Upon receiving a spam from this event, requesting that I apply via Sonic_ _ _ _, I offered the following. vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv Hi C_ _, Thanks for the note and your kind consideration in sending me this info about the R_ _G_ _ _ _ _ _ Festival. I like that you mentioned the fact that this is a free, no cover charge event to attend. I believe in that concept and have offered my music freely on many occasions to benefit others. As a musical artist/songwriter struggling to gain notice for my efforts, I can't help but wonder why, if this event is free to attend, why can't it also be free for musician's who wish to apply to perform at it? Why is there a fee attached to my application to play at this event? This is a disturbing new trend, that I've seen happening more and more at events across the US. They want musicians to pay to apply to perform with no guarantee of any opportunity being offered in return, whatsoever. There is never even an offer to return the application fees to those who are not selected to perform at these events. Event organizers have found yet another means to profit. Now, it's on the backs of those hoping for recognition and networking opportunities via their musical pursuits. Here's what I think would be much more fair, to those of us who already earn far too little via our efforts. How about having the folks at the R_ _G_ _ _ _ _ _ Festival return our application fee if we don't get booked for this event? So, they get to keep our money if we do get a spot in the lineup but if we don't get booked we get our application fee reimbursed. Because, here's the way it looks to me. There are only so many spots on the bill. I don't know what that number is. Say it's 10. There may be more but there may in fact only be 10 good showcases. I don't really know. I merely use this simple number to illustrate my point. Now, perhaps the selection committee already has a few ideas about who they want to fill those stage slots and they pass their requests directly onto their previously chosen hopefuls. Then, once they receive whatever confirmations are answered, there may only be a few spaces left over. They then advertise across the planet, via the web, for applicants and perhaps get a thousand or more who apply for what in reality is only a small handful of chances to participate. What happens, of course, is the event ends up with a lot of extra money, perhaps thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars. It all depends upon how many they can get to bite their bait and pay to apply for the event. They cull this wealth largely from all those applicants that they had no intention of inviting in the first place. Meanwhile, those not selected, that were hoping for a chance to play at the event, are now just that much poorer and feeling that much less about themselves due to their inability to get invited. If these applicants were to at least get their money returned, when they were notified that they were not selected to perform at the event, they wouldn't feel so sucker punched via their efforts. I think this method of seeking applicants is leaving a bad taste in the mouths of a lot of potential players seeking opportunities and may well come back to bite those who practice this avaricious methodology. Is this event and it's organizers transparent, regarding how much money it actually reaps via it's campaign to attract applicants? Does it offer real numbers regarding how many apply and how many are actually invited to perform there? If so, I ,for one, would like to know what those numbers are. Publishing those numbers, along with their advertising for applicants, would at least allow those who apply to know what kind of lottery they're actually getting involved with before they fork over their hard earned cash. I imagine, like the fees being charged for the, so called, songwriting contests that are now so plentiful, the profits from this kind of exploitation of musical hopefuls is handsome. Otherwise, there wouldn't be so many others willing to follow this same pattern of charging players to apply to play. Personally, I find the idea rather distasteful that there are so many that are so willing to take advantage of others in this way. I hope that my thoughts about this issue will perhaps at least spark some kind of dialog that might eventually result in the reversal of this current trend of exploitation. Surely, with all of the many wonderful new tools at our disposal today, we can find leaders in our field with vision enough to offer us all a better means to help everyone gain more success via their pursuits without resorting to the practice of predation. Sincerely, Reggie Miles vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv Let's not paint this sad picture with a false brush. This method of reaping vast amounts of cash, for doing nothing, is greed, plain and simple. That's why so many events have jumped on the bandwagon. The event gets to share in the profits raised via this scam. It's a shame, that so many here are trying to justify it. This is the industry, once again, using the web to scheme and scam as much money as they can, before the roof caves in and someone sues the pants off of them for being thieves. They, no doubt, have taken their business plan directly from some visit to a casino and merely expanded upon the concept using spam emails to ensnare who they can in their cyber slot machine. I would gladly pay an agent or manager their percentage to work at securing me 'real' opportunities to perform, rather than offer these hucksters a dime. Oh and btw, the person from the above email never responded to my note. Of course, I didn't really expect them to do so. Who wants to openly discuss the fact that they're lettin' their greed show. Let me pose this question to all interested in this thread. How did festivals get along before Sb? It seems to me, that there were plenty of events, that managed to feature a wonderful array of talented artists, before this Sb method of robbing from the poor was enacted.
|