Is it me or does this sound a lot like a TV show/film plot? The whole idea of a band pretending they're more popular than they are and then performing to an empty theatre feels like something from a zany sitcom...
Still, I'm not too surprised it happened. It's quite common for 'influencers' to fake their popularity online, and I've seen thousands of pseudo celebrities buy followers/make fake accounts to try and trick advertisers into thinking they're more popular than they actually are. Happens quite a bit with authors and books too; the likes of Robert Stanek and Gloria Tesch relied almost entirely on shills and paid marketing in an attempt to make people think their works had an actual fanbase/were going to be the next big thing.
Still, guess it's the logical extreme for the whole 'fake it till you make it' thing. If you can't build a real audience after doing that, this is what you're left with.
Links posted are still real, maybe by same account to give impression of more activity. But it was to get real people. It's not like they were selling those fake eye balls to advertising.
What a crappy thing to do. Most people in the music industry barely get by, and that includes the people who depend on booked acts bringing paying patrons to live music venues.
They can still turn this around. Shoot some documentary video & turn it into a Borat-style wry comedy, pretend it was all a commentary on something or other.
Many of the small venues struggle to survive as it is without some jerk ripping them off because he thinks it's funny. Yet get a good band in one and they are almost always the best gigs by miles.
That he goes into a huff because one venue asked him to actually pay their expenses says it all.
I hope the other venues chase him for costs and lost bar sales.
The growth hack is half complete. He can ride this for all it's worth as a documentary on marketing: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/434gqw/i-made-my-shed-the... or hire fake fans to show up to the concert like that fake screaming fangirls video that made Justin Bieber an instant sensation.
Okay so my first thought was, why would the venues care, don't they have the ticket money anyway. Is there something I am missing about how these things are arranged, such that the venue doesn't get paid if people don't show up? If so, why?
Article: "...they told the venue they sold 150 tickets (a sell out) and only one person actually showed up who bought a ticket."
Even if they pay the band only after the show, the venue might get $16 for several hours of staffed operation.
People attending a show buy tickets, food, and drinks from the venue.
So, the band's payment is typically easily recouped because the venue expects a minimum guaranteed income (say 40% capacity, average of $6/attendee spent on incidentals).
If zero people show up, they have the expense without the income, having sacrificed the night that could have gone to a more popular band, while also paying workers and incurring utility expenses.
At one event I organized, we sold the tickets ourselves (through Eventbrite) and we kept the ticket money. The nightclub venue hire was "free", but we had to guarantee a minimum amount of drink sales for the night, I think $2000. We reached the target, but if we didn't, we were under contract to pay the remainder in a very short time frame.
Basically we got to keep door sales if we guaranteed the venue a crowd.
Eventbrite lets you set aside free tickets, eg if you have VIPs / sponsors who should get free entry, which would make it look like you've "sold" more tickets than you really have.
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[ 41.0 ms ] story [ 1048 ms ] threadhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoAm6zb9ruDaD7Ba7FZQI6g/vid...
Still, I'm not too surprised it happened. It's quite common for 'influencers' to fake their popularity online, and I've seen thousands of pseudo celebrities buy followers/make fake accounts to try and trick advertisers into thinking they're more popular than they actually are. Happens quite a bit with authors and books too; the likes of Robert Stanek and Gloria Tesch relied almost entirely on shills and paid marketing in an attempt to make people think their works had an actual fanbase/were going to be the next big thing.
Still, guess it's the logical extreme for the whole 'fake it till you make it' thing. If you can't build a real audience after doing that, this is what you're left with.
This case is totally different and is fraud.
That he goes into a huff because one venue asked him to actually pay their expenses says it all.
I hope the other venues chase him for costs and lost bar sales.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVbV_Sis99o
Article: "...they told the venue they sold 150 tickets (a sell out) and only one person actually showed up who bought a ticket."
Even if they pay the band only after the show, the venue might get $16 for several hours of staffed operation.
People attending a show buy tickets, food, and drinks from the venue.
So, the band's payment is typically easily recouped because the venue expects a minimum guaranteed income (say 40% capacity, average of $6/attendee spent on incidentals).
If zero people show up, they have the expense without the income, having sacrificed the night that could have gone to a more popular band, while also paying workers and incurring utility expenses.
Basically we got to keep door sales if we guaranteed the venue a crowd.
Eventbrite lets you set aside free tickets, eg if you have VIPs / sponsors who should get free entry, which would make it look like you've "sold" more tickets than you really have.