Why the hell don't bands club together and buy/rent a venue, share the and cut out the middle men?

thecolourbox

I could see the attraction of a portable magnetic field maybe

Caffeine_Vampire

joeW said:

I have 2 portable fields … was thinking of letting one go. Would post photos but Imgur is fooked- DM me for more info.  

Trade for a soundproofed tool shed?

Caffeine_Vampire

thecolourbox said:

I could see the attraction of a portable magnetic field maybe

You always have to complicate things... are you my wife?

thecolourbox

Caffeine_Vampire said:

thecolourbox said:

I could see the attraction of a portable magnetic field maybe

You always have to complicate things... are you my wife?

Not yet, no

louis_LLM

Danny1969 said:

I think I've told the story about how I had the wonderful idea to build and run a large recording studio in Portsmouth .. which lost about 100K in 5 years .... 
Well I don't see a normal music venue doing much different. 

However there is a wonderful place in Portsmouth called Casemates, which is a complex of  10 or so rehearsal rooms, a small recording studio and a licenced bar / cafe that hosts live music of some kind most nights and on Sunday afternoons. That's an example of a muso ecosystem that puts money into a venue (via rehearsal cost and buying food and beer) and gets paid a little back when performing live. 

There's a few of us on here I know use it but for those who don't and live near enough 

https://casemates.co.uk/

Casemates brings great memories back for me from my student days, used to rehearse there a few times a month and was my first foray into serious rehearsals, always a very friendly place to go and they were always helpful, glad to see they’re still going!

mike257

Back in my youth playing in an aspiring young band, we used to draw enough locally that we'd rent the venue and act as promoters ourselves, book the support bands etc, and use the proceeds to fund us playing in places further from home where nobody gave enough of a shit about us for the gigs to be profitable

NelsonP

I'm thinking that as people become increasingly disconnected from one another, because technology, we will actively seek out real experiences with other human beings.

Live music is one of those experiences. It moves us in ways that sitting in front of a screen can't. I love the idea of a studio and venue infrastructure, maybe the odd Jim Marshall style shop thrown in, lots of young aspiring musicians having out and creating a 'scene', performing live and really learning how to perform.

Or, does our future lay in AI created muzak pastiches of what has gone before?

And if you are in the former camp, build on that idea and tell me what you'd like it to be. And if anyone knows how to make that a viable business, rather than just a passion project, I'm all ears.

west

If you build it , they still wont come ... (any more ) 

newi123

Our local venue (very profitable) was recently for sale - thought about it for about a day, then realised I didn't want a 60hr a week job, particularly dealing with pissed up youngsters at 3am o  a Wed morning.........

Ive done gigs / promotion renting g venues before to take the ticket money. You just need to be pretty certain your band has a following to break even!

Blueingreen

Maybe this isn't what's meant but I have often done the rent a venue, put your band on, keep the ticket sales thing.  In fact we did one last week.  It usually works reasonably well, although not spectacularly - I can't remember ever making serious money.  Around £1,500 maybe the most.  

If you use a pub with a function room they will quite often let you have the room cheap or free if you guarantee a certain amount of people and they get the bar takings.  Some venues will provide more - some have PAs and can even provide a sound engineer, usually for a fee, and some will handle ticket sales and ticket collection, again usually for a fee or percentage of the takings. At the other extreme the venue just provides the room - the band hire a pa, sound guy, use one of the ticketing companies like Eventbrite (so people can pay by credit card, although getting a card reader is another option) and usually have friends collecting tickets at the door.  

The main downside is that the band bears almost all the risk of poor ticket sales - you will usually have most of the responsibility for marketing although the venue might also publicise the event.  You could fail to cover your costs and play a morale-sapping gig to a half-empty room. Fortunately that hasn't happened to me but there's been a few nervy times waiting to see how many turn up on the night, especially when weather is very bad.  The plus side is that everybody who's there has paid for a ticket to see your band, so you're pretty much guaranteed a positive crowd and good atmosphere.