In about 1989 my band Womanizer was playing regularly at the Troubadour. One Friday night after we finished our show the soundman said to us, “Congratulations, you’re the last band to play the Troubadour for free.”
“”You mean you’re going to start paying us now,” I innocently asked.
“No. Starting tomorrow bands have to buy tickets up front then sell them to get their money back,” he answered with a straight face.
I was shocked. Who in their right mind would do that?
Now it seems that Pay To Play is not just the norm but has spread to all facets of creative endeavor. Do you want to exhibit your oil paintings in an art gallery? It’s easy, you simply pay the gallery. Would you like to get your one act play performed in a small NOHO theater? It’s simple, rent the theater.
We’ve been looking to book our show, Rock & Roll Rehab, in a theater but at $300.00 to $600.00 a night for theater rentals with only forty seats we’d have to charge $14.00 a ticket just to pay the theater cost. Without promotion and advertising you’re never going to sell those forty seats and why do this at all if you’re not going to make a dime yourself?
Why wouldn’t an art gallery which utilizes only their wall space want to let someone who can bring in an art loving crowd to an after hours event use their space for a few hours a week? These are people who probably wouldn’t have come for an art show but who might really like the art that’s there and make a purchase, or at least now know about the gallery and what it has to offer. Why not make a few buck on the admission charge to a non-art show and maybe make some art sales? Because the galleries really don’t care about selling art. They are in the business of renting space to the artists just like the clubs are in the business of renting space to musicians and theaters are in the business of renting space to actors. I guess the old saying is true, only God can make land and real estate is the only thing of which they can’t make more.
“”You mean you’re going to start paying us now,” I innocently asked.
“No. Starting tomorrow bands have to buy tickets up front then sell them to get their money back,” he answered with a straight face.
I was shocked. Who in their right mind would do that?
Now it seems that Pay To Play is not just the norm but has spread to all facets of creative endeavor. Do you want to exhibit your oil paintings in an art gallery? It’s easy, you simply pay the gallery. Would you like to get your one act play performed in a small NOHO theater? It’s simple, rent the theater.
We’ve been looking to book our show, Rock & Roll Rehab, in a theater but at $300.00 to $600.00 a night for theater rentals with only forty seats we’d have to charge $14.00 a ticket just to pay the theater cost. Without promotion and advertising you’re never going to sell those forty seats and why do this at all if you’re not going to make a dime yourself?
Why wouldn’t an art gallery which utilizes only their wall space want to let someone who can bring in an art loving crowd to an after hours event use their space for a few hours a week? These are people who probably wouldn’t have come for an art show but who might really like the art that’s there and make a purchase, or at least now know about the gallery and what it has to offer. Why not make a few buck on the admission charge to a non-art show and maybe make some art sales? Because the galleries really don’t care about selling art. They are in the business of renting space to the artists just like the clubs are in the business of renting space to musicians and theaters are in the business of renting space to actors. I guess the old saying is true, only God can make land and real estate is the only thing of which they can’t make more.
No comments:
Post a Comment