Musicians don’t like business. If a musician likes business, there is something wrong with that musician. Most musicians don’t understand how to get to easy solutions for their business (if you are playing music for money, you have a business… whether you like it or not). Don’t worry though, you’re not alone. I’ve been on the road and stopped off at Jeff’s Snack Shack in the middle of nowhere to satisfy my sweet tooth. Guess what? I didn’t have cash on me. Guess what else? Jeff doesn’t take credit cards. Why? Because Jeff thinks it’s too expensive to accept credit cards (and he’s wrong). Guess who didn’t get a Twix? ME. GUESS WHO IS NEVER GOING BACK TO JEFF’S SNACK SHACK???
Last year, before I hit the road for the first time, I thought it would be wise to be able to accept credit cards for this very reason. Plus, we (the band) is always bitching about not being able to purchase something because a store/restaurant won’t take credit cards). We didn’t want to be like those businesses. The future is plastic. Money will be around, but less people will carry it as more and more places are accepting credit cards. We have to adapt. How?
Last year, options were starting to widen. Before last year, you had to contact a company that sold expensive credit card machines. You had to set up a merchant account. Then the iPhone came along, and so did a commercial that explained how easy it was to accept credit cards on the iPhone. Boo yah. I had an iPhone. I got the app. I created a merchant account, and I started charging people for my merchandise. I also had to pay $25 per month to have a merchant account. It was worth it.
Today, one of the founders of Twitter launched a new company called Square. They allow EVERYONE and their MOTHERS to accept credit cards WITHOUT a merchant account. The future is here. The best part about Square is that there is NO monthly fee (because there is no merchant account). But here’s where it gets tricky.
(BE WARNED: This is the nerdy part of this entry with NUMBERS. If numbers scare you, then don’t read ahead, and please, stop playing music.)
Last year, I checked out a lot of pricing for different companies. If you are a band and you want a credit card terminal, you need to get a wireless terminal (because you move your business to different venues and not all of them have internet access). This means, you will pay about $800-$900 for a terminal. You will also pay for the wireless access and a monthly service charge (with a monthly minimum).
Here’s the bottom line:
Terminal: $800-$900
Monthly Cost: $50
Contract: 2 years
Charge per transaction: 1.09% - 2.5% + $0.25
Here is what Square offers:
Cost of iPad/iPhone/Android: $99 - $499
Cost of Square’s CC Reader/App: FREE
Monthly Cost: $0
Contract: None
Charge per transaction: 2.75% - 3.5% + $0.15
Not only is having an iPhone/iPad cheaper than a wireless credit card terminal, you can do so much more WITH these Apple products. I can check facebook, update shows, BLOG, etc. I can also sell merch using Square’s free app. Once you sign up, they also send you a free credit card reader that plugs into the headphone jack. It’s that easy. Sign up takes about 5 minutes.
So… why wouldn’t you accept credit cards at this point?
I discussed Square with a guy who sold credit card terminals, and we decided that the ONLY way it was better to have a separate credit card terminal is if you sell a CRAPLOAD of merchandise. So if you’re John Mayer or you play Warped Tour every year, you might want to have a wireless credit card terminal. Here’s the difference on percentages and fees per transaction:
The wireless terminal: A CD sold for $10 on this terminal (at 1.09% + $0.25) will cost $0.10 + $0.25 = $0.35 per transaction.
Square: A CD sold for $10 on this app (at 2.75% + $0.15) will cost $0.28 + $0.15 = $0.43 per transaction.
The difference per transaction for a $10 CD is $0.08. Yes, Square is more expensive per transaction. Keep in mind that you aren’t paying monthly fees ($50/month) though. To counteract the monthly service fee, you would have to sell $6,250 worth of merchandise to break even with what Square offers before you dug out of the hole of the monthly fees.
Some of you are thinking about the cost of internet on an iPad/iPhone/Android. If you are only using your iPad/iPhone/Android for Credit Card payments, there is something wrong with you. However, let’s factor in the cost of a data plan. It costs $30/month to have the internet on an iPhone/iPad. If you have an iPad, you do not have a contract. So the difference is STILL $20 per month (which means you would have to sell $2500 of merch per month on the wireless terminal to offset the costs of monthly fees before turning a profit).
So here’s the bottom line folks, if you are a local/indie musician who sells under $2500 of merch per month (and by looking at most local/indie musicians who have other jobs and drive in tour vans that cost about $1000, that’s most of us), Square is for you. Plus, you’ll have a cool gadget that you will allow you to keep in touch with your internet social marketing. If you make more than $2500/month on merch alone, then you probably already knew about everything I just ranted about.
For godsakes, do a favor for your fans/customers (and my band members). Start accepting credit cards.
Fall apart confetti come on cry right on my sleeve
I am just a ghost of hearts that break bittersweet…
What it is REALLY like to play in a local/indie band. Welcome to the real world, dreamers!
Collective Soul - Run
I will not support a company that decides to approve of something this irresponsible.
The hardest part is working and I’ve worked enough
I could stretch that penny like a silver line
Rolling through the pages of my life
Underneath your name where it’s underlined
I’ve been turned around
I’ve been mystified by a true love
Pure delight.
i started playing music to connect with people. nowadays there just ain’t anyone left to connect with.
david byrne said lyrics are overrated. he’s right. listen to your favorite rap song and tell me the lyrics or check out your favorite gaga song and read the lyrics. it’s all bullshit. nobody gives a shit about what artists are saying anymore. they just want to drink and dance their way through songs.
heaven forbid an artist like erykah badu comes out with an artistic video that actually makes people think. how horrible thinking is.
as long as everyone stays on their pharmaceuticals and isn’t offered a striking point of view, then the system will stay in place. we can’t have people thinking outside the box anymore.
songs are like candy. they lurk around every single corner. there is no hunting, searching, or special ordering any albums anymore. the candy dispensers are your online stores and your bittorrent sites. they have made music so easily accessible that music has become as dispensable as a candy wrapper. you hold it in your hands for the brief fleeting moment of unwrapping this carefully concocted gift, and then you throw it out as quickly as you purchased it. why? because it’s so easy to access. songs aren’t treasures anymore, they’re sugary dispensable treats. no wonder there isn’t anyone willing to spend the time writing anything worthwhile. songs are as meaningful as they are now treated.
the new music videos are the brief 30 seconds that a hit tv show uses a song for a dramatic ending. this trains the viewer that it’s ok to talk over music. we all do it. music is becoming background noise. i remember when shawn colvin said, “i’ll never forget when I heard james taylor’s ‘fire and rain’. i ran to the record store and bought the single and took it to my friend’s house and told her ‘you have to hear this; it’ll change you life.’” i cannot tell you the last time i heard a friend say that to me. it wasn’t in this last decade.
music used to be all me and my friends had. it’s what we lived for. we would stay in record stores for hours and search for the perfect treasure. we would drive through our city in circles twenty times a night so we could sit next to each other silently and take in songs. lyrics and music. it was an experience.
what is going on these days?
what is the remedy? i will tell you, but i don’t think it will matter. dedicate an hour a day to music. full uninterrupted music. do not talk on the phone. turn it off. do not knit or watch baseball or make dinner. just listen. sing. think about the lyrics… if they have anything to do with losing a phone in a club, find another song with more substance. think about memories. associate those lyrics with those memories. what song makes you think about your first love? what song reminds you of going to san francisco with your best friends? what song makes you think of loneliness? let it all in… and don’t let anything stop you from allowing the music to make you FEEL. PUT AWAY YOUR FUCKING GADGETS AND FEEL SOMETHING AGAIN! be selfish. feel for yourself. let the songs in. let them affect you like you allow jesus to. go to the church of music and offer up your soul.
this is the only way music will be saved. by you.
Taking money from starving artists should get you a one way ticket to hell. It’s the most shameful thing venues and promoters do. Pay-to-play is disgusting, and Sonicbids is a website that is exactly that. Pay-to-submit to be a part of this compilation, gig, etc…. when in reality, they are just building up an artist’s desires all in the sake of taking their money. It really should be illegal. Read below to see what’s really going on with independent local artists and the scams that we endure every single corner we turn.
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If you’ve ever used SonicBids, please read this and rethink what youre paying for..
(from a message board):
The CMJ Music Marathon, which takes place in NYC in October, may be rethinking their decision to use online submission site Sonicbids to do handle their band applications. To submit, a band had to pay a nonrefundable fee of $45. A major screwup by the site may just have shed some light on one of the organizations dirty little secrets.
Today, an email went out to a large number of bands telling them they were on “Standby” status, and to email the CMJ showcase director to let them know which days they might be able to play. About an hour later, the same bands received an email from CMJ Showcase Coordinator Robyn Baskin saying the following:
“There is a bug in Sonicbids system and the wrong email was sent out to many people. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused. This is the email that you should have received:
It is with regret that we inform you we are unable to find a slot for you to perform at CMJ Music Marathon 2007.
Please realize that you made it through a number of rounds in the selection process and the music that you are making caught our attention for one reason or another. Unfortunately, the sheer number of applicants in relation to the number of clubs in NY makes it impossible for us to give every deserving band a slot at the festival, and while it may not be much consolation, we did try our best to accommodate as many acts as possible, including yours.”
Fair enough. Standard rejection letter. However, Baskin made the regrettable error of listing the email addresses of all 675 bands that got the email, rather than putting them as blind carbon copy. Within minutes, the predictable and pathetic self promotional spam started coming in, from bands who apparently decided that other CMJ-denied bands are a good target market. But then it got interesting.
One emailer noted, in a less-than-friendly email to Baskin, that “Apart from the fact that we are now open to a bunch of spam, it has also brought to my attention that sonic bids has collected the $45 fee from at least 670 bands ($30,450) knowing full well that you could never accommodate all of the bands.” Soon the folks at Shiny Little Records pointed out a little known statistic that comes with every Sonicbids account.
“Check your SonicBids account and see how many plays you received. Ours, attached, shows that there were NO plays of any of our music by anyone (CMJ was the only ap we submitted). $45 should at the very least mean that they get an intern to click play on your song once. How sloppy. Yes, I think a refund, apology, and full explanation are in order.”
Soon it became apparent that there were a large number of bands who hadn’t had their music even listened to. Now hey, anyone who doesn’t know that Sonicbids is a sham hasn’t been around the business very long, but it’s a different story when you are forced to use the site to submit for a major industry festival. At $45 per band, it’s hardly just a “cover our administrative costs” fee. It’s a profit center, and as such, they owe proper consideration to every band who throws down the money, and at the minimum, three minutes to listen to the song they submitted.
-Taken from http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-690269.html
I’m not sure if it’s a function of advancing age or just the times we’re living in, but it’s almost impossible for me to find complete external validation in any one thought, desire, instinct or vision anymore.
Who do you want to be exactly like? Is there anybody in this world who’s laid down a template for your dreams and goals that you’d copy and paste over your own life’s story? Maybe you want to go to a music college as I did when I decided to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston. Start asking some alums whether it’s worth it and you’ll get two distinct answers. One half of the control group will tell you it’s not worth it, that you might as well just start a band and hit the road. The other half will tell you that it was the flash point for their music career and that without it they’d be nowhere. The answer depends on the experience had by each person you talk to. Maybe the “Nos” spent their semesters curled up in a ball fighting with their boyfriend or girlfriend on the phone and never applied themselves to making the most of the time there. You’ll never find the answer you want, just information with which to build your own idea and chart your own course.
Take your favorite artist, the one you look up to and see as the perfect specimen of talent, values, output, whatever the case may be - and someone else has a reason why they’re not worth even a passing glance. Is “Bob Dylan: Don’t Look Back” the documentary of a genius iconoclast or was he a self absorbed pseudo-intellectual bully? It depends on who you ask. Is Jay-Z the reigning king of hip hop or is he “all business” now? It depends on who you ask. I bring up both names because if you ask me, I put them at the top of my list of people who can do very little if no wrong at all, but it won’t take long to read someone’s opposing point of view. If you’re not sure of what you love, that means you can be talked out of it, and that’s a slippery slope.
Is your boyfriend cute? Was Hurt Locker the best movie of the year? Are you going to go out in those shoes? Should you take the promotion and move to Boston? Did I wear “Hammer” pants on stage in Houston or is Rick Owens a visionary clothing designer?
It all depends on who you ask.
Which is a pretty great reason to stop asking all together. Nobody’s life template will ever lay evenly over yours. And in those times when they clash completely, you have to walk alone, with confidence that you’re creating your own template, made out of your own instincts and your own dreams and your own goals. And if you do it long enough, maybe someone someday will look to yours as the life to model theirs after. Of course, some people won’t agree with them. It will all depend on who they ask.
