June 2007
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“Bands that don’t promote themselves affect my business the most." "In this country, there are far more things that affect business than house concerts. In Boston,
I'm more concerned about ever-increasing rent prices (which affect the number of artists that can
afford to live here) and the fact that wages have not kept up with rent prices . In general, I'm
extremely concerned the ballooning gas prices, that overall economy that has slowed
dramatically, and that the divide between the 'haves' and 'have-nots' continues to widen. I think
the single greatest change since I've started booking The Middle East is increased use of the
Internet for our music choices. The proliferation of blogs and the use of MySpace, PureVolume,
Last.Fm, and other networking sites has helped make it incredibly easy for bands to get onto the
web and start spreading the word about their music.
The result of that, thus far, had at least a couple effects. First, on a micro level, those sites have
virtually replaced the demo tape as a means to get one's band booked at a club. On a macro level,
it's enabled certain bands' renown to spread very quickly and bands that might not have had 25
people at their show a year ago are now able to sell out rooms across the country. That's
simultaneously fascinating, exciting, and energizing to me." "When gas prices rise...less people come to shows, and
talented unknown bands tend not to tour as much as
they did when gas prices were lower.
Connecticut has a 10% admissions tax ...that affects
us.The rising cost of energy and taxes. It costs my
business over $600 a night to open the doors and many
shows only bring 50-100 (sometimes less) people
especially on weekdays." "In this and other college towns, I would say the ebb & flow of the transient population affects
my business the most. I feel that college age people are starting to get back into the fringe
(underground) scenes again. …..In the last few years thre has not been much of a fight to get
away from mainstream culture but that shift is happening – similar to what occurred in the 90’s." "The Promoters change a lot. The indie market was stalled for a year because the funnel was
empty & the bands grew beyond my 1000 capacity. But that’s coming back. Blues is a dying
market due to the age of patrons that used to go out. Dancehall has become very large; Jazz about
the same; Roots/Reggae is coming back & Groove is as strong as ever. "We are a small venue but we have had many
more well known artists play here over the last couple
of years. …I think that artists enjoy playing more intimate venues and I think that there are less
people going out to support
live music now compared to 5 yeras ago." "A big issue we have is just trying to make bands understand that playing three shows in the same
town in a week or two hurts the draw at every show. Some bands enjoy playing so much that they
just play every chance they get.
I have noticed that so many bands and agents want to start the shows as early as possible. The
door times seem to get earlier and earlier. That works great if everyone in your crowd is 15, but if
you have a decent amount of people in your crowd that are 18 or older then they may have to
miss the majority of the show. A lot of people work and have other commitments, so they can't
make it out until a little later. When the doors open at 7:00 pm and the show is over by 10:30 pm,
you have a lot of happy 15-year olds. The older people, however, quite often miss out. And guess
what? Fifteen-year-olds don't spend money at the bar.
Iowa City blows and they are trying to change the 19 and up ordinance to 21 and up...which in a
college town with 30,000 students most of which are undergrad that can hurt a live music
venue...house concerts can occasionally hurt a show of ours if the right people are involved...most
of the time it's negible." "Fees I hand the acts I book at the Cantab have stayed the same or risen slightly, but I think this is
due to our track record, which is pretty good I think, and my method of paying acts, which is
strictly pass-the-hat. The other part of this is that I see fees falling falling falling for nearly every
traveling act I'm in touch with... as all their expenses are rising." "Concerts and bookings are very competitive as we have several savvy promoters that control
most of our market and more new ones moving in with special events.
Phoenix Metro area is a major market. Most shows here are of large venue or arena size.
AUDIENCES are becoming more discriminatory in how and when they spend concert dollars as
many ticket prices in large venues are pricey and keep getting pricier. Is intimacy taking
precedent over the large concert experience? It would as it becomes more available here. People
will pay higher dollars for the better experience." "DECLINING AUDIENCES & THE AGE OF AUDIENCES ARE MY MAIN
CONCERN." "The most notable change in the music industry has been artist empowerment in the label arena,
digital distribution, MySpace and major technological changes." "WE ARE IN A LULL BETWEEN GOLD RUSH GENRES. TWO YEARS AGO IT
WAS JAM BANDS THAT WERE THE HOT THING HERE. THOSE BANDS HAVE
MOSTLY MOVED UP TO THEATRES AND ALT COUNTRY IS STARTING TO TAKE
ITS PLACE SLOWLY." "The level of national talent coming through has increased." |
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