Wednesday, December 12, 2012

You are your own gig finder


Gigfinder.com is a site loaded with musicians, bands and songwriters. Someone posted the question "Where are the gigs at?" and it got some responses. Along the lines of "yeah we gotta tell them club owners where we at!"
There are many problems with this specific site's concept that will not be solved by getting the word out to club owners and booking as the posters suggested. Craigs List works better without consciously trying. Worse, Gigfinder is ugly to look at (All red text on black background actually hurts the eyes) and does not organize itself according to location. That's enough to kill it right there.
Booking talent of any kind requires an audition. Before that happens some kind of personal connection is probably required to filter out the untalented, talented unreliable, etc etc. It is no fun to find nice ways to tell random people that they suck without them badmouthing your place to everyone who will listen. Or letting the air out of your tires. Or telling the police there are drug deals going down at your place at 2am.
Start out at open mics, jams, poetry slams - something. Get to know people - musicians, bands, wedding planners, owners - and work your way in your local scene - there is no shortcut.


2 comments:

  1. Just noticed we have red type on dark background too. Hmmm.

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  2. another reply I wrote to a disgruntled musician on that site:

    I feel what you are saying. My band works hard to make sure a certain number of people show up at our gigs, you know? Then the owner has something to gain by having us play there, and something to lose if they screw us. 30 people is the magic number. 30X$5 cover +30 5$ drinks = about $200. So you are right on target. Do you have that following?
    If you don't bring people in, you are not entertaining people, so what is the point? The club is not making money. You will not get paid.
    If you get a gig at a place that is already busy they may not feel like they have something to lose by shorting you. But let's face it - they were already making money without you, and you were going to play that guitar at home anyway. So find another place to play, or another way to play for pay - sounds like you figured that out too.

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