Jason Ward

Ever wonder how that cocky local band that can barely play an e chord, got to open up for one of the bigger bands around? It’s called pay-per-play and it has nothing to due with talent. What exactly is pay-per-play? Basically a band signs a contract promising to sell x amount of tickets for y amount of money, usually the band buys the tickets up front and at a discounted rate, the theory being the band sells them at face value and makes their gas and expense money. All ready the older players are getting in an uproar,” I’d never pay blah blah blah blah back in my day we got paid blah blah”, yes that was true years ago but the times they are a changing, and yes if you are playing 3 sets of cover tunes you should be getting paid and not paying, but shut up and listen for a little bit and you will realize that it doesn’t include that type of music, but can, and might help you fulfill a dream or two. That being said I’m going to try and explain all sides of this touchy subject so everyone can better understand what exactly what is going on.

First off bands CANNOT look at a ppp (pay-per-play) show as a quick trip to a record deal, because it isn’t going to happen. Do you know where the cd you give the lead singer ends up? It’s not into the hands of their label or manager or whoever you got them to say they’d pass it on to. Musicians (even in big bands) are people first, and will usually be nice and tell you what you want to hear, take your cd and then forget it back in the dressing room when they leave. Just because a well known band is playing doesn’t mean that there will be lots of record execs, a+r guys or other industry personal, in fact there won’t be any, remember it may be the highlight of your life, but to them it’s just another day at work. Also don’t expect to be able to kick it and hang out with the big band before and after the show, it’s not going to happen, all the band wants to do is relax for a bit before the show and not be bothered, and after the show its merch sales and autographs, then once again they just want to unwind for a little bit before they head out on the road. What they don’t want is someone hassling them for shows or a helping hand etc. etc. Just don’t confuse basic human kindness as an offer for friendship. The road to rock stardom is a long hard path that doesn’t begin by opening up for a band.

What ppp shows can be is a great way to get some new exposure and contacts while playing on a great stage and sound system, and if done right can be a great little money maker for the band. What make money? Yes make money, remember it is only ppp if you don’t sell your tickets, and in all honesty it’s not different than playing for the door. If you are lazy and don’t promote and spend money for a play for the door show it’s going to cost you money as well. How? First off is gas money, then figure in all the food you eat on the trip all the booze you drink, the cost of string, sticks, amp, skins and speaker wear and breakage etc etc. Don’t forget to include the costs of flyering and merch as well as the hassles of trying to talk everyone you know and see into coming down to just see you and a few other bands they haven’t heard of. Now offer those same people a ticket to see their favorite band in a smaller venue of 500 people or so, at a price of usually half of what it would cost to see them at a huge venue and you have an easy no hassle sale, it’s like selling a heater to an Eskimo. And you are making a few bucks per sale, enterprising bands can turn more cash doing this than playing for the door with the bar skimming, all you have to do is choose your shows right (see list below) and invest a little money. While the contacts you will make won’t be industry big whigs, they will be much more important and useful, a bunch of like minded and genred bands and their friends and fans, that will more than likely want to trade shows even if not worse case scenario is you get to hang out with a bunch of cool bands and listen to one of your idols play on a stage you just sweated on. This is also an audition of yours for the promoter, if you are as good as you think you are and conduct yourself in a professional manner more than likely you will be contacted to play again without having to sell the tickets.

While on paper it all sounds hunky-dory but many people have left ppp shows with a bad taste due to promoter “scams”. While I’m not jumping to conclusions most of the time the “scams” are due to the bands either lacks of understanding or knowledge in business.
Most of the time it is usually just a band getting sold what they want to believe (read above) and not seeing the whole picture and instead of seeing what happened, and how stupid they were its they got “scammed” I have heard some good ones by bands and from promoters, bands breaking up and wanting a refund, bands missing the show and wanting a refund, bands who don’t contact anyone for months then out of the blue want a refund, and the sad thing is the craziest and idiotic ones are from bands complaining, so far from being in the right but so clueless they will never know. One of the main real scams going is the promise of a huge band and then on show night that band doesn’t play for some unknown reason, and a few are probably legitimate I’m sure. However it is pretty simple to not get caught up in an out in out scam so I really can’t feel sorry for anyone on that. What follows is a little list to keep in mind before you commit to a ppp show.

1. Stay away from Emergenz type festivals, with multi cities and huge amounts of bands. While it’s not a scam in the legal sense, they are just selling you what you want to believe. What happens is you play in some small room or club way away from the main area for a bunch of other bands that got screwed the same as you. When was the last time you heard an interview go “well after we won emergenz, we went on to get signed, sell a ton of records and get famous” trust me if it has happened it would be in all the damned emails they are constantly bombarding you with. Once again
YOU WILL NOT GET SIGNED DUE TO A PPP SHOW OR BATTLE OF THE BANDS
no matter who they say will be there or what they promise can happen, in all honesty if you were that close to hitting it, you would be playing private auditions for industry reps.

2. If the band seems to big to be playing that venue, they probably are, the easiest way to find out is to email the bands label or management (usually found on their website) don’t however say you are in a band, in will get deleted once they get that far, under the assumption you are begging for a deal or to play, simple inquire as a fan that you had heard so and so was playing, and you wondered how you could get tickets.

3. Stay away from shows that have more than 10-12 bands playing or ones that have multiple stages, chances are you are just going to get disappointed.

4. Once again if they promise you anything more than a good time and a great show are wary because that is where the dance begins.

While this may still not make sense, look at it from the promoter’s eyes, the local promoter doing it not the big national types. Bands are notorious for lying about draws, their talent etc. etc. its part of the game. But the game is also the promoter/owner’s job, and how they pay the bills, you feed them a line of crap saying x amount of people come to see you and you send them your slickly produced cd that took 2000 takes and 3000 overdubs to complete. Then on show day, you bring nobody and your noise drives out their regulars and who is left holding the bag still having to pay the utilities and employee wages? Say you bring 30 people that’s a good draw, those people would each have to drink 10 drinks that the owner is making a dollar off of, to just cover the $300 guarantee They aren’t making a dollar per drink either, by the time you factor in loss, theft, giveaways, salary of whose pouring it, cost of glass its being poured in, cost to wash that glass etc etc. Just because the drink is 5 bucks doesn’t mean its 5 bucks in their pocket. A few bad nites can ruin a place a lot of times, or at least end any hopes of having bands there. This way no matter what the bills are getting covered, and they get to scout out the more self-motivated bands to play on other nites where the headliners aren’t national.

Once again its only pay per play if you don’t sell your tickets…