Hi SeanM. What you describe isn't the situation I had in mind; where I come from, you have to pay an application fee when you apply to enter a university program (as opposed to entering a specific class), and it isn't refundable if you don't get accepted or you decide not to enroll. So it would be a truer analogy to an audition fee.

Thanks for sharing your viewpoint, musicmic.

Hi M.Ted. I realize that it wasn't obvious which "this thing" Willie-o was talking about; I was just clarifying it FYI. In regards to the cable TV thing, I had another look at the poster and noticed the curious statement that "you don't need to bring your instruments to the audition/workshop." This confirms my suspicion that they're taking anyone who's committed enough to pay the entry fee and show up for the advance gathering. So I think your vanity publisher analogy is very to the point.

I don't think I would ever want to work with a vanity publisher, but I think it's a valid way of doing things for the people who want to do it that way - there may be shady vanity publishers, but nothing inherently shady about the business. In the same way, if there are people willing to buy air time for their music and people willing to sell it, I figure that's fair enough - I just don't want to do it myself.

Having said that, I'm feeling like a wimp right now cause I just had a chat with the organizer and allowed her to continue believing that the only reason I wasn't participating in this thing is that I'm moving town...

Marion