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Ted Gioia's avatar

I don't know the name of the venue. And I didn't want to turn this into the public shaming of a business. My goal is to highlight the fact that musicians deal with these situations all the time—in some ways, this is the new normal. (In fact, within five minutes of publishing this, somebody emailed me an even worse example of exploitative terms.)

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Dominic Haigh's avatar

I have played around the San Francisco Bay Area for about 20 years, and I have seen a few venues with similar. In general, if the first question from a booker at a new venue to us is "What's your draw?" I look for gigs elsewhere. I have tried explaining why this was wrong-headed a couple of times, but I think unsuccessfully. The essence of my argument is that venues succeed by being places that their guests learn to trust for their booking acumen. The band most likely to sign up to this kind of commitment is one that plays once or twice a year, doesn't care about the money, and can persuade their friends, family and work colleagues to attend. Since they don't play out much they are probably not that good, and anyone not in their group of friends will not be impressed and not return to the venue. Also, that band's group of friends will likely not come to the venue again. What makes a venue successful is the steady building of a base of people who like the place, trust their booking skills, and return regularly.

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