SLMC

Wraith Maddox · Joined: 25 Jan 2009 Posts: 3 Location: Ontario, Canada

I had a similar issue with a venue owner just 2 days ago.

They said they were starting up an open mic night (3 hours - 6 slots), and had caught my act somewhere else and wanted to know if I could take one or even two of the slots for their opening night. I heartily agreed (as all I've played so far in SL are open mics and similar events). I had to tell 2 other places that i frequent that I would not be able to come as I had something lined up with this new open mic.

I then get a message the day before the open mic, with stream info, and a group tag...the usual Shtuff, and a little note saying that I could play for 80% of the tips I collected.

This thew me back a bit, and I then asked them again if they had been promoting this open mic at all, because I couldn't see it in any searches. I figured I would still go through with it this one time and see what happens (I really love the performing aspect the most, the $$$ is secondary) I also don't back out of shows, and have been brought in as last minute replacements a few times now.

Anyways..don't worry, I'm closing in on the end of my ramble here..hehe... I get to the venue more than a half hour before my scheduled time slot, with not a soul around, no-one answering IMs, nothing. I've had events be canceled before, but at least had some kind of response, but not like this. At this point, I waited there for over an hour...mostly because I wanted to give someone a piece of my mind.

I still have not had a response from these venue owners...although they have been online.

pretty hard to expect 20% of a musicians tips to go to them if this is the way they run their venue...sheesh

Oh, and these people aren't new to SL music hosting, just to clarify that.

ticious · Joined: 03 Sep 2007 Posts: 2600 Location: Chicago

Until I got to your last line, I was assuming these were people who did NOT run an SL music venue. Just someone who was thinking they saw some easy dough.

My advice to ANYONE, lay out the financial terms at the time the gig is booked, don't make any assumptions. If the terms change later, that's too bad for the person making the change. Pull out the chat log, hold them to the original agreement or cancel the show.

edited to add: Careful not to paint venue owners with this brush all by themselves. I had a musician no show on me yesterday. He was on line, he just didn't come to the venue. I im'd him, no answer. Two other people im'd him. I've still had no answer. I checked chat logs, no mistake on my end. Seems the least he could do was answer my im to see what was up.

*sigh*

My point being, we have people on both sides who behave unprofessionally. When you strike a deal, stick to it and expect the other party to also, no matter who's on which side of the table!
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