After being in music for 20 years and in that 20 years playing hundreds of shows in dozens of cities across the country I have a theory and explanation on the idea of the show promoter/scammer.
Yes, those promoters are scammers and everyone in the music ecosystem is at fault for the promoter/scammer even existing. Below is the evolution of this ecosystem I’ve noticed over time in 4 parts
Venues, Artists, Promoters, Fans:
1. Venues, at some point and for whatever reason, started trying to be all things to all people. It’s rare you find a smaller venue known for a certain style of music in this era. One night is rock the next is hip hop the next is a damn book club. Sure it keeps a fresh flow of people every night in theory but you can’t build a base as a venue that way. I can remember most reputable smaller venues were known as the spot to hear a certain type of music but the scales have tipped in the other direction and with rising expenses, the venues now charge most acts a “room fee” which even just 10 years ago was a weird thing. That’s the first factor.
2. Artists became fame hungry. Blame whatever ya want on this “fame first” attitude but for most artists (and I was one of them) any opportunity to get on stage they bend over and take (sidebar: This is one of the things the “scammer” thrives on). Over time I saw promoters go from virtually unreachable to hitting up every artist they can find so they can charge them just to get on stage for 15 minutes and guess what? A lot of acts will do it.
On the other side, I booked my fair share of corporate events and festivals from 2008–2017 and I noticed the older bands I’ve booked for these work on a completely different paradigm than the newer acts. These are bands that toured through the 90s and even the early 2000s and they’re not playing for fame. They’re playing for a check and they base their value on their ability to play for x amount of time and their musicianship. For older bands used to playing in genre specific clubs THAT is what mattered. Because even in the early 2000s, the crowd would already be there because the venue had a reputation within its niche. At that point it wasn’t a matter of who could pay to play, you had to prove to the venue and their audience you were actually good enough to be on stage. But since most venues aren’t in any kind of niche anymore and the fans now bounce around from club to club to see newer acts on a given night, this left the artist (in part) having to play a new role as a promoter. This became the 2nd issue.
3. Promoters for the most part in my experience up until the 2010s had agreements, usually exclusive ones, with clubs. In a lot of cases they worked for the venue not as a stand alone entity that could book a show in one venue one week and another in a different venue down the street the next week. This was true even for DJ night promoters, most promotion teams would work a spot for 6 months to a year promoting a series of events within a given genre. But when venues opted for ubiquity over niche and more artists sought to be famous over being working musicians, it created a space where the rogue shady promoters who were once an anomaly, could step in and flourish. Now, instead of working to build a base for a venue over time, all they have to do is overpay (because they don’t know any better) to get a hot name to come to town, charge acts to perform, make a facebook event page and voila! They’re a promoter now. Which is our 3rd issue.
4. The fans of the music don’t help especially with hip hop. Even though touring has become more popular for artists to make a living — I know this first hand as I was one, the fans would rather go to a DJ night with drink specials and listen to essentially a really loud radio station playlist then go support emerging live acts at the bar down the street. And then you can start this scenario right back at #1 with the venues.
So you could argue these promoters aren’t scammers but they aren’t really promoters. But when you really look at it, everyone in the music ecosystem ain’t really who they should be either.
“Music venues” are essentially rental halls with good sound.
“Artists” are more worried about selling tickets than actually being able to put on a strong performance. They are now the de facto promoters.
“Promoters” are just middle men trying to take advantage of situations 1 and 2.
And the “fans” aren’t fans they’re people who just like music and alcohol.
Add in that with the rise of streaming we have the rise of the “music consumer” and according to some music biz academics — the fall of the hardcore music fan. This new ecosystem would make sense as to why it’s hard to build an actual fan base of even just 1,000 people even if you have 30 million streams.
The labels are winning, the scammer/promoter and the venues are winning, the artists not as much.