A musician friend recently emailed me that he thought Open Stages and Jam Sessions were bad for working players, because it encouraged the venue owners to think they could get entertainment for free. A number of responses from other players finally encouraged me to write this:
The clearest analysis of this problem can be done using a basic business model: musical acts are independent businesses, selling entertainment. A couple of the most important factors in marketing that entertainment is the age of the customers (audience) and the style of the music being presented, which generally have to match up. Competence running to virtuosity count but are less important.
Venue owners who are selling something other than their space, i.e., restaurants and bars rather than auditoriums and rental halls, have to determine if the price they pay for the entertainment offers an adequate ROI (Return On Investment). From the point of view of such owners, entertainment must either bring in customers and/or keep the customers there, consuming whatever the venue owners is selling, be it alcohol, food or ambiance. If the entertainment doesn’t do that, then the venue owner should not be buying it.
Louisville, though a relatively small town, has a glut of performers, meaning that entertainment is a buyer’s market, which drives also prices down. It is my experience that there are acts that get paid regularly, because they bring in and keep an audience. (Kimmet and Doug, Nervous Melvin, the Merry Pranksters, 99MPH) These are acts that are routinely and scathingly derided as “nothing but cover bands” by other musicians. They get paid, however, indicating that they have a better idea of what their audience wants and who that audience is. They entertain that audience. These acts will not be replaced by an open stage or jam session unless they stop drawing and keeping a crowd, regardless of the fact that the open stage or jam session is much cheaper to book. They will be replaced by another band in that case.
Therefore, if a venue replaces ‘paid’ acts with an open stage, that indicates that those acts, at that venue, on that night, does not draw a sufficient crowd to earn an adequate ROI.
Venue owners do not have an obligation to provide paid work for musicians, however, much musicians wish they did. You all know that already.
In any case, most of the places that have open stages and/or jam sessions are holding them on nights when they don’t have a ‘natural’ crowd, i.e., one that would come there regardless of the acts appearing. It is likely that the venue owners have tried paid bands and have not had sufficient success with them. Some venues don’t have a natural crowd at all (Lisa’s, The Rudyard Kipling, Pour Haus/Club 21).
The question for musicians, then, is what does their audience want and will their audience come out to listen to them? For those of us in the boomer generation, the answers are “boomer songs” and “not very often.” For various niche styles (Celtic, old-time, jazz, bluegrass, classical), the potential audience is even smaller and, likely, older, hence even less likely to go out to hear live music. The younger singer/songwriters can develop a following, because they are appealing to an age group still going out (mostly to meet people of the opposite sex) and still open to new music.
We can continue to complain or we can go play and seek new followers, who are more likely to be at open stages than anywhere else. As an aside, I would also note that most open stages and jam sessions are on the nights of the week when, historically, venues seldom had any music. Sunday through Tuesday nights used to be dead, dead, dead in Louisville’s club scene.
So the upshot is that I don’t think that open stages and jams actually displace much paid music at all. Venues that stop having music do so for straightforward financial reasons related to the economy and audiences in general (or their own incompetence), which is too bad, but is really only a challenge for players who think what they have is worth someone paying them for it. What you need to do is demonstrate that you can entertainment and keep a crowd and you’ll be able get some paid work playing music.
Comments?
