Music Event

You know you've gotten TOO OLD when you shift in the music industry from being 'musician' to be musical event co-ordinator. ;-) Most musicians whom you see disappear have to go somewhere . Most end up doing something else in the music industry, either as producers / engineers (if they have good enough hearing left), or as managers, agents and all sorts of other things. My company (Yama Kuma) has been requested to apply for a Grant and to organise a contemporary music event. As they said to me, 'You've worked in the music industry, you must have heaps of contacts'. Um ... Er ... I worked in the music industry in SYDNEY! Like, all my contacts (that are left ... ) are mainly musicians and they're ALL IN SYDNEY!!!! But, I didn't say, 'No, I have no idea how to go about it' ... because, let's face it, I do know how to go about it. In fact, as I was a member of WAMi (the Western Australia Music Industry) previously, I do have some contacts. Though, the problem I'm facing is, Im a little scared this thing might go belly up. I've seen organisors poor good money after bad into these sorts of events. If they don't happen, then they have to repay the grant. If they do happen, the organisors are left paying a fortune to a lot of people who need to get paid (such as bands, engineers, lighting, venue owners etc) Of course, if you can get them to go off in a BIG way, then you also stand to make a lot of money! w00t!!!! This could be the God send my company has been waiting for ... but then again, when I started discussing the event, I was told to keep it small, as they didn't want to have something too big ... and my brain just went, 'HUH? Are we trying to make money or NOT?' Sure, if it's big we need more security, and that costs money! BUT, if it's big enough it can afford to pay for the security. Let's face it, the whole idea for holding events [other than any idealogical thought behind the idea, like an outreach to the community, or raising awareness or spotted llama fever sort of thing], is to make enough money that everyone gets fed! No business man in their right mind goes, 'Hey, let's pay a truck load of money to put on a really small event for three people to come to!' IN this case, the venue WANTS to make money too, but for some reason, they want to keep it small for security reasons! I'm like ... you can't have both ... unless the people coming to the event are going to pay $1000 to see some unknown band! It won't happen! I guess this is part of the joy of business. People ask you to do something, and then they tie your hands with requests and stuff ... 'make money, but we don't want too many people coming' ... like, make up your mind ... argh! Either you WANT the event to be successful (which means getting as many people there as humanly possible), or you want to hav a small event which will possibly COST you money ... and as the organisor, if it COSTS money I know who will be left holding the empty sack of cash when people come asking for their money ... ME!!!! lol Ah, it's all good! ;-) I'll work it out ... I'll make it successful whether they want it to be or not. I'll have to start looking around for a time (seems as I already have a place), and I'll try to see if I can rope in some local talent who are willing to work for peanuts! ;-) Yes, I know what you're thinking ... Dabido, why don't YOU do the music thing? You can play! Yes, it's true, but I don't have a band! Waaah! I don't have the time to rehearse and I have a business to run. But, it looks like I'm getting old ... no longer a musician, but relegated into another part of the music industry! lol It might set me up for a band manager position ... at least they get somewhere between 15 and 25% of a bands gross income ... and if the band gets popular, then you can make a FORTUNE! lol Looks like I'm heading back into the industry ina new role! :-) I guess that makes me sort of happy! :-)