Murdering The Arts: Pay 2 Play & Consumerism

            

Gorilla Music, a booking company, most known for P2P methods (Courtesy of eagleoneentertainment.com)

Playing music professionally, and living the “rockstar” life is a lifestyle mused by those young and old. However, as a musician myself, I, too, understand that our lives are made to be absurdly difficult. Is it the venue’s fault? Is it the audience’s fault? Is it the company’s fault? Could it just be the musician’s fault? No matter whose fault it is, these issues are killing people’s wants and wishes to use their imagination, are why many of those who are musically-inclined are deathly afraid of pursuing a professional career in music, and are why artists are forced to break their backs for pocket change. Moreso, because of all the “finger-pointing” that occurs, this causes many inconsistencies that make the road to success excruciatingly longer, more difficult, and bumpier than necessary. The truth is that many people wonder “why can’t you just follow this one simple solution”, when there is no single solution. Firstly, an artist’s life is so difficult because artists are either looked at as consumers for someone’s business, or unrealistic people who need to grow up and “get a real job”. Secondly, people all have various tastes in art, therefore limiting the artist’s potential audience, and forcing artists to be told over and over again that that their genre of art will never sell, as not everyone is open-minded enough to appreciate all forms of art. Simply put, these issues must be extrapolated, explained, and hopefully become more of aware of, as far too many people and industries deny how negative their influence is, and how difficult achieving a solution would be.

            

Many up and coming musicians dream of playing huge venues, lined with bright neon lights, crystal clear sound, plenty of space to walk around on the stage, and of course, an ocean of people, swaying like angry waves across the entire area of the floor. Everything about this vivid experience seems perfect and seemingly attainable, with a bit of work, but all of the complications tend to be swept behind its euphoric silver lining. For instance, an overwhelming number of venues could care less about the musicians that play there. As long as they get their money at the end of the night, they are completely satisfied. This attitude, unfortunately, is a swift killer of local talent.

        A common mechanism that they use is called “Pay to Play (P2P)”. In the “Do-It-Yourself (DIY)” scene, as many musicians call it, this mechanism is protested via info websites, Facebook groups, and various news articles. Nothingbutassholes.com defines it as “a growing trend, where venue owners charge an up-front fee to performing artists for the use of their facilities. It has become common in many U.S cities at low-turnout all-ages shows where performers are required to guarantee a minimum attendance through pre-show ticket sales”. The overall issue with Pay-To-Play is that being a musician is expensive enough, without having to spend $300 up front, and usually not being able to make that much back. Imagine paying a venue $300 to be able to play, under the condition that 50 tickets are sold for $6 each. Many artists that art first starting out have trouble finding 50 people who have enough money, time, and interest to attend your show. Imagine that this new-coming artist could only sell 30 out of the 50 tickets. Now, not only does this artist have a bad reputation with the venue, but the artist also just lost $120. While the performing artist got the short end of the stick, the venue did not lose anything. Even if the performer were to not show up to the venue at all, the venue would not care, as they received all their money up front.

Due to the rising number of venues utilizing the P2P system, new artists are forced to play at venues that make them go bankrupt, just because they do not have enough fans who are interested and able enough to attend their show. Thus, if artists do not have enough money to fork over to the venue, artists are forced to play in their basements, and annoy their neighbors, and potentially get the police called on them. It would be nice for artists to start their career by playing at big, fancy venues, but the venue does not come with 500 people who will automatically attend their show, and more up and coming artists do not immediately have 500 people who are willing and able to attend.

Adjusting the focus of the blame, however, the venues are not the only potential culprits behind what is shooting musicians in the foot. As previously stated, most fresh artists do not immediately have 500 people who can make it to their “totally awesome” show. Unfortunately, the reality is that even as an artist matures their skills, many people do not seem to care about their art, although people are what makes the artist their money. For instance, in a survey that I conducted among people of various backgrounds, 52 out of 100 people stated that they “never” attend shows hosted by local bands. Of these 52 people, 60% of them rarely attend shows at all. When they do, they spend more than $20 on a ticket, which is a price that small venues never charge. To reiterate, an overwhelming number of people do not seem care about an artist’s music, until they become famous, or they become less "underground".

Moreover, in order to “save money”, art programs are quickly being removed from schools, because they are not considered a priority. According to Suzanne Nichols of savethearts.net, “the arts teach empathy, kindness, tolerance, patience, teamwork, and compassion. The arts are the great equalizer. You don't have to be rich or an academic scholar to be creative and gifted in the performing and visual arts, you just are. The arts keep students in school. For many children, the arts are a lifeline”. Because people consider art and music to be non-essential, many people are less likely to support it. Simply put, artists care that their audience doesn’t care about them, because in the end, the success of an artist lies in the hands of the audience.

Keeping this piece of information in mind, remember that society is currently in a digital age. Anything can be found with a few clicks and pushes of a button. “Anything” meaning that it includes, but is not limited to, music. Many music industries will go out of their way to ensure that an artist’s song does not get illegally downloaded, but in the end, free music helps the artist expose their selves to their audience. According to my survey of 100 anonymous people, 32% of the respondents stated that they “never buy music”. Accordingly, the record companies dislike the idea of audio piracy, and anything that may cause them to receive less money than they potentially could. This is essentially what happened during the 2-year long legal conflict between award-winning band “Hawthorne Heights” and their contract with record label “Victory Records”, according to a 2006 web article, from MTV.

Ultimately, due the needs of the label, the promoter, the venue, and consumers’ inabilities to support local artists, we are commonly forced into doing insensible things. Thus, quickly making a stable amount of money, and building a closely-knit fan-base are two goals, located in two opposite directions. Because the age of artists vary from pre-teens to teen ages to fully-grown adulthood, and we grow up in neighborhoods that may not have the best of options, causing musicians to succumb to Pay-to-Play, give in to whatever pop culture says is popular, or worst of all, to entirely pass up the idea of being an artist, because they believe that they will become a “starving artist”. However, because many artists, young and old, are commonly forced into “starvation” because of a lack of knowledge and support from others, I have hope that the information that I presented may help people understand that there are many forces to not be reckoned with. 

In a positive light, Noisey, a globally-popular music blog, believes that Philadelphia currently has the best punk music scene, because of how many people connect with and support each other. This being said, if there is truly a light at the end of tunnel, artists and non-artists must recognize that musicians are not as easy as they seem, given how many problems there are. Though, we can overcome. The next time you look at a musician, do not tell them to “get a real job”, and to do not tell them that they are “doing things the hard way”.  Instead, respect them for having the guts to go against the odds. Because achieving stardom as an artist is such a long race, they deserve people who will cheer from the sidelines, rather than telling them that they are running wrong.