A new band business model

[Kap'n]

I've pretty much had it with trying to book my band. It seems as though most bar owners are useless scum who ended up in the bar business because they could either drink all day, or couldn't hold down a regular job for one reason or another. It seems as though I spend at least as much time trying to track these bozos down as I do actually performing.

</rant>

Anyway, a series of benefits we've performed over the past couple of years have led me to a concept for a new business model. The Benefit Band. Nope, not Jethro Tull cover band , but a band that primarily plays non-controversial benefits. Nothing like helping out a worthy cause. We could make our names known to some of these charities, that we are willing to play any of their fundraisers for free.

In return, each band member gets a reciept for services donated, which at the end of the year, they can use to write off on taxes. Obviously not a lucrative way to run a band, but it'll certainly cover expenses, virtually eliminate dealing with bar owners, and we'll still get to play for audiences.

Seem like a reasonable thing?

[detuned]

Sounds tricky, tax-wise. But I'm no expert!

My personal experience with benfits is that it *really* helps if it's a cause you can get behind, because otherwise it's not worth the bother - most of the ones I did were total pains in the behind!

Badly run, disorganized, ego-fests between the performers, etc.

[Kap'n]

Yep, there are interesting tax implications that I need to investigate. I was thinking that we would only promote causes that obviously wouldn't cause group friction, or poison the ability to perform other benefits.

Helping sick people: :yay

RNC/DNC/PETA/NRA: :nay

[Gravity Jim]

There's only one drawback... you can't write off donations of time, which is all you'd be giving in this scenario. Writers, artists, musicians, etc., can't write off donations of service because the value is so easily inflated ("oh, yeah, my band gets $2,000 a night!"). If you make a donation of time to a worthy cause, you can only write off materials used in the creation of the donated item, milage or meals consumed in the course of performing the service, etc., etc. This is from H&R Block's site:

"Volunteer Time: The value of the time or services you spend on charitable work is not deductible. For example, if you're a graphic designer who spent hours on the church newsletter, you can't deduct your professional hourly fee. But you can deduct 14 cents a mile for the use of your car for charitable purposes, or you can deduct your actual expenses, such as gasoline. If you donated any supplies or food during that volunteer work, you can deduct the cost of those as well."

So it sounds like a great idea, except you can't write off the fee for your performance as a donation, especially if you never actually charge anyone the fee you claim to be donating.

I do a lo of pro bono work, so I've been trying to get my accountant to realize that my studio time isn't freelance time, it's an actual commodity just like a box of soap. He's not buying it.

[Kap'n]

Thanks for the tip, Jim.

There must be some way I can make this work.

How about the band members hire the band (pay themselves), and donate the band's performance?

[Gravity Jim]

Dude, if that worked, I'd "pay myself" for hundreds of hours of studio time! Maybe you could get a corporate sponsor to "pay" you and you give the fee right back to the cause... then you could write it off as a cash donation.

But if that's ALL you do, then after a year or two, the IRS is going to say, "Hey, you're not making a serious attempt to make money here. This isn't a business, it's a hobby. Your write-offs are disallowed." Then each band member is goign to have to get and keep receipts for their individual cash donations... uuuerrrrgh.

Nah, it doesn't work. I don't think you can't significantly impact your income or your tax situation by donating time. If you've got stuff you want to give away, that's another thing... I saw an ebay auction a while back where a church or something was selling over half a dozen guitars, all donated by a band. A couple of cool ones, mostly junk, but they got to write it off at standard resell value no matter what the church actually got for them.

[Wilko]

Why assume that because they are benefits that can't get paid?

Serious charity groups spend lots of money to make their events attractive and therefore, profitable.

You can do both, make money and donate.

[fezz parka]

Wilko has it.:yay

[Wilko]

Check out this sad tale of benefits...

I just got through with reluctantly booking a last minute party for this Saturday June 4th. I got off the phone at about 11:00 am.

Within the hour I got a call to accompany a singer on one song in LA the same night. No pay, but I'd get a hotel room for the night. the song: "Girl from Ipanema" The venue...











Get this...














The Playboy Mansion.

[fezz parka]

And you have to think about it? :hee

Grotto Time!

[Kap'n]

Stopped by one of the local bars again to try to arrange something. Amzing, the guy "isn't there" again, for about the sixth time in three weeks.

I'm ready to just hang this whole f'n thing up.

[mkg]

Kap'n, get out of the bars, there's no money there. Put together a press kit and a dvd and/or cd.
Concentrate on festivals, corporate gigs, and private gigs, including weddings.
Call on people you know who book bands for xmas parties, corporate events, festivals, and weddings. If you don't know them, find out who they are and get to know them. Contact managers of country clubs.
Then be prepared to double, triple, quadruple (hell, sky's the limit) your standard bar fee.
Odds are you can play pretty much the same music you're playing now.
This is what we've done for the past ten years or so. On rare occasions we play clubs, but now it's on our terms because we've built a following in our area.
Patience and persistence are the keys, along with a commitment to whip your band into topnotch shape...that means being proactive as far as contacts and serious, effective, frequent, regularly-scheduled rehearsal.
Then when you play the gigs after all this work, you've got to make it look like you're having more fun than is legally allowed.
Funny thing is, when everything falls into place and you're getting better gigs and making more money, you will be having more fun than is legally allowed.

[Kap'n]

Kap'n, get out of the bars, there's no money there.

I know. I love playing bars though. You can play a lot of stuff you can't play in straighter gigs. I'm not dinner music. I'm not wedding music. I'm loud and professionally sloppy covers. You can even breathe now in bars, due to the smoking ban. Unfortunately, most folks have figured out they can have fun and smoke with their friends in their basement/garage wherever.

It's just the bar owners that suck.

[mkg]

Kap'n, I hear ya, but we ain't dinner music and we ain't wedding music. We play what we like. It so happens that what we like is r&r, r&b, and soul...the stuff that people like to dance to.
It can be done, brother, without compromising what you like.

[Mikey]

I'm in full agreement with MKG.

But....
I agree with Kapn too.


I hate those freakin' bar owners and I hate tryin' to deal with them.
I asked about a gig at one local hole and they asked me how many people are we going to bring in. I laughed in their face! Like Crossfyre is going to fill this place up with people from Sodus, Albion, Hilton, Mendon.... I said "we'd be there to entertain THEIR patrons and they would be hiring us for that. If they want to hire me to provide an audience, that's a different request and I have a different contract and rate for that service."
Hell, Link Wray only brought in about 150 peeps! fer Crissakes!

I like the corporate gigs, and festivals and all, but it's really "cliquey", and harder than heck to break into. The money is good though. Man, we had a sweet deal at one festival. Standing gig every year. Well, the guy who usually runs it had to take a year off due to regular job demands and they put some ego maniacal female in his place to get the music. Now, understand, we were already told we'd be playing, but she comes in, tells all the bands and musical acts that they're rethinking the entertainment for this year and they'll get a hold of us. About a month goes by and, after hearing nothing, i email her. She says the bill has been filled with other acts. I do a little research and find out that she's a booking agent of sorts and she filled the bill with her acts. Hell, might as well pay yourself if you've got to do volunteeer work.
Got to watch the festival people too.
Last tewo years I contacted six or seven festival people about playing and heard back from no one. Even after repeated e-mails and calls. Oh Well, that the way it goes!

But man! are we up on the charity lists! We do about 5 or 6 a year and i turn down 4 or 5 more every year. There's a limit. We get some publicity, but no extra paying gigs. (ex. The last biker thing...lots of publicity, radio and newprint, and posters) Even making coalitions with other bands to off-load double booking opps doesn't work.

[Kap'n]

Mikey, do you do most of the booking, or is it shared?

Maybe I'm missing something in the whole approach.

[Mikey]

Well, actually it's shared. Everybody in the band has booked some paying gigs. It seems that I get involved in a lot of the intial contacts and negotiation things. We used to get a lot of leads using Gigmasters, but gave that up last year due to their charges and the amount of money producing gigs rendered.
We're all on our own now. We did have an agent who booked a couple for us but he moved to Florida.

I think our biggest problem right now is that we just plain don't get out and about enough to make the contacts that help get the jobs. Family, work, etc. get in the way. Another is we don't have a decent demo disk.
That's a two edged sword. If it ain't big money production quality, they won't listen. But, on the other hand, if it's too slick, they say they want to hear us live for free of course. (It's easy to make yourself sound better with big money recording.) We're still discussing what to do here.
Besides, we're really a live band...sound better, and our big thing is having a good time, everybody have a good time. We have personality that doesn't record well I guess.
Maybe we should have somebody capture a live performance and then cull from that.

[mkg]

Maybe we should have somebody capture a live performance and then cull from that.

A great idea. A guy just starting his video company approached us a while back and offered us a substantial discount if we'd let him use us as his learning project. He shot a very cool dvd that we now use for promo.
Anything that shows people dancing and having a good time to your music is great.