Im really glad the word is spreading about pay-to-play practices, but since the news is the news, and that means heavily edited down to the simplest talking points, there wasnt as in-depth a conversation laid down as there should (and will) be. Also, I wanna say this is NOT about negativity -- its really coming from a place of love for this scene. I wanted to clarify my own position a bit here. Warning: its gonna be wordy. I am against pay-to-play in 2 major forms: The first is a straightforward artist fee that artists pay to get on stage. Thats self-evident. The second is a ticketing scam. Its important to differentiate ticketing scam from simply selling tickets. Artists selling tickets is NOT a problem, so long as those artists are also being compensated and the tickets are a good-faith with a promoter that they are extra capital to be earned FOR the artist. A ticketing scam, by comparison, is one where artists are tasked with selling tickets and returning a high percentage of that earned money to the promoter. The best way to explain this is with good ol math. If you have 20 tickets to sell at $11 a pop, youre making $220. The promoter then asks you return 90% of that revenue to them, so now youve made $20. Divide that by the number of hours you spent selling tickets. This is money you SHOULD be theoretically paid to be on stage, but instead its your hourly wage for your work being a deputy promoter. Its an outsourcing of responsibility and creates a tier-system of employment rather than mutually beneficial partnerships. Now, theres an argument to be made that paying ANYTHING for your career is a form of pay-to-play. Thats simply not a logical argument. Say you are in a position to pay $200 to open for a national act. You may think this level of exposure is amazing and totally worth the investment. But what youve missed is that its not an investment at all. The bill will be populated with up to 10 acts that all paid and didnt earn their slot, meaning you will be mixed up and represented alongside an assorted grab-bag of talent, most of whom have not been performing long enough to have a solid live show. You are paying to be represented as a newbie in a sea of un-honed talent before an act people are restless for. Think about it -- as an audience member, if you bought a ticket to see your favorite national rapper, would you prefer 2 openers with well-practiced and dope 25-minute routines who worked their way up to that opportunity, or 10 openers with 10-minute routines who bought their way in to playing their first show? Its basic psychology of grouping that fans at these shows, even if you are incredibly live, will mentally categorize you with the weaker acts youre on stage with. So you have $200 to spend? You are absolutely FREE to spend that paying to play, Im just trying to make the point that its a waste of YOUR money to do so. That money could go towards hiring a national or local promotional agency that will get your music to blogs and radio, it could go to buying yourself a new pre-amp or mic to record demos at home, it could buy you original beats from a producer, it could buy you a feature, it could buy you t-shirts, it could buy you gas money for a tour, it could help pay for mastering, CD pressing, and a million other things that will help advance your career far more than one show in Austin, period. We have a very fast growing hip-hop scene in Austin, and that means theres a LOT of money coming in and a LOT of young new artists eager to get their spot. If they all spent their money to further their own careers (like in ways I listed above), we would have actual investment capital coming in for an entire scene. But pay-to-play sharks attack that capital and trick investors into bad investments, sucking all the money into their own hands and away from the foundation of growth, all the while convincing those artists that THEYVE somehow come out ahead. When it comes to myself, well, yeah Im an artist and I want opportunities. But the first show in Austin I ever played I simply went around ASKING for chances to get on, and built my way up from there. Ive gotten to play with some very large acts and been paid to do so simply by putting in time and effort and Im here to tell you: YOU CAN GET AWESOME SHOWS ON YOUR OWN. I do not make a single penny off of Austin Mic Exchange, I make that money from playing p-teK shows. It was not my intention to go on the news just to promote that event either. Our intention was to try and educate the general public whats going on. And now weve put our names in so now Im sure our motives will be questioned, and thats fine, thats natural. But Im not looking to make any enemies or get shock promo -- Im looking to actually explain to artists how they can really do better. Of course the promoters wont be happy with that stance, because nobodys happy when you target their money. And artists whove done it wont be happy because theyre defending their own actions. But I need to set the record totally straight -- those artists ARE NOT THE PROBLEM. Those artists are ARTISTS, and we need artists! We need good artists! But we need to cultivate, spend time, and build those artists. Because if we do that, our talent pool grows, our money grows, and Austin will start getting the national attention it deserves. If we let vampires suck the blood out and show them our necks, our city and our scene will eat itself alive crawling over illusions of real opportunity. 158 new people move here every day -- we have a real opportunity in front of us to make Austin the next major hip-hop town to blow. I dont wanna blow it. Bottom line: Never trust anyone who asks for money up front. When artists value their own worth, the Universe listens.
Posted on: Thu, 16 Jan 2014 21:38:24 +0000
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