OGG
Master of the Meh
Gigs have been very hard to come by lately. Unless we want to play dive bars for beer money, the well seems dry.
We signed up on Gigmasters almost two years ago. We went for the free 'basic" membership because the budget was tight and it seemed like it was good enough to get us some decent shows. Former bass player swore by service and said his previous band got nearly all of their gigs through it.
The big limitations with the free subscription are a very small (10 mile radius) geographic market, and meager storage space for media. We got regularly gig alerts and bidding opportunities. At least one per week. However, no matter what we bid, no matter what our quote included, we never got booked.
If you don't get booked, you have a very low ranking on the site. This makes it extremely difficult to get noticed. Also, after you get booked, you get reviews. Once again, the few reviews, the lower your ranking. Nobody wants to book the band with no track record.
Several months ago, I went ahead and sprung for the expensive premium membership. This increased our market search ability out beyond Los Angeles. It also gave us much more space to spruce up our profile page with more media.
Sure enough, the number of gig alerts skyrocketed. More like one per day now. Still, we can't get booked.
One thing the former bass player had told me was that there were "tricks" and "cheats", and that to make it work, you had to play the game.
Example: Your band gets a gig on their own. They have the party thrower, event planner, club owners... whatever, "book them" through Gigmasters by posting the gig, taking a bid, and doing the whole spiel. These bands then deduct the client fee paid to GM from what they are charging. Shady as fuck.
But then, it gets even worse.
Bands are creating and advertising false gigs under the pretense that they are a client having an event. Not only do they get to see what the competition bids for such a show, but then they "book" themselves for a non-existent gig and then write themselves a great review of the performance they didn't actually do. Shadier than fuck.
I'm such a sucker. I hate being shady, but paying $60/MO for a service that is both rigged, and heavily weighted against us, forced me to check out the game for myself.
I posted as a client holding a private party. I listed the date, city, performance time etc, and requested specifically 80s bands. I thought that at least it would give us an idea of what other bands are charging and how they respond. I was not expecting what followed.
Within 20 minutes, my email was going berzerk, my phone was ringing like mad. It was pretty shocking. I learned a lot, and I don't like any of what I learned.
The first phone call was a woman from Orange County that "represents" FIFTEEN LA area bands, most importantly, that of her husband, of whom she was quite proud. She went straight for the hard sell, talked a massive game, and made sure to keep reminding me that the guitar player in her husband's band had recently toured with... SURVIVOR!!!!!!!!
Yeah, Eye of the Tiger. Whoop dee freakin' doo. Gawd, this woman was insufferable. Arrogant, condescending, dismissive... she was a piece of work. Not only are NONE of the bands she represents actually an "80s" band (hubby's band would be closest, and are frighteningly similar to the band @micwalt just bailed from), but she had the balls to straight up tell me:
"You don't want a strictly 80s band anyway. Trust me, I have a business degree from Pepperdine and have been in this business for 15 years. I KNOW WHAT YOU WANT."
When I mentioned having a preference for a San Diego based band:
"You don't want a San Diego band. None of them are even in the same league. We play at blah blah hoity toity blah blah and so and so, and get paid thousands of dollars. There just aren't any bands in your area that understand "upscale" clientele. Trust me, if you hire a local band you'll be sorry, and will be calling me for your next party".
Ho. Lee. Fuck.
I checked out their Web presence, sure enough, they stay crazy busy, play great venues, make big bucks etc... but, they fucking suck. Jesus. Singer is pitchier than dollar beer night at the batting cages. Band is "ok", but nowhere near great. Their website is a bad joke. I guess they don't have anyone to proof read it for them. Their promo video is unintentionally hilarious in a Spinal Tap/SNL Spoof skit/ SUNDAY! SUNDAY!! SUNDAY!!! Supercross ad.
Fuck me runnin'.
Anyway, as much as I hoped that was the exception, I got 25 or 30 more quotes from similar "managers", all of them pushing multiple bands that aren't even close to what was requested, all of them from Los Angeles, all of them slinging mud and talking shit about the competition, and all of them absolutely certain that THEY knew what I really wanted.
My "favorite" was the LIVE BAND KARAOKE guys that wanted $3500. "We bring the band, and your guests are the lead singers!". FFS.
I probably watched 50 demo/promo clips last night. 99% of them are cringe-worthy. I did get bids from a couple of the local bands I was most interested in, good info there, and we seem to be pricing ourselves just right.
Bottom line though: It's a viciously cut - throat game that at least in our are is being man - handled and manipulated by huge LA based outfits, and some seriously shady shit. I don't like it at all, but we need gigs and they are the 800lb gorilla that dispenses them. As much as I hate being shady, I'm your Huckleberry. Game on.
We signed up on Gigmasters almost two years ago. We went for the free 'basic" membership because the budget was tight and it seemed like it was good enough to get us some decent shows. Former bass player swore by service and said his previous band got nearly all of their gigs through it.
The big limitations with the free subscription are a very small (10 mile radius) geographic market, and meager storage space for media. We got regularly gig alerts and bidding opportunities. At least one per week. However, no matter what we bid, no matter what our quote included, we never got booked.
If you don't get booked, you have a very low ranking on the site. This makes it extremely difficult to get noticed. Also, after you get booked, you get reviews. Once again, the few reviews, the lower your ranking. Nobody wants to book the band with no track record.
Several months ago, I went ahead and sprung for the expensive premium membership. This increased our market search ability out beyond Los Angeles. It also gave us much more space to spruce up our profile page with more media.
Sure enough, the number of gig alerts skyrocketed. More like one per day now. Still, we can't get booked.
One thing the former bass player had told me was that there were "tricks" and "cheats", and that to make it work, you had to play the game.
Example: Your band gets a gig on their own. They have the party thrower, event planner, club owners... whatever, "book them" through Gigmasters by posting the gig, taking a bid, and doing the whole spiel. These bands then deduct the client fee paid to GM from what they are charging. Shady as fuck.
But then, it gets even worse.
Bands are creating and advertising false gigs under the pretense that they are a client having an event. Not only do they get to see what the competition bids for such a show, but then they "book" themselves for a non-existent gig and then write themselves a great review of the performance they didn't actually do. Shadier than fuck.
I'm such a sucker. I hate being shady, but paying $60/MO for a service that is both rigged, and heavily weighted against us, forced me to check out the game for myself.
I posted as a client holding a private party. I listed the date, city, performance time etc, and requested specifically 80s bands. I thought that at least it would give us an idea of what other bands are charging and how they respond. I was not expecting what followed.
Within 20 minutes, my email was going berzerk, my phone was ringing like mad. It was pretty shocking. I learned a lot, and I don't like any of what I learned.
The first phone call was a woman from Orange County that "represents" FIFTEEN LA area bands, most importantly, that of her husband, of whom she was quite proud. She went straight for the hard sell, talked a massive game, and made sure to keep reminding me that the guitar player in her husband's band had recently toured with... SURVIVOR!!!!!!!!
Yeah, Eye of the Tiger. Whoop dee freakin' doo. Gawd, this woman was insufferable. Arrogant, condescending, dismissive... she was a piece of work. Not only are NONE of the bands she represents actually an "80s" band (hubby's band would be closest, and are frighteningly similar to the band @micwalt just bailed from), but she had the balls to straight up tell me:
"You don't want a strictly 80s band anyway. Trust me, I have a business degree from Pepperdine and have been in this business for 15 years. I KNOW WHAT YOU WANT."
When I mentioned having a preference for a San Diego based band:
"You don't want a San Diego band. None of them are even in the same league. We play at blah blah hoity toity blah blah and so and so, and get paid thousands of dollars. There just aren't any bands in your area that understand "upscale" clientele. Trust me, if you hire a local band you'll be sorry, and will be calling me for your next party".
Ho. Lee. Fuck.
I checked out their Web presence, sure enough, they stay crazy busy, play great venues, make big bucks etc... but, they fucking suck. Jesus. Singer is pitchier than dollar beer night at the batting cages. Band is "ok", but nowhere near great. Their website is a bad joke. I guess they don't have anyone to proof read it for them. Their promo video is unintentionally hilarious in a Spinal Tap/SNL Spoof skit/ SUNDAY! SUNDAY!! SUNDAY!!! Supercross ad.
Fuck me runnin'.
Anyway, as much as I hoped that was the exception, I got 25 or 30 more quotes from similar "managers", all of them pushing multiple bands that aren't even close to what was requested, all of them from Los Angeles, all of them slinging mud and talking shit about the competition, and all of them absolutely certain that THEY knew what I really wanted.
My "favorite" was the LIVE BAND KARAOKE guys that wanted $3500. "We bring the band, and your guests are the lead singers!". FFS.
I probably watched 50 demo/promo clips last night. 99% of them are cringe-worthy. I did get bids from a couple of the local bands I was most interested in, good info there, and we seem to be pricing ourselves just right.
Bottom line though: It's a viciously cut - throat game that at least in our are is being man - handled and manipulated by huge LA based outfits, and some seriously shady shit. I don't like it at all, but we need gigs and they are the 800lb gorilla that dispenses them. As much as I hate being shady, I'm your Huckleberry. Game on.
