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Re: Where are the Booking agents? (Score: 1)
by MusicMan on Wednesday, January 28, 2004 @ 11:27:55 EST
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All true. I’ve been playing for many years and have never seen the music business so awful regarding bands and gigs. Hell, it’s not just gigs it’s getting paid, radio support (ha!), lack of music listeners and so on and so on . . .

I’ve come to the conclusion that the business of music is approaching a critical juncture in that things cannot stay the same, it will have to get worse or better but cannot hang on a wire like it is today.

I see a lot of the problems with the business of music in the listeners first and then everything else a very distant second. If music listeners wanted to listen to rock bands and were willing to forego the dance/DJ/meat market circuit then there would be gigs-a-plenty, but sadly, this is not the deal.

Case in point: WRIF (you know the home of G-N-R on the hour, every hour) is sponsoring club night at, I think, the Emerald . . . . Hello. We’re talking about WRIF not 95.5 here!! Now why in the world would the “Home of Rock and Roll” be sponsoring club night (house, disco, hip-hop) and not a cool live rock band playing covers or even, dare I say, original music??? Because club-goers at large don’t want to hear rock music and especially not a live band.

For club owners the simple math is this:

Hire a DJ for next to nothing to play music created by samplers and sequencers, with a beat you’d give a ‘10’ to, charge a cover (yes people are actually paying a cover charge to listen to a FUC#ing DJ play CDs) and fill the club with crotch grinding, martini swilling 20 something’s looking for love and not much more

or . . . .

Hire a band that for some reason expects to be paid???, hope and pray that enough 30 something’s that are not interested in dance music (because they are already married with kids and are not trolling for tail) and like rock music and are not too tired to go to a club and stay awake past midnight and can get a baby sitter and… and…. And maybe net about half as much as the dance club down the street that has less overhead and a heck of a lot more drunken 22 year olds with a lot of cash they don’t need to save for their Volvo payment or their $5 per hour babysitter.

Let’s face it. Until the club-going demographic are interested in Live Music with a Live Band again, there is no reason for clubs to hire bands. Therefore, there is no real reason for booking agents because there is very little to book.

Sad but True.

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