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How To Get A Properly Paid Gig

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Imagine a pub owner who is considering putting on some music. From a business point of view the only reason for putting on music would be to improve the business (see part 1 in issue 4). The presence of music could attract more customers, hold existing customers for longer periods and/or encourage them to drink more. OK, we can now see the clear potential business advantage in putting on a band.

The next step would be to do a cost/benefit analysis, this simply means working out how much the pub owner should spend on providing the music so that there is still a business advantage. Put simply, if the increase in sales that the presence of music in the pub is generating is greater than the amount it costs to put the music on, then the pub is ahead. The owner would also need to consider how much the pub needs to be ahead to make the exercise worthwhile.

So from the venue owner’s perspective, the requirement is relatively straightforward. The pub needs a band that can do all, or at least some, of the following:
1. attract more customers
2. hold existing customers for longer
3. encourage customers to drink more
And they should not cost more than the extra business their presence will generate. Another consideration would be the relationship between the amount that people are prepared to pay to see a particular band and what that band charges.

The pub owner can work out a more accurate idea of how many extra customers a band is likely to attract, how long the band is likely to hold them and how much they are likely to drink by doing some research:
• checking out bands at other venues
• talking to the people who run the venues and agents or bookers
• talking to punters

The pub owner can work out a more accurate idea of what sort of income growth is possible by considering some other factors such as:
• venue capacity
• what punters will be prepared to pay on the door
• what punters will be prepared to pay for drinks

What the pub owner wants, basically, is the band to attract and hold the most people for the smallest cost. This gives bands an achievable task which they can aim at: learn how to attract a crowd and how to hold them.

OK, so far so good. Now let’s introduce a little “market distortion”. Suppose there was a supply of bands that cost nothing, how would that affect the calculations? Since the pub owner would be paying nothing for the music, the “down side” risk is eliminated. The worst thing that could happen would be that the band attracted insufficient customers. On the other hand, if bands are free the pub owner could put on 3, 4 or even 5 or 6 bands. Each band would only have to attract a small number of punters to make the night viable. In fact the night would probably be viable as long as the bands did not actually drive customers out of the venue! As many pubs will attest, this situation is not a theoretical one; it is how “business” is done.

Usually in these situations there is a door charge so the bands do get something but there are two very important points to recognise:
1. The pub itself pays nothing (in fact they often have schemes where they take a percentage of the door themselves under various pretexts!)
2. Because this scenario relies on there being a large number of bands, each attracting a small crowd, the door charge can never raise enough to pay each musician more than an insignificant pittance.

All of this, of course, would not be possible without an endless supply of bands prepared to work for nothing. This is ensured by the industry describing the practice as “paying your dues” or “getting your music out there” or “this is how (insert name of famous band) started”. In fact these gigs rarely lead anywhere so the working for nothing at this sort of gig is not even a wise investment of labour in expectation of future income. The punters who come are only the long-suffering friends and family of each band, it is only their COMBINED size that makes the gig worthwhile for the pub. You are most unlikely to even attract any of these people to your following.

If you want a properly paid gig (after all that is the title of this series!) the above sort of arrangement will not give it to you. It will not give you a properly paid gig because it is structurally impossible for it to do so. No matter how optimistic and hard working you are it will not work!!

Got the message?

Now let’s move on. Obviously having avoided gigs where market forces don’t work we will have to approach venues where they do. The first question will still be “how much do you charge?” Unfortunately we’ve run out of space for the continued examination of that question so we will have to wait until next time.

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Out With The Old ...

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In between putting the magazine together and moving house last month I managed to get out and about and kick off my yearly music award schmoozing with a visit to the Apra Music Awards. Apra Awards nights always seem to be more low-key and feel-good than other awards nights. With a focus on songwriters, the stars seem to take a relative back-seat and I’ve yet to be placed on a table that wasn’t full of genuinely nice people. Now maybe I’ve been lucky but there’s something to be said for hanging out with the worker-bees of the music industry.

Of course there was still a smattering of stars that bothered to turn up including the incredibly media-savvy Daniel Johns, who made a point of ensuring the Apra Awards weren’t relegated to obscurity by making numerous references to his ambiguous sexuality and by hugging Australia’s own musical politician, Peter Garrett. And well done to him I say for playing the game and at least being there to accept the awards. He was however a little blasé in his acceptance speeches, which always sort of rubs me the wrong way when I know how much a little old award Apra Award would mean to the thousands of musicians relegated to obscurity. But none-the-less, he did make sure the under-dog of awards made the press.

The highlight of the evening for me was Ian Moss’s absolutely beautiful rendition of Thirsty Merc’s 20 Good Reasons. The awards featured a number of artists doing putting their own particular slant on the songs up for nomination, to prove that great songs really do shine through no matter what style or genre they are performed in.

Most of the awards went to acts signed to the big labels as expected, but to be fair there was some great talent in amongst the winners. But let’s be honest, most people are not there for the performances or the glamour, or even for the networking – they’re there for the free feed… And I have to say the highlight of this year’s dinner at the Apra awards had to be the chocolate mousse for dessert. I know this may be a controversial choice, so feel free to send in heated letters to the editor about why you thought the main meal was better than the dessert. And for those of you who didn’t attend, don’t forget next time you get an invite… it’s a free meal people – where were you?

Til next time,

MEGAN ALBANY

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