The Culture Of Free In The Music Industry - And Why It Needs To Change

My day job, far away from music, involves working for two Local Authorities. Don't worry though, this isn't an essay on Building Regulations, (what I specialise in) although if anyone wants me to write one for them I can - feel free to get in contact to discuss.

When I want to go for a swim in one of my employers leisure centres I pay an entry fee the same as anyone else. When the bin men collect my rubbish, they do it because it’s funded through the Council Tax I pay, just like everyone else. I don’t ask the Council to collect it for free just because I work for the same Council. My employers pays me fairly and reasonably. I’m valued as an employee to do good professional work of a certain quality.

Now let’s take a look at the music industry. Compared with the sort of professional environment I work in it is frankly a bit of a disaster. There’s a certain culture of entitlement ingrained within the industry that expects certain things for free. And for those who want to sustain a career in the music industry, that’s not healthy or helpful.

Here’s just a couple of examples of where I believe a change of mindset is required:

The Guest List

I recently spoke to someone from a record label who told me that she only ever went to gigs that she was on the guest list for. She hadn’t purchased a ticket for years. What was worse, she seemed proud of this fact, telling me that she wouldn’t go to a show if she had to pay because she couldn’t afford it.  It would be like me turning up to my local swimming pool and insisting that I got in for free just because I worked for the same organisation. Unsurprisingly, if that actually happened the outcome would be that the pool would have to put its prices up to subsidise all the freeloading employees. Of course guest lists for most gigs are relatively small, but it has an impact on ticket prices for others which isn't good for business.

Edit: 18.25pm 3/10/2016 Following a number of comments on Twitter, some private emails and one below in the comments section I would like to make it clear that I am not against the guest list 100%. What I am against is people gaining free entry to something because of some loose connection they have to it. I wrote about this issue in the past when I helped run a small independent festival (see here) where a significant number of people tried to blag their way in for nothing purely because they claimed to know the band. If you are working during the gig (writing a review, you are the band's manager etc) then yes of course you should be able to have the opportunity to arrange (in advance) to attend the gig for free. But if you just happen to work in the music industry and know somebody who knows the band, that's not really a good reason to be on the guest list. 

Festivals That Don’t Pay Performers / Websites That Don’t Pay Writers

In giving this example I exclude any not for profit events and charity festivals.

Earlier this year in my home city of Portsmouth 100,000 punters were reported to have attended the ever growing Victorious Festival over two days. It was a fantastic show -a bargain as well. And that’s part of the problem.

Early bird tickets were just £20 a day to see the likes of Noel Gallagher, Manic Street Preachers, Public Service Broadcasting, Annie Mac and Mark Ronson performing. Also on the bill were over 100 local acts. The information I have is that virtually none of them were offered payment other than a ticket for both days of the festival.

Of course playing the festival meant that the bands get exposure for their work (the lazy argument now used by anyone trying to get somebody to do something for nothing and then benefitting themselves), an ego boost by saying they were playing a big festival, and each act did get free tickets for both days of the festival, not just the one they were playing. But there’s a huge invisible downside. In Portsmouth many local venues not associated with the festival are struggling. The Cellars, a small intimate space that put on early shows by the likes of Mumford & Sons and Gabrielle Aplin fairly recently closed its doors for the final time. The Wedgewood Rooms – Portsmouth’s most established and loved venue, a place that saw early shows by the likes of Oasis, The Stokes and The Killers  faces a constant battle. Of course there are lots of reasons for this, and not all of them can be attributed to a big festival that runs for one weekend of the year; but when you have a large festival on a venue’s doorstep charging not much more than the price of a typical gig ticket for a national touring band at the venue, it doesn’t take a mathematician to guess where the punter is more likely to spend their money. Of course you can argue ‘well that’s business’, but it’s a short sighted business that devalues the local music economy.

If venues shut because of poor ticket sales and part of that reason is that punters would rather attend one cheap festival than a number of smaller gigs, the impact will be huge. Where will the bands who grow to be future festival headliners cut their teeth and get the opportunity to get better and better at playing live than in professionally run music venues like The Wedgewood Rooms and The Cellars?

A flourishing local music scene will benefit everyone in the supply chain – right up to the big festivals – who will need new fresh headliners for the future. But unless those musicians are paid properly – which will enable them to invest that money into recording time, promotion, travel, equipment etc they won’t be able to develop their music. A bargain ticket might look great for the punter, but it’s a potentially short sighted concept.

Simple solution? Increase ticket prices. Pay all performers. Invest money back into the local gig economy and the quality will improve throughout – which is better for the punter's overall experience of live music.

Of course its not only musicians. A number of times I’ve been approached by website owners and music publications  and have been asked to write something for them. 90% of the time my response is ‘no’. Why? Because if what I am doing is work, then I should be paid fairly. Now of course there are many ‘hobby’ websites that don’t earn money and for those sites I will take a different approach. It’s like being asked to referee an amateur 5 a side football match. I wouldn’t expect to be paid for that. But if a professional team asked me to referee, then payment should be on the table. And if a professional puts forward the argument they can’t afford to pay  but it would be great experience / exposure for me to work for them, then I’d politely suggest that they need to revisit how they are financing and running their operation, because if they don’t value the people who work for them, then I don’t want to be part of what they do. Of course payment doesn't always have to be money - there are other ways to pay someone - but doing work for 'exposure' isn't one of them. There's already way too many people swimming in the sea of exposure and most of them are drowning without even a lifeguard to spot them.

The Rider (Edited 18:37 3/10/2016)

This piece has been removed following discussion with a number of industry professionals on Twitter and by email today. This article is titled 'The Culture Of Free In The Music Industry And Why It Needs To Change.' My original rather muddled discussion on riders therefore did not really fit into a discussion on the culture of free and so I have deleted it to be revisited at some further point. 

Further Edit (22:35 3/10/2016)

I'm still getting a lot of traffic to this post, so for anyone just discovering it may I also recommend a read of this fiery piece from Andy Inglis on The Quietus which is in connection with saving independent venues but has lots of relevance to this article (especially guest lists) which he describes as "a malignant tumour on the lactating breast of live music." Thanks to Roberta from the band Curxes from pointing me towards the piece. Read the article here.