The Grassroots Dilemma

You really cant escape to notice that the music industry is in crisis since covid came along. The thing is it was in Crisis way way before that as well. So many factors that has chipped away at the industry in the post millennium age . Because that is a key moment in time, with the millennium came broadband with that came files sharing that lead to streaming and the rest they say is history. 

The ability to earn an income as a musician the tradition way, that had worked for the previous 50 + years was dying.  I file musicians in three types. Firstly there is the true professional. The entire income is made from gigs, tours, sessions, teaching anything connected with music. I have many many friends that fall into this tear as well as even more connected with the business, be it lighting, sound, crew, drivers. This is were I believe all help should go first. ( I will move on to venues later) 

Then there is the semi professional, these are the people and I firmly put myself in whom record, perform, release albums, tour and to many may well give the appearance of being a ‘Pro’ but have an alternative form of income to pay the bills. Same goes for people that have jobs in the week and play pubs at the weekend. Many do earn money this way, but they have the dayjob to fall back on, and while it’s a little bit of a Grey area , for a fair proportion immediate financial concerns are not directly connected to music. 

After this falls another category, this may appear at first as controversial but bare with me. This is the for the most part, post millennium musicians, whom for a large part of the time don’t exist far outside of social media. They have a heavy web presence , they record a lot of material ‘At Home’ they may well get regular airplay on the radio, and will play anywhere for anything. 

This has to my mind set a bit of a dangerous president, and I will confess in the past I have done exactly the same on the odd occasion. 

For a long time, if an artist performed at a venue, they would get paid, either a fixed fee, or a percentage or some other kind of deal. In addition to this they may well sell merchandise, and the two added together would make gigging viable. This was my business model for the fist 15 years or so of music.   Merch is still very valid at gigs, people will buy something if they enjoy what they see, because real music fans like the make a financial contribution to people they enjoy. 

With this ‘New Breed’ came another post millennium thing ‘The Open Mic’ now I for a while attended many when I started my solo shows , along with café music nights and so on. I only attend one now, because a filly cooked meal is offered for playing, and the food it top notch, Go out for a dinner, play a few songs. That is a fair enough deal for me. But its NOT a Gig!!! 

Many musicians that start off playing lots of open mics, then get offered gigs by the same venues, if they go down well. Who wouldn’t want a real gig ? The only thing is that there is in many cases for support slots almost never any form of payment. However this doesn’t put many off it would appear, especially if the artist in question is sponsored by mum and dad and want to see there future stars on stage. Because many new artists accept that ‘You will never make any money in music’ they put all there tunes on to spotify, and play gigs for free. There are MANY venues that work like that with only the big crowd pullers getting paid proper fees. The rest at best get the ‘If you bring in more than 20 people who pay £5 a ticket, then you get £1 per person thereafter’ This is a pretty standard deal for some major city venues as well as small places. 

Some venues really can fill the stage 7 nights s week sometimes with 5-7 acts a night, and not pay out a bean, if each act brings 10 people with them that’s 70 people buying drinks plus whoever else is around at the time. 

Now if a band, or a festival, be honest how often do people lower down on the bill of a festival ever get properly paid. By this I mean a Fee + Expenses inc Hotels ?  There is a wealth of online ‘Booking agents’ like sonicbids, Gigmit and others only too happy to get you shows, you have to pay them, and many shows they get you are non paying. And people gladly hand over there money. 

Well then Venues that do like to pay artists, Artists that play lots of free gigs but make out they are ‘Pros’ , Festivals that aren’t really proper festivals. Do these people deserve to get government pay outs because they wrote a good covering letter, when some full time professionals have ended up with nothing ? well make your own conclusion I know mine. 

If after all this, there is a music industry to be saved I will have to be a new or old business model. In order to get the new talent that will be needed once we have no heritage acts left, labels will have to invest. They wont want people that have already put out everything they have written online,  a label will want something exclusive, the venues that are left that do want original music might start auditioning bands and curate music nights based on the whole sum of the parts and not just on social media likes. It’s a long haul, there are lots of casualties already, I sincerely hope that the good people survive, but for the venues that have been ripping people off for years. If they go will it be any loss ? If people that spend all day on instagram have nowhere to play, will that be so bad?  

Or am I being a total git? 

Either way, this is one long road that might not get back on track. 

As a footnote and as Bob Geldof pointed out on Guy Pratt and Martin Kemps excellent podcast a little while ago, Live 8 was in many ways the end of it all, after that point, Technology and Social media became the new rock and roll. I mean when do you see someone under 30 with  a band t short on in the street these days ? 

Id love to know what you think.