venue' was 'close to collapse' due to the Landlord being too old to keep the venue on and the danger of his estate being hit with huge inheritance tax bills.

 

So I'd wonder what the background is.

 

Local musicians did a crowd fund and a purchase of the venue amd some other legal constructs were put in place. 

 

It doesn't help that the land the venue sits on is worth multiples of what the venue brings in a year and outgoing rates dwarf the takings. The land was worth in excess of a couple of million to a developer. 

 

Can a local musicians' co-op be set up and purchase the venue if it's a viable community asset? 

Edited 11 hours ago by TimR

[pete.young]

7 hours ago, Beedster said:

 

 Too many bands expect the same fees they were commanding in 2021,

 

Someone's already done that joke.

Edited 7 hours ago by pete.young

[Beedster]

4 minutes ago, pete.young said:

 

Someone's already done that joke.

 

....?

[Marvin]

I know the venue. I've been some great gigs there, one of them possibly the best I've been to. Played their a couple of times.

 

It's been going for longer than I care to remember. The owners, both current and previous have done a lot to support music.

 

I'd give up time to play at this one. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to because I'm away that weekend. But it's a great venue run by genuine people. 

[pete.young]

4 minutes ago, Beedster said:

 

....?

I wa going to post pretty much what @Jack said, then realised he'd said it.

 

 

[chris_b]

This is the problem. Too many people see bands as a hobby.

 

If a venue can't keep it's doors open then it's not for the musicians to play for free. That has no long term future and is a devaluation of the musicians trade.

[Beedster]

21 minutes ago, chris_b said:

This is the problem. Too many people see bands as a hobby.

That’s because for many of us a band is ultimately a hobby, if it’s a job that’s fine, but that it is a job for some does not mean that the same rules re fees apply across the board. If all the venues go under, where are we gonna play? Musicians need to help venues through what I hope is the tail end of a very bad five years for many of them 👍

[Wombat]

There’s a whole other thread going on about being paid.

As a ‘hobbiest’ who can afford to play for free I do sometimes wonder if I’m taking money out of the hands/mouths(?) of pros.

Mind you, I don’t think they’d be making much money from the sort of sh**ty pubs I usually play 😂.

I’d def want to support a ‘known’ local place though.

[Beedster]

3 minutes ago, Wombat said:

As a ‘hobbiest’ who can afford to play for free I do sometimes wonder if I’m taking money out of the hands/mouths(?) of pros.

 

That's a line I hear too often and it's bollocks, everyone has the right to be paid, or to choose to not be paid, for what they do

[Beedster]

51 minutes ago, chris_b said:

If a venue can't keep it's doors open then it's not for the musicians to play for free. That has no long term future and is a devaluation of the musicians trade.

 

When all you pros are forced to busk in the streets for coins because all the venues have gone under and there are 200 applicants for every seat at the few shows that still have live players, I'll throw some coins in your hat 👍

[Beedster]

17 minutes ago, Wombat said:

There’s a whole other thread going on about being paid.

 

Yep, I started that thread largely to address the same issues that are raised in this thread, they're pretty much parallel conversations

 

 

[Jack]

1 hour ago, pete.young said:

I wa going to post pretty much what @Jack said, then realised he'd said it.

 

 

Did I?