Discussion About The Music Business

This is your Captain speaking. I am in the music business and shall endeavor to answer your questions, landlubber.

First off, some nomenclature: Musicians prefer to be referred to as artists. The person who organizes the show is called a producer and sometimes also the promoter. An agent is the go-between and handles the coordination between the producer/promoter and the artist.

• Do musicians enjoy performing at Corporate Events, Weddings etc or are those considered part of life in the music business?
  
  A gig is a gig, but they would prefer to play in front of an audience that paid to see them. But usually there's free food and booze at a wedding or corporate gig so there are some upsides.
  
  
• How much control do performers retain over Playlists & related for Corporate Events, Weddings versus the control - influence that the Client wants?
  
  Depends on the artist and the client. Most artists you hire that are professional will work with the client on setlists. Some clients are super demanding. Most artists know that they need to make the client happy to get more work down the road. Weddings are generally the most controlled environment, because bridezillas are real.
  
• Do major performers such as Springsteen, Swift, Beyonce etc communicate with each other when setting up tours so they aren't clustered in the same area of the country in approximately the same time period?
  
  No, not at all, unless two artists use the same agent/agency. Market saturation awareness is entirely on the producer/promoter. It's on them to know who's going to be in town on the same night, the buying habits of customers, history of shows in the same area. If a similar act is booked to play the week before, that's a demographic crossover and a lot of ticket buyers will choose between one artist or another. The movie industry is exactly the same- you can see that tentpole movies generally don't overlap weekends or multiple weekends. There are some bullet-proof artists like Taylor Swift that will draw in people regardless of competition, though.
  
  There is some dirty pool that goes on between agencies called 'date stomping' where one producer/promoter will book a stronger act on the same night on purpose to sabotage another producer/promoter over some beef, territorial flexing or something like that.

 

For adult working musicians, those are the gigs that enable them to support a family. Favorite gigs of all time? No. But they are the gigs that enable them to both play music as a profession and support a family, so unless they are just totally detached from financial worries, they are bread and butter, and way, way better than a 9-5 digging ditches or whatever. You get paid well, regularly, and on time and you don't have to deal with skeezy club owners who are looking for ways to get over on you.

Its the practical compromise to make playing music a viable profession.

Everything is relative.

 

1) im a hobbyist musician. i have a dayjob and play in bands for fun and the creative outlet. i have played a handful of weddings, corporate parties, private parties and even though the money is way way way better than club shows, those have for the most part been my least favorite gigs. you have to deal with people who dont know what theyre talking about trying to micromanage you, bridezillas (as above poster mentioned, thats a thing), a**hole event managers, obnoxious guests...for some reason people think its ok to treat musicians like s***.

i have friends who are full-time working musicians and they have to do those kind of gigs to make a living. its doable, but they are hustling every week and dont really get to spend their musical time pursuing their own creative interests. or else be willing to tour 6 months of the year as a hired gun.

i also know someone who is in a band that makes 10k-50k per show playing corporate gigs to rich tech bros. its a full production/big band with cream of the crop players and management. he makes over 100k a year doing it. definitely the exception as far as people i know doing that stuff.

im in austin where everybody is a musician and there are bands out the ass playing every night. i think it actually makes it harder here to truly make a living compared to other cities (not that its much easier elsewhere). and you see the really good ones playing with all kinds of people all over town. the great working musicians are playing 5 nights a week with different bands all the time...thats how they are able to survive.

2) most wedding/corporate bands are playing covers or have a theme like 80's or yacht rock or something so whomever is hiring them knows what they are getting. sometimes they have specific requests and sometimes the band will charge extra to work up that material. when ive done wedding gigs its because we were friends with the bride/groom or they were fans of the band so we were just playing our stuff with a few covers worked in. i think every single wedding i have played included at least one beatles song. i played one where they requested britney spears "toxic", which was actually pretty fun to play and an easy song to learn.

one of the weirder ones i did was playing this dudes birthday party. nobody in my band even knew him, but he was a fan of ours and wanted us at his birthday party. they had a stage and this elaborate lighting system with strobe lights and the dude running the light show thought it was his time to shine. it was insane. crazy lighting through our set. colored spotlights on the band and this strobe light going crazy...i got nauseous about halfway through the set b/c of it and had to play with my eyes closed. they paid us like $1500 for an hour and a half set of of original music. definitely more than we made playing clubs.

i think there are alot of people who think that just because youre in a band you are making money and that is definitely not the case. the vast majority of local musicians are paying to be in a band. most local bands dont make enough money to cover rehearsal spaces, recording, producing albums, ect. for me, success playing music means it doesnt cost me anything to be in a band. i do make a little money, but compared to my real job its totally insignificant. its basically just some extra money every once in awhile for food/alcohol.

 

This, I’m a hobbyist too. Lived in Nashville for a couple years and got to know A LOT of working musicians, some real big in the business


I’ll put it this way, finding inspiring and happy work is extremely difficult, especially if you expect to make a living. Most people settle on teaching/lessons, and ultimately touring to make a living

 

I like Severo y Grupo Fuego

@Os Trigonum

 

I have a friend who had a regular gig at Scott Gertner's Sky Bar on Montrose. He does fairly well he's the band leader

He went on a tour in Africa with R&B artist Regina Belle. When they got back to the US, he had a felony warrant from dealing with some shady characters.

He had to ride a bus in handcuffs with people being shipped to different prisons across the country for 3 weeks, sleeping in different prisons

My chance to tell that story. Carry on

 

Awesome that the place is still there, I assume Cezzane is gone? Is the "Big Easy" still on Kirby?

 

Is Synthwave. more popular than I had thought or is it a Hidden Pleasure for you?

I’m not an artist, I’m a producer/promoter. It’s something I’ve been working my way in to for the past couple of years. It’s all about networking. You could call it a side gig because it’s not my main focus but ‘side gig’ infers that it’s sort of like a hobby, which isn’t how I treat any business venture. It’s a full on corporation with partners.

EDM in general is my favorite genre. It’s upbeat, up-tempo, the vibe and crowd are great and energetic.

So it isn't automatic that the artists will be taken care of with food and beverages at wedding and corporate gigs?

Depending on the artist and venue, there can be a green room stocked with requested food and drink. Sometimes drink tickets or free bar tab after the show.

What is the process to create a Short List of the best candidates for corporate, wedding etc gigs? Are potential customers/clients

• Given links on Youtube or similar of performances so they can evaluate artists - performers
• Using mostly referrals from trusted Friends and Family
• Narrowing the list of the artists based upon having seen them before before and had a favorable impression

These are all valid ways to determine who you want but the reality is availability and price. Price is negotiable.

Do major performers (Springsteen, Beyonce etc) have their own people setting up their tours and negotiating directly with potential venues or have the venues given or sold the exclusive rights to agencies to book performers?[/QUOTE]

Almost every artist who is in even a little bit of a demand will get an agent who handles the business side of things, including booking/scheduling.

Yes, there are exclusivity contracts between venues and producers/promoters with a distance clause in the contract, like ‘our artists won’t play anywhere else within 100 miles of Houston’

 

Dream job would be writing music for video games or movies or whatever. I love writing and recording. I absolutely do not want to tour.

How can I make enough money to support my family doing this?

 

Self-publishing your books on Amazon can work, but there's a very small amount of people who succeed. From what I've observed, it's more about min-maxing the social media and gruella marketing game. That's really the key to any kind of success where you are selling a product now.

 

Nice AI slop.

 

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