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How Indie Musicians
Can Avoid Getting Ripped Off: What to Ask a Club, New Promoter, or Label,
i.e., How the Mortgage Foreclosure
/Financial/ Credit Crisis Affected Local Promoters, Clubs, and Small Labels
(and Your Bottom Line)
by Randi Reed
If you're about to accept a gig
at a club you've never played before, or with a local promoter you've never
worked with before, or if you've had an offer to sign with a new small
label, stop and investigate.
Many small labels and local promoters were financed through personal home
equity loans, or by flipping houses that haven't sold. As you know, the
interest and payments for those loans skyrocketed in 2008, leading to
foreclosures. And many of the banks and mortgage companies that hold those
loans went under in 2008-09.
The financial crisis led to credit freezes and drastic reductions in
available credit across the board (in some cases even to people with good
credit), which have lingered into 2010. This means new loans and lines of
credit are not available in many areas. During the worst of the crash,
credit interest rates jumped dramatically, increasing the account holder's
monthly payment amount. In other cases, the credit shortage meant credit
limits were reduced on already existing credit card accounts, so many people
who thought they had plenty of available credit found themselves maxed out.
How does all this affect you as a musician? Obviously, the financial crisis affects your
audience's income, making it harder for them to afford an evening out. But
just as important to your bottom line, less available credit means suddenly
smaller budgets and less available credit for people who hire you.
In other words, if you are booked, you may not get paid.
If you're a touring artist who has the
misfortune of being on a small label during a credit crunch, it means you may get stuck out
on the road, with no means of getting home. Or the promoter may be up to his
ears in debt with higher payments but continue to attempt to do shows anyway, hoping to finally break
even--which isn't likely to happen. Or, the property owner of the may be in foreclosure.
Despite this grim picture, you can take steps to safeguard yourself so you
don't get caught up in all of the fallout. Now, more than ever,
when you're considering signing with a small label, or for a gig at a club,
or with a small promoter, take the time to do a little homework (or make
sure your manager does, and quiz him or her thoroughly about the results):
If it's a label: Do your own independent research: Who else is on the
roster? How long have they been on the label? Pick up the phone and call the
managers of the artists who have been there for a while. (It'll be faster
than email.) Find out--on your own, not by asking the label--who the label has worked with, and
ask if
they'd work with them again. Ask other people in the business what they know
about them, and ask how secure they think their financing may be.
If it's a club: (especially one you're unfamiliar with, but this can apply to any
club
since we're talking about real estate): Check the area club listings to see
who's played there recently. Call the artist's agent (if they have one) or
manager, and tell them you're booked into that club and want to find
out if they had any problems when they played there. Even better,
ask them
to put you in touch with the tour manager who worked the show. Did they have
any trouble getting paid? Any problems you should know about? Were they
easily resolved? Would they work with them again?
If it's a new promoter, or a small local promoter: Same questions
as for a club. Check the listings
of shows they've done recently, call the
artists' agents or managers, and ask them to put you in touch with the tour
manager who worked the show.
When you do sign to do the show, it's now even more important to be sure the
written agreement is specific about payment terms and form of currency, and whether it's a flat
guarantee, door split, etc. . Leave nothing to
(mis)interpretation. (For
further info on performance contracts also see
How to Read Your Live Performance Agreement in our
How To
section.)
Never rely solely on the promoter to get the word out about your show; he may be
overwhelmed with business problems and not do it as effectively as in the
past. Double your usual efforts, and enlist friends and fans to help,
especially if you're playing for the door. Start several weeks before
the show, not days.
On the plus side...During the Great Depression in the 1930's,
entertainment as a mass-media "industry" took off like wildfire because
people needed something to make them smile again. While modern conventional
wisdom says entertainment is the first to go from a consumer's budget, that
wasn't the case until recent years. In fact, from the inception of the
modern music business until the late 1990's, the music industry
was even said to be "recession proof" because of the unchanging need for
people to escape from their problems.
The moral of the story? Price your talent so it's more affordable, and the
audience may grow. And when you do get the gig, investigate thoroughly.
Yeah, it's all a little more work. But it's a lot
better than not getting paid, or being stuck on the road with no money and
no way to get home (which sadly happens more often than you'd think). Done
effectively, you just may end up with a gigantic fan base & a decent income
as an indie artist.
"How to"
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