Mptrax.com: a marketplace for entertainers and event organizers

Back in June, checking out some TechCrunch Pitches, I had spotted this elevator pitch for a booking service called MPtrax.com that aroused my curiosity, and just today I was browsing through this interesting post on Music Think Tank, discussing web-based fan-funding platforms for gigging bands, and I fell across a tiny link that lead me to this booking service’s promotional video.

Mptrax.com is now in beta and open to the public.

Basically this website is a place where bands sign-up to get booked by event organizers, and where event organizers sign up to book bands. Bands create a profile with all the basic stuff like bio, uploaded songs, embedded videos (etc.) in addition to their gigging requirements (how much they intend to get paid, how far they’re are willing to travel to play the gig and so on). Event organizers, who range from individuals to promoters and club owners, browse through Mptrax’s database in hopes to find signed-up bands in their area. It’s a marketplace of sorts that hopes to facilitate  the creation of gigs, events and parties.

This is one of the first web services I encounter that finally allows bands to market their gigs, but of course this will  only work if they can reach a critical mass of users.

For the bands the requirements page (requirements for a gig that is) is pretty flexible and lets event organizers make different offers to book the band. Bands can also promote their gigging availabilities through a calendar widget with a ‘Book Us’ button right next to it. You can even embed a ‘Book Us’ button in your own Youtube videos. Mptrax takes a $10 hold on your PayPal account every time you accept a gig request (and gives your money back If ever the event is off).

For the event organizers the process is pretty straightforward. You search for bands, find some you like, book them or make them an offer to try to get your event on the way. They even added a little check list for people who aren’t used to the booking process just so things run smoothly. $10 are also taken off you PayPal account once you request a band to play.

So basically Mptrax makes $20 for each event that reaches completion. Not a bad business model if they can get the right amount of traffic. Although I’m not sure venues will pick up the pace rapidly with this service, I do believe this is  a good alternative to help organize house concerts.

It’s a good idea worth checking out.  If you go to their FAQ page you’ll more then enough videos to explain exactly how it works (never had I seen so many instructional vids for a service before)

mruff!

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Derek Sivers interviews Amber Rubarth on making a living as a touring musician.

Derek Sivers (CD Baby, Muck Work etc) hosts a very (very) cool and insightful blog. If you are a musician, passionate about what you do, and plan on getting deeper into the music scene, you will want to check out http://sivers.org/blog.

I could talk about his last three posts here but instead I’ll just greatly encourage you to read them so you can let the info sink in, because most of it is gold.

The post I want to introduce to you today is the interview he gave to a young talented singer/songwriter called Amber Rubarth who started touring barely five years ago and who now is living off her music.

The interview in itself answers many questions any aspiring touring musician could ask him/herself. From “building your network by helping others” and “interning with a booking agent” to booking, promoting and contacting out-of-town venues, this tale portrays the many steps and methods Amber Rubarth followed to become successful at what she loves doing – playing music.

A very nice and refreshing read.

Check it out here.

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What’s the biggest pain of booking a gig?

I think the biggest pain is a booking guy at a club who doesn’t know how to put together a show. In my old band, which was basically incubus meets pearl jam, we were booked with so many bands that didn’t mesh with our style at all. Extreme metal, weird indie, alt-country (not too bad a match, but not too good a match, either)…

We were so often booked with bands that had mutually exclusive fanbases. Our mainstream rock sound would bore some of the more out there music fans, and the out there bands would drive away our mainstream fans. Instead of bands that can share fans and have a great show together, you get a bunch of smaller, fractured crowds that show up for the 30 or 45 minutes their band is playing and then split because the other bands on the bill don’t interest them. It’s not good for the bands and it probably isn’t ideal for the clubs, either.

Jimb213

It’s not too tough to book a gig if you have a good band to start with and can do a good show in whatever niche of the biz you happen to be gigging in, and your band has done the promo and leg work that the band should be doing. The downside is when you deal with shyster club owners who will try to screw you out of what they promised to pay, contracts not withstanding in these clown’s eyes, even if you played to a crowd that bought a whole lot of beer and other drinks to cover the venues rent for the month!

However on the balance I’ve had more good gigs than bad ones. It’s tougher for younger bands and their whatever niche market they play to, but presuming that your band practices hard to be masters of the music they play, and a willingness to work just as hard at promoting yourselves and taking care of your buisness, it should pay off eventually in terms of paying gigs.

Anonymous

I dislike the business aspect of music. I just want to show up, get paid and get laid. Too bad that’s not the real world. I guess the hardest part in booking gigs is breaking through the cliques and people barriers. There are circuits here (like everywhere) where a rotation of bands dominate the booking. Breaking into that little circle is the challenge. First you have to actually hang out at the venues, get to know the decision makers and and maybe even schmooze them a little. This is why agents were invented.

Jimmy Danger – www.myspace.com/thefarleys

No, it’s not a pain to book a gig. Put together an amazing band, practice your asses off, put on a a great show, and people will want to book you.
If anything I would say the biggest pain is waiting to get paid. It sucks when a bar doesn’t close until 4:00am and you have to wait around for the club owner to get your money.

www.myspace.com/tomcatcombat

Breaking into new cities. It sucks when you don’t have a demo CD, don’t have video of your band on stage, and every club owner in town tells you “Well, I’ll come check you out when you play somewhere in town”.

Anonymous

The biggest pain, hum that would be playing the gig! I personally love the chase trying to get the gig more than the playing. I guess I should have been a manager, but theres nothing more satisfing than getting that gig that I thought I wouldnt get. Its all in the chase.

Ha Ha, I would also say negotiating the price is a pain.

Locally we have a couple of corporate clubs, meaning that one company owns 7-8 local live music venues. These are good music clubs cause all of them feature music 3-5 nights a week. They have a lock on some bands in the area. We are playing one a couple of times simply to get at the built in audience and some of our audience has requested that we play there. But these guys have decided to cut what was already a cut rate for gigs. We are getting $300 and have to play a thursday night to get a saturday night gig the month after.

The manager told me that as one of their bands we would be on some sort of probation for 6 monthes and then at the end of that time they would probably give us a $50 a night pay raise. But the word from other bands recently in their loop is that they are cutting the pay back. I asked the manager what is top pay and he said $500. I know a couple of the better drawing bands that play there and they’ve confirmed this price. I have procured a couple of outside sponsors for gigs who I call on when we get in these situations, to supplement our pay. One is a car dealership and with his economy I’m scared I will lose his involvement before long. I don’t know how or why decent cover bands even play gigs for $300 a night. In our case we have band members coming from 3 other counties and when I add up everyone’s gas just to be there weve already burned $120.

Then they dont have a tab for the band, we have to pay full price for food and drinks, which will burn another $70-100 dollars. In the end we may clear 80-100 dollars off the bar’s pay, split 5 ways thats 20 dollars for 4 hrs of gig time, 3 hrs of getting there and setting up time, or basically 8 hrs. That means we are making around $2.50 an hour for our time.

Now as stated before in my band’s case we will make more from outside support than from the clubs support, so I’m not that worried about it. We need the club on our resume and also are trying to get their patrons to follow our band which shouldn’t be hard since all the other bands playing there kind of have a crappy attitude cause they aren’t making enough to be there.

So to answer the question again, when you are asked how much you charge, thats the crappiest part. You don’t want to lose a gig over $50 bucks but you don’t want to leave anything on the table. In my area the typical pay for a band is $400 or some give you $100 a man. Strangely we are getting calls from some really small places and they arent balking at paying $650 a night, whereas the big clubs dont want to pay.

John Wilder – www.myspace.com/aintyomama1

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A venue-promoter’s booking advice for bands

I contacted the booking personnel over at a venue called the Milkboy Coffee in Ardmore, Pennsylvania. I asked them to give their point of view on how bands should approach a venue when wanting to book a gig.

Book your own night. I love it when a band approaches me and says they’ve got this bill put together that they know will draw well. It shows that they’re willing to put some work into booking their shows and that usually translates into a good night for you and the club.

Once you’re booked promote like crazy. Get guarantees from 100 people that they will show up to your gig, that should net you 50. Use your personal networks of friends, family and neighbors and work to make this show different from the last one.

Read the club’s website and submit your materials how they want them. Some clubs want a mailed presskit. Some clubs want an epk. It may sound stupid but it amazes me how many artists waste their cds sending them to me. I’m one of the clubs that uses epks only and I literally throw cds away.Be persistent with following up and don’t get discouraged when you don’t hear back from a club. Talent buying goes in cycles and a booker will spend about 3 times as much time sorting out details of already booked shows as he/she will spend doing actual booking. That means that we’ll get to you in time. Keep your head on and repeat your correspondence as many times as it takes to get a response.

Do not play the same area more than once every 6 weeks. I know you think that people will always come to see you – and they will if you give them enough time between your gigs. There’s no place more lonely than an empty club and your reputation will suffer.

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When bands, fans and venues meet online before the show: Ourstage/Live Nation’s music marketplace

Mashable, the renowned tech/start-up blog, brought to my attention that Live Nation is now in partnership with Ourstage to help bring venues and bands together (interesting Q&A with Ourstage CEO Ben Campbell). The resulting ‘Marketplace’  proposes gig opportunities promoted by Live Nation that bands can sign up to. For those of you who don’t know Ourstage, it’s basically a ‘hot or not’ for bands, where users vote between two acts of the same musical genre. At the end of monthly contests, the most popular bands win prizes ranging from money to being featured on famous online-music stores like AOL music. For it’s part, Live Nation have been engaging in distribution, marketing and promotion deals with major artists like Shakira, U2, Madonna, Coldplay, Jay-z and Nickleback in the past months. With this new deal, Ourstage seems to be aiming to establish a presence in the indie scene.

Since the dawn of online-music, social networks have been concentrating on music and band profiles, leaving the touring industry as an untapped market for web 2.0 start-ups. The Live Nation-Ourstage venture gives a boost in that direction. Seeing how Ourstage bands must be higly ranked for Live Nation to consider booking them, I think the majority of bands won’t benefit from this feature, but this is an interesting service that uses the power of social-networks to help bands get gigs. DeepRockDrive is about the only other service I can think of that does this, but they too have a model unfit for smaller unestablished artists. These still remain exciting times for the touring musician, and another reminder that fan-validation and web 2.0 strategies are key to innovative online-music businesses.

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How some bands deal with booking agents and venue promoters (1)

I haven’t dealt much with booking agents and venue promoters, and for some reason I imagine booking agents resembling someone like that guy on the right. Anyways, I went about asking bands their experiences on the subject so I’ll leave you with two quotes on the matter. I’ll post up more of these in future topics. Please feel free to leave some insights . Mruff !

Q: Why do some bands have booking agents, while others depend on venue promoters?”

A: Some bands get paid enough to interest a booking agent. Others have to do their own booking, which means working with the venue or venue promoter. NEVER TRUST or DEPEND ON the venue promoter… he works for the venue, not you. But do politely negotiate with him to get what you want.

Q: I know venue promoters find the bands and actively promote the shows, but do some venues only work with their promoters to fill up the slots?”

A: A real promoter sets up a show, gets financing for it, books the talent, hires appropriate support (sound, lights, etc.), puts on the show, and pays the talent.

A “venue promoter” is just a booking agent for the venue.

You should always do your own promotion to the extent that you can. Posting flyers, mailing your mailing list, sending press releases to the press, are all part of this. If your cash flow supports it you might hire a publicist ($100-$250 / hr, ouch) to do some of this for you.

Most venues will do some promotion – at least to the extent of informing the local press of their schedule. But you’ll get better coverage if you do your own promotion.

Q: Should booking agents be promoting the show as well?

A: A booking agent’s job is get you gigs… but the more money you bring in, the more the booking agent gets paid, so most booking agents will do some promotion or at least give you some guidance on what to do.

Q: Whats the best way to deal with these ppl?

A: Build your business to a point where you have plenty of money for the booking agent to take a cut of and then negotiate the best contract you can (hire a music attorney to negotiate your booking contract – if you’re making enough to benefit from an agent you won’t have any problem affording the attorney)

David Smith- an acquaintance from the SonicBids website.

My groups always worked through agents…some were amazing…some sucked. My main guy ended up as a Las Vegas show booker working with the William Morris Agency out of L.A. – he’s a Chartered Accountant from Montreal by trade and last time we spoke he had become the Business Manager for Natalie Cole.
I worked with one agent who booked us into a hotel gig in Cleveland and then we ended up driving approx 1,500 km to Northern Ontario for the next venue. Or like being not booked for 3 weeks due to all talk – no action. I busted one Manager through the New York Musicians’ Union for attempting to defraud the group with personal and living expenses which he claimed were to promote my band. He’s known locally and elsewhere so I won’t mention names. Like if you’re going to screw me at least ask me to dance first…
Don’t even get me started on the dumb-ass club owners – many of them still don’t have the good business sense to put it in the Mirror, Hour, Gazette or whatever the local rag is anywhere.
Bartholomew – www.myspace.com/bartholomew3

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Why it’s hard for bands to get fans to come back to their shows

“Because of a phenomenon in business called saturation of market. It happens the same way to the guy selling fish or oranges up and down the street. People in a small demographic area can only eat fish so often. The answer is multifaceted. Change or better still diversity must be instilled. Example: If you play country in the coffee shop, your fan base comes and becomes saturated. You rotate out of the demographic area by playing elsewhere or not playing at all and your friend who plays folk or rock plays that region / coffee shop. Street vendors have known since the dark ages to rotate goods or areas with other vendors. Seek out three or four other musicians of variety in your area whom are interested in doing a cooperative you might even use a magician or other form of entertainment. Work those small venues as a group. You may find you have more work than you can handle”.
(Noisy Kung-Fu – www.myspace.com/noisykungfu)

“Unless you have two or three hundred very close friends who are wild about you, you’re going to have these problems for a long time. Part of the problem is that the economy is bad, so people aren’t going out as much. ($3+/drink vs $3+/gal of gas…sheesh! While I only have a few drinks, I use a LOT of gas!) Add to that our current over-policing with an emphasis on “zero tolerance” for everything from DUI’s to people just trying to have a good time & gather together. Add to that the competition with karaoke & DJ’s.Top it off with bar owner apathy & refusal to advertise anywhere except their marquees (if they even HAVE a marquee).The end result is a huge problem for a band trying to get started. Stop playing bars. Go with venues where the audience is guaranteed, like town festivals, fairs, company picnics, weddings etc. You’ll sell more CD’s & T-shirts, & possibly get to the point that you DO have a loyal following who would like to see you in a bar sometime. You may have fewer gigs overall, but at least the people will be there. Or, you could find a really good manager &/or agent. Never tried that, myself, but I’ve heard it can give good results, with the right person/agency. Good luck. We’re all in the same boat on this issue”.
(Monkey Wench – www.bandmix.com/philbymon)

“I used to book our band for the door at clubs. I would then line up 2-3 other new bands to get on the bill with us and charge their fans and keep the money. Hopefully some of the bands fans will rub off and stay with you. It takes 2-3 years to build up a consistent fan base. Your group name has to get familiar. Our name did and we eventually were just payed to play to whoever showed up, which thankfully for a couple of years we did draw well. The only problem was that we started off original and then started adding our fans favorite cover songs to the sets, over time we became a cover band and thats all we were known for. If you cant keep people coming more than 1 or 2 times you might need to evaluate your material and maybe tweak it to suit the crowd. We used to come up with little contest to spice up the night, you know loudest (drunk) table, best(biggest hooters) looking gal, anything to get the audience involved in what you are doing. Somehow you have to make yourself an event that people just cant stand to miss. When we ran the door we would let unescorted women in free, this would in turn bring in more guys. Remember the customer is king and really doesn’t owe you anything, don’t piss them off in any way”.
(Jw123 – www.bandmix.com/jw123)

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What bands should know about playing in clubs (1)

“I’ve been in a number of bands in the Chicago area through the last 12 years, and I’ve played a lot of clubs and had both great and not so great experiences.

But from the small cafes to the Metro and Double Door, one thing will always be true: Venues are in it for the money. They are businesses. That’s what they do. Undoubtedly, there are places with people who run them who genuinely care about the music and the musicians, and who will treat you fair and treat you well. But the chances that you’ll run into a straight ahead business mindset are far greater.

The key to playing the bars and scene in Chicago is to make your expectations realistic. Any venue in the city is just that. A space. But it’s a space that is just as easy to use to your advantage as it is for them to use you.

Playing The Elbo Room on a Tuesday night at 11pm is not going to make you a star. It probably won’t even make you $50. But if you know that before you play, and you go in wanting to play a show and rock out anyway, you’re going to have a good time.

I’ve played the Elbo Room and The Wise Fool’s and Lilly’s and a host of other bars to audiences of 75+ and audiences of less than ten. And I’ve never had a bad experience, because I knew what I was getting myself into.

I wish I could make music for a living, and I admire anyone who can. But we’re not going to make money from these bars and clubs. And badmouthing them isn’t going to change much of anything – because we’ve been doing it for at least ten years. I wonder how many fewer posts there would be on this board if we all just realized that smaller clubs and bars in this city are pretty much just here to give us experience rather than money?

On any given night, I’ve likely made more money through merchandise and CD sales than through collecting a door cover that might or might not be accurate or even available, depending on how many people said they were there to see me.

So use these venues to your advantage. Have a great live rehearsal. Make a handful of new fans. Sell a t-shirt. Flirt with the bartenders. Just don’t expect that you’ll get paid what you think you’re worth. Because we never do“.

(Jeff Brown, www.myspace.com/jeffbrownrocks, www.reverbnation.com/jbxl3)

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Why bands should not (or actually should) have similar names

There used to be a Christian singer/songwriter with a name VERY Similar to mine and one time I got hired to sing a “Sunday in the park” kinda gig in Saskatchewan. The organizers had THOUGHT they had hired the Christian singer songwriter but they had accidentally hired ME. My songs contain lyrics like “just a piece of hash on a hot knife plate” and “you hurt me and burn me with such precise care” and references to heroin addiction and rape, etc. you know, my typical cheerful tunes, definitely NOT Christian. After 2 songs, they kicked me off the stage, (payed me in full though, got to hand it to the bible thumpers, they ARE honest, haha) and sent me away. I was happy, got home two hours earlier than I had planned. I had been playing festivals all weekend so to go home early sunday was a blessing in diguise (excuse the pun) so, all you organizers out there, make sure you hire who you think you hire!

My little anectdote for my little gig doggies

.

Arlette Wolfgirl – www.myspace.com/arlettemusic

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How some bands deal with club owners

If you’re interest in how bands deal with club owners, you might also wanna take a look at:

• How not to get your band booked
• What bands should know about playing in clubs

Dealing with club owners: your best bet is to put a cd together with about 3-4 of your best songs, go and talk directly to the bar owner…don’t bull shit them at all…remember, they deal with musicians all the time. Don’t be cocky, but be confident, this will help you get your foot in the door, also, if you can play the same place twice, there will surely be people who remember you and word gets out“.
Gunner – www.myspace.com/guitargunn

Club owners are always looking for someone to bring in a crowd, they sell more drinks, that’s thier bread & butter.
I only take the door. They can keep all alcohol sales. They like to hear that.
A simple contract always gets signed, 3-4 things on it only, you get the door, they keep all bar money, your sales are yours, ect. Some don’t want to sign a contract. You play at your own risk without it“.
Cowboy Elvis – www.myspace.com/cowboyelvis

Although I’ve tried for a long time to get gigs in clubs, it’s been very difficult. Maybe because we are mostly a duo and clubs like dance bands. But we’ve tried restaurants too. Seems that restaurants have a rotation of bands that play regularly. It’s hard to break into that rotation. We haven’t yet succeeded. We have to leave press kits and cd’s but can never seem to catch the owner in order to actually book a gig. They will not call you ever. They have their choice of bands – they’re not looking for more or for anything particularly special. Some clubs have acoustic nights – most of these evenings are open mic evenings. We are tired of open mics. It’s great for the venue – free music! But lousy for musicians trying to make a living. Some clubs require you to secure them an audience of anywhere from 30-100 people before they will “hire” you. It’s quite a scam – after you secure them their business, they will pay you only a percentage of the door! Sometimes this is split with other bands who’ve had to do the same thing. What a scam! We’ve tried to find managers and booking agents. We’ve gotten as far as sending our press kit and then never hearing from these guys again.
Our problem is that we don’t play covers – we do originals. We are far from mainstream even in our originals so it’s hard to find a club or venue that will hire us. We’re “not what they’re looking for”. If we were a cover band playing rock and blues we’d probably be working regularly.
Payment is hard to come by – because of all of the above. But we’ve managed to be sure to be paid for most gigs – even if it’s minimal. Here’s a good story for you…
After playing the local Pumpkin Festival for a few years for free, my partner and I decided to ask to be paid. After all, the sound man is paid and so are the staff. Why not the musicians whom, without them, the festival would be basically nothing? We approached the organizing committee and asked for payment. They responded that it was not their policy to pay musicians and if we wanted to be paid we should look elsewhere!“.
Rahel – www.rahelmusic.com

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