Wow! A promoter that needs bands to handle promoting! Sure, there will be print and radio advertising. With the right amount of hype that alone can draw a crowd even if they just advertise "live music" and not any band in particular.

But they're not interested in just any band. In fact, you don't even have to be good. (Notice they didn't ask to hear a recording.) You just have to have a recent history of selling a lot of tickets and a lot of fans that would love to come see you in Flint. Probably because they think their print/radio ads aren't going to draw anybody.

[To be brutally honest I think even a national act with a major label would have a hard time drawing a big crowd in Flint. Michigan has the worst economy in the nation and Flint was hit rather hard. And it's far enough away from the large metro Detroit population -- where this ad was posted -- that the high cost of gas to drive there becomes a deterrent.]

Ahhh ... gotta love the music business! Musicians aren't artists. They aren't entertainers. They are merely promoters, judged by the length of their mailing lists and how well they can cajole consumers to appear anywhere.

Oh, to have only corporate gigs where musicians can be musicians instead of promotional agents.

At the "pay to play" rock clubs bands are "hired" specifically because of the number of fans that they have. Nobody at the clubs cares what the bands sound like.

If you haven't got fans, the gig costs you money.

I stopped playing clubs many years ago.

I'll be your fan, Jeremy.

Ric- You are talking about Flint. Did you expect anything else?

(Most) Promoters are vermin.

Is it common for 'bad' bands to sell lots of tickets and have lots of fans? Isn't 'bad' a bit subjective? In my opinion McDonalds is bad, but they still seem to sell a lot of hamburgers.
Maybe they don't know what type of music is popular, and just want to draw a big crowd so that they can make a lot of money, rather than get bands in the owner 'thinks' are good.

If you were the owner of a club and only hired bands you liked, you will go down pretty quick. Clubs are there to make money and IF along the way they help a band to be well known and make some money great.
There's so such thing as opening a bar/club just because you love music and want to have live music everyday of the week. You need to make a lot cash to pay those bands.

Pray tell me more about this "paying bands" of which you speak. It sounds like an interesting concept ...

If a band brings a good crowd you will need to pay them, so you either have your pub with a good not known band and don't pay them, but don't sell any booze, or you pay a band that brings lots of punters who will drink all your booze.

We're interested in performing

Necropost!

Sadly, original acts DO need to be promoters, image marketers and merchandisers as well as songwriters, musicians and performers. Ain't that a bitch? Welcome to my world. In my experience, venue advertising usually doesn't mean much unless the act being promoted is already fairly well known. In cases like this, all the ad does is pass the word about the show along to people who may not be aware of it from other sources like the band's myspace or what-have-you. Otherwise, the venue's ads are kind of useless.

The bands' efforts to promote actually bring out the crowds... or don't bring out the crowds, depending on the case.

At least that's been my experience. All the venue does is provide the bar, the PA and the staff to make it go.

And, yes, sadly, a lot of bands will fall prey to such "pay-to-play" scams. Ain't that a bitch? Been there, done that... many, many years ago. And, crazily enough, such gigs can actually work to a band's benefit... if they bust their asses and sell tickets like mad. Believe it or not, I know a few acts who have made nice profits on these kinds of gigs. Of course, they don't make as much as they would if they had just played a regular show where they set the door charge, etc, but whatever. It's all about finding what works for you. That kind of show doesn't work for many people because it's really a pain in the ass to sell tickets to your friends and "fans."

Oh yeah, FWIW, Plenty of lousy bands have lots of quasi-fans who will go anywhere to see them play. Come on, don't tell me you've never encountered that band with the coke-dealer bassist (or singer or whatever) with a huge draw? You don't have to be good to have a following. You just have to create some reason for people to come and see you, and it doesn't necessarily have to have anything to do with your music. I certainly remember one band with a coke-dealer guitarist... that band always had a big crowd of jittery, red-eyed, sniffly-nosed "fans" at shows.

Eric you've probably noticed that that stuff happens in some of the bars in our neck of the woods. We've been passed over at places for bands that sound like shite but have a lot of family and friends and will fill up a bar. To a lot of bar owners we aren't being hired to entertain but to pimp our following into their establishment. A couple of times our drummer who does much of the booking has been asked by bar owners how big our mailing list is as opposed to asking for a CD. Oh well, such are the ways of a crappy economy.

Hey Bandit Boyz, welcome to the LowDown!

If you're interested in the Flint gigs I don't know if they are still on-going, as the ad I read was back in September of 2008.

Keep your eye out, pass out some promo kits, and network with local musicians to see what's available in Flint nowadays.

Yep, all too true. Let's face it folks, bar owners hire bands to help them sell their booze and snacks, not to give the bands a place to get rich & famous. Employers hire employees to make money for them, not to have a place to spend their money. As much as any of us would love to be paid for showing up someplace and doing what we like regardless of whether it brings in bux or not, it just doesn't happen. It's the reality of living and working in this world.

And in a place as hard hit economically as Flint, bar owners as more desperate to hire someone who will make them money than the average. As much drinking as is probably going on there right now, it cost a lot less to get drunk at home in front of the TV than in a bar. Can you blame them for expecting a band to bring them customers? If I was in their position, I'd demand it.

There was a time when a cheesy band of high schoolers playing in a garage could draw a crowd. A competent band, not even a great band, could draw a crowd into a bar by just showing up and playing. Those days are probably gone forever. There are too many other entertainment options competing with them now. Even a great band might not be able to draw a crowd on the strength of their playing alone. That means only the bands that have their business act together are going to make money.

Whatever you do for a living, you have to show a potential employer that you will make him money rather than cost him money if to want to get hired. The people who get where they want to are good at it, the folks who don't aren't. Making it in music or anything else is not about luck, it is about learning what to do and working hard at it.