LIVE MUSIC IS HARD | SPECTATIN' and SPECULATIN' 4
bret harold hart
Why?, Whuffo?, and Howcum? are better community puzzles to solve in Life than Whodunnit?...., circuitously detailing, while sitting on my porch smoking cigarettes, three music performance concerns I have been processing for about 50 years.
VIDEO LINK: https://youtu.be/5yo8HeCmATQ?si=zmJK39iU6sf2jXqt
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hey y'all Brett here
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again spectating and speculating I guess
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this is going to be the
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fourth upload for this particular
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playlist when I get around to getting
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done with
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it I want to talk about
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paytoplay
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Um kind of the the paytoplay ethic
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uh within
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the business of performing live music in
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various kinds of
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venues because
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um I've been doing it for a really long
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time since about
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1978 and I've done it all around the
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country I've played out in California
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Texas
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Florida
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Maryland Virginia North Carolina New
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York
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Massachusetts on an island off the coast
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of Portland Maine uh as well
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as in Korea South Korea when I was
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living over there for four years
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Basically anywhere I've ever lived I've
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sought out creative people to hang with
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or at least to meet I like interesting
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people You know there are all kinds of
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ways that people can go out and perform
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their music You can do it in schools You
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can do it in churches You can do it in
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parks if they let you You can do it
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um in bars You can do it in art
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galleries You can do it in restaurants
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And you can do it in larger venues of
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all sorts that are more suited for huge
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crowds and stuff like
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that And um you know those are the kind
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of places I perform music in over the
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years And you know generally if you're
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playing in a
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park if you've been invited to play in a
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park you're going to get paid by the
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city that runs the park And if you're
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playing in a bar if if it h if it's a
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bar with any decency whatsoever
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um you'll at least go home and not have
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spent a penny on what it took you to get
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there and play the gig and get home And
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if they're cooler than that they feed
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you and keep you from getting thirsty
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while you're there
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too Um but anyways pay to play
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So I've encountered paytoplay in various
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places and
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um venues that uh and this is usually
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bars and
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clubs and sometimes restaurants that
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have a stage in them Um it's it's very
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very hard when you live in small town
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America and even in big cities um to get
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paid to play unless of course you are as
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I've said before kind of econ
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economically independent In other words
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you've got an agent who's making sure
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these things are going to work out for
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you and setting you up places to stay
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and your travel and so forth or if
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you're just a simply a wealthy person uh
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or a famous person who doesn't have to
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worry about the costs of
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things as well as the means of getting
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from place to place like that And of
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course I've always had to take travel
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into concern and lodging and food and I
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sell my own stuff I've always gosh since
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about
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1983 I've had some sort of record
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company as it were or music business um
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that started off releasing stuff on
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homemade cassette tapes and went all the
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way through to CDs Uh I'll try to
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remember to post a picture of
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the the CD
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uh archive that I have here I'm not
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going to take pictures of all the
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cassettes They're in a apothecary
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cabinet scores of
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them But anyways um you
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know when I was a kid you know not even
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20 years old yet playing in clubs and
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things Um you might get paid $300 $350
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to play a Friday and Saturday night uh
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for about three hours a night Um they'd
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feed you p they'd give you pictures of
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beer to keep you going and
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um that was a very long time
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ago 40 years ago um I could get paid
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$175
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um well a portion of it anyways in a
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band and not get thirsty And this would
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be you know local college gigs kind you
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know towns that have a whole bunch of
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little venues here and there for the
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college
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crowd By the time I got out to
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California couple years later I began to
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hear about this paytoplay where you
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literally I also heard about it in
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Boston where the club that you're going
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to play play at gives you the tickets in
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advance and you have to sell the tickets
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right
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and that's how you make your money
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presuming you don't have any merch to
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sell and and and and kind of push it
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along in that way I never thought that
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was cool because I really believe
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that if an artist
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provides a suitable image that that can
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be used promotionally that the place
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that stands to make the money that night
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should do the promoting
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And I
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know you know the whole DIY ethos a lot
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of folks think about the band the
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Minutemen for
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example they took the whole they
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shouldered most of the work themselves
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They took most of the responsibility for
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things getting done and you know held
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themselves accountable for how well that
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went and stuff rather than being flung
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around by some clown And uh they did
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good They did great Mike Watt's still
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doing great You know I I I I'm I'm sort
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of a a merger of the DIY ethos plus a
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certain standard of respect that
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musicians were paid when I was a college
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kid way up on the top of New York State
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in Potts Dam same campus that has the
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Crane School of Music on it The venues
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in a town that has a music school
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typically pay
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better It makes sense You know I've been
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in a number of bands over the years that
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that got paid to play Hipbone uh was one
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of them Uh the Bo Cleav Project was one
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of them Uh the Bandats only performed
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once but we got paid pretty good for it
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Um and some other bands over the years
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out in Reedsville on occasion We get
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paid to play out there I've been paid to
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play at various festivals and uh you
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know street festivals and local events
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that happen in parks and stuff like that
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where they have music going on Played in
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a lot of different types of
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situations I don't I don't like this
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paytoplay I I think that's terrible And
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uh so I'm just going to put my foot down
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with this first thing and say I just
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think that it is the responsibility of
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the venue seeing as their their region
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is where most of the people that would
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come are coming from So they have a
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greater likelihood of knowing the kind
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of folks to contact than somebody from
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another state would I I I think
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paytoplay is a really bad paradigm and I
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don't accept it And I have made a lot of
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um not friends as it were um because I
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hold to that But that's just the way
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it's going to go I'll I'll say no I'm
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not playing for
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free any more than a plumber you don't
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know is going to come fix a pipe for
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free It's just not going to happen It's
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a work day Okay Uh in addition to
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paytoplay I want to talk about this
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whole horrible
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lensure violation uh and fines and fees
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and stuff that can be levied against
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venues
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which haven't paid for that kind of
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lensure And I personally think
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it's obscenely expensive but the the
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fines are worse
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And in a number of places that I've
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lived over 50 years of playing music
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when I after I'd become kind of aware of
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the need to have some sort of permission
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or lensure in order to go out and play
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music by other people Okay of course if
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you're playing songs you wrote or music
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that you composed or stuff that exists
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in the public domain there should be no
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fear of legal action for having so done
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Um but those particular lensure
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companies um because they've just had
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skin in the game for so long
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uh and represent so many
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publishers Um they're tough to fight
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with And here in the town that I live in
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now I know of several people that that
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you know booked live music in
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restaurants and clubs and bars that have
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existed over 30 years we've been here
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and they got creamed when somebody
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turned them
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in And uh I've never been on the
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receiving end of that kind of a
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punishment a legal punishment financial
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punishment for providing your customers
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with some you know some enjoyable music
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to listen to
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Um but it's a racket and I do believe
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that if a
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person I'm not willing to really do this
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much research but I I feel that there
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are regional rats
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um round and about uh who have sort of a
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uh freelance
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uh relationship with these licensing
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agencies
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And uh as a sort of a supplemental
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income periodically
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uh and very anonymously I I I have not
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quite figured out who the person in this
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town is that's doing that Um one moved
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away and it's still going on So I'm I've
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kind of got it down to three
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people But as I've said before I'm not
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in the business of getting people in
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trouble It's not my job Um but I do like
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to know things At any rate um I have
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been
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told that you can be fined as much as
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$700 per cover song if you don't have
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that kind of uh you know lensure
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agreement with these guys right so so
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here comes you know
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Carlos the cover tune man and he comes
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in and he wants to really hit everybody
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in the first set with a bunch of stuff
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that they know and like So he's he's up
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there you know hitting uh Beatles songs
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and Browneyed Girl you know Freeird and
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all that stuff This isn't a songwriter
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This is just a human
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jukebox and sitting in the back of the
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restaurant because the person saw the
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promotion that this person was going to
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be playing in the restaurant or
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wherever is sitting back there taking
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pictures and and recording audio clips
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in the back of the room as evidence that
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the thing that they're going to report
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occurred and they're going to cash in
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They're going to they're going to make a
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nice little bit of mailbox money off of
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that But what bothers me about it is
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that it is a absolutely horrid betrayal
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of one's neighbor uh in a town or city
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that you know where you live You're
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ratting out musicians They're not going
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to get punished for it The venue is
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going to get punished for it It can put
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a it can put a restaurant out of
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business or make them downsize staff you
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know
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And I think that's really bad I think
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it's a rotten thing to
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do You know I I I'm sorry that some very
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nice people who were providing places
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where live music could be listened to
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and where musicians could you know make
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a little chunk little change on the side
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tips small payment for playing there for
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a couple hours It's gone Our town is
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without music at this point this small
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town that I live in And um that's really
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sad that the effect of one person's sort
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of monetary
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gluttony could could shut down an art
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form Unbelievable
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Unbelievable And these
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people they they don't hide They're very
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public influencer kind of people who do
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this kind of thing you know Once a
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person is in a lot of groups and on a
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lot of boards and stuff there's this
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really bizarre presumption that they can
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be
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trusted you know i mean look how many
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boards and chambers and stuff you're
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sitting on right i don't know My
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experience over the years both in
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business and education is that in
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administration is generally corrupt and
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that corrupt people cling to one another
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you know uh like Kurt Vonagget said take
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the average of the five people you spend
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the most time with you know from week to
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week and the average of those people is
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you and birds of a feather and all that
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stuff right and uh so I'm not cool with
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that And I think it's very excellent
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that a number of businesses uh who have
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serious FM um lensure in order to be
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able to play radio and you know stuff
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like that songs in their venues
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um this new paradigm the Sirius FM
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paradigm Sirius satellite and all those
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channels and stuff When you get that
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kind of lensure for your business um
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those songs can be played or performed
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in your venue
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And um I don't think this is
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terrifically widespread knowledge yet
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but I'm here to tell you that those
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other folks that uh license music are
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probably going to have to come down on
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their rates unless the serious
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people start hitting the bike pump on
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their own profits and uh you know
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getting crazy getting crazy Don't hire a
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CEO who likes fentanyl too much Um but
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anyways uh so that's my second thing
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that I wanted to talk about is the whole
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uh notion of making sure that you have a
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a decent type of lensure that will
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protect your venue um from being it's
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not really being sued but I bet it feels
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like it Um a real good brick oven pizza
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place relatively new in our town got
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clobbered Um another place that was a
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restaurant up on Kings Highway that we
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used to enjoy going to they got
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clobbered Um and some other newer
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businesses got clobbered too And I I
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hate that That's really bad That's
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really not cool And the third and final
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thing that I want to talk about a little
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bit here
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Third and final thing I want to talk
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about here is about cover
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charges at the door
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um in order to
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offset what would otherwise be a budget
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line item for a venue that has live
16:23
music Okay And
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since about the year
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2000 this this is what I think This is
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how I remember it since about the year
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2000 So now for about a quarter of a
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century
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um I've found that where in when I was
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younger you know the first half of the
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period of time I've been playing music
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um charging a buck or two at the door
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and this was back when a buck or two
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bought more than it does now Okay so
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let's just say five to $7 at the door
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How about just five
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okay five bucks today buys what a dollar
17:03
or two bought back in 1985
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Okay people don't venues
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won't have h have a donation for the
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band you know that's that's usually what
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it's called um at the door as though if
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somebody puts a $5 bill in there for the
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band that's $5 they won't spend on micro
17:28
bruise or coolers or something in there
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right or food or whatever which is a
17:32
very that's stupid math That's not
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ignorant math That's stupid math
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Okay
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because every single person that comes
17:43
in there is helping your bottom line
17:45
because now you don't have to pay that
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$5 to the band And I think you're
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overestimating just how much push back
17:54
you're going to get from people if you
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have somebody there at the door with a
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bucket with a sign sticking out of it
18:02
and it says $5 band
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donation Right if somebody can afford to
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go to a restaurant or or afford to go
18:10
somewhere and indulge in their drinking
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habits they've got a five They can part
18:15
with
18:15
$5 They absolutely can part with $5 I
18:20
can part with $5 and I'm on a fixed
18:23
income right whenever I hear about the
18:26
national average you know the national
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average income it's forever Remember I
18:31
was a public school teacher It's always
18:33
been twice what I've ever made And yet
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somehow we we we're provided for
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right we don't need a lot of money to
18:42
live because we know how to do a lot of
18:44
things by ourselves We didn't raise our
18:46
ch children on you know chicken
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McNuggets and
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uh you know Mountain Dew and like a lot
18:55
of folks seem to do And life's life's a
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lot cheaper when you're not lazy and
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also when you just accept the fact that
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you don't have a lot of money and um
19:06
it's kind of fun So anyways I I'd like
19:09
to argue for more places to grow a pair
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and let the public compensate the band
19:15
or at least offset some of what the band
19:18
has been guaranteed You could guarantee
19:19
the band 200 bucks to go up there and
19:22
play for two and a half hours right and
19:25
you're going to give you're going to
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keep them from getting thirsty and
19:28
you're going to ask people to pitch in
19:30
five bucks as they walk through the door
19:32
Okay well if you have a slow night and
19:35
only 40 people come in there and some of
19:37
them leave but each of them pitches five
19:40
bucks in there because they enjoy music
19:42
for the duration of the time they're
19:43
there uh you've just majorly offset what
19:47
you told the band you were going to pay
19:48
them and it doesn't come out of your
19:49
pocket anymore I think it's a wise move
19:53
Um at the very least people people
19:55
should have the courage to give it a
19:56
shot right give it a shot Start with $3
20:03
Have some ones on hand for change right
20:06
i think it'll work It used to work
20:10
People like things that are
20:12
nostalgic Why don't we get on
20:15
with treating hardworking traveling
20:18
musicians especially the ones that write
20:20
their own
20:21
music like professional bluecollar
20:24
workers It's precisely what we
20:28
are Tip the band folks
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