Pay-To-Play Concerts Find a New Angle in Crowdsourcing

Pay-to-play bookings are a common scheme among less reputable venues and a certain very cynical breed of concert promoter. A common version works like this: some band, a cheap but "real" out of town band with some vague name recognition, is booked to headline a show, along with a preposterous number of local openers, a half-dozen or more These openers weren't curated based on talent or fanbase so much as willingness to engage in an arrangement in which they the band purchase a certain number of tickets to their own show to sell—to their friends, "fans," or, most likely, parents. The unsold balance is simply tough shit for the band, who already paid for the tickets, and simply more undifferentiated income for the promoter/venue.

So, you can see how the above set-up is basically just the bands paying money for the privilege of playing a real-seeming show, with the cheap headliner lending some undue legitimacy. (Though a lower tier of this set-up exists wherin the show is entirely pay-to-play bands.) If you ever see an all-ages concert listing involving like 8 bands you've never heard of and a five o'clock start time, it's likely to be one of these shows. And, if you ever unwittingly attend such a concert, perhaps for the cheap headliner, and the doorperson asks which band you're there to see, that's another pay-to-play red flag.

Now in the Kickstarter age, sketchy bookers have discovered a whole new, even more advantageous variation on the scheme: "crowdsourced" bookings. By this I don’t mean a bunch of people getting money together to cover the required guarantee in booking their favorite band. That would seem to be the core essence of Rabbl—fans in different cities preorder tickets to hypothetical concerts, with the city registering the most sales "winning" a concert—but as implemented by a Washington DC venue, the Pinch, it hews much closer to the dominant pay-to-play model.

The preorders for the Pinch's Rabbl-based summer concert series are not for touring bands that fans want to see booked in their hometown, but for the bands that might open for the relatively known bands the venue has already booked. Basically, the venue, via Rabbl, lists a bunch of local bands and, "the local bands that get the most fans to pre-order tickets through the website will get to play a show," the Washington Post reports. "Once the winners are announced, their supporters’ credit cards will be charged." It has the cloak of legitimacy and in the comments of the Post story Rabbl's co-founder says it's really the opposite of pay-to-play, but just under the surface it remains an arrangement in which money is exchanged for the opportunity to play a show. And, if somewhat more indirectly, it’s still bands selling tickets to their own concert, only vaguely disguised as self-promotion.

Said co-founder, Erik Needham, told the Post, “We’re looking to find a bunch of cool local bands who maybe haven’t played out that much yet.” That’s a pretty icky way to sell it: “gauging local interest.” It’s the same argument that promoters of the above more-traditional model use, that it’s just a way of matching interest with receipts. But, really, it remains kids from the suburbs hustling their friends and/or parents in exchange for a half-hour on a stage, any stage.

If searching out exciting but underexposed (yet popular?) bands was the intention, a less gross alternative seems pretty near at hand. How about, instead of having some mythical pool of fans prepay to see a local opener, having fans that prepay for the headliner vote for the opener based on music samples (maybe with band names hidden until after the votes are tallied)? That seems reasonable, and would make the whole Rabbl thing less suspect. But, of course, it leaves a revenue stream untapped.

Otherwise, here’s the thing: there are real, genuine roads to getting shows. Every city from Dallas to DC has a collection of underground communities that exist to support musicians of all kinds. Somewhere, there’s a basement full of people actually interested in hearing and supporting your band, whether or not it’s “cool” enough (or having-rich-parents enough) to presell a bunch of tickets. Conversely, no band ever in the history of bands has gotten somewhere meaningful by starting off playing concerts that it essentially rented space at. Those are the dudes that go on to study business administration in college and forget how to play guitar. Just go find your scene. I promise it exists.