SoundPlot.com, etc

[John Rosett]

My band is booked for an event here in town in a couple of weeks. It's a venue that we've played at many times over the years. They are using a new sound company, and I received an email from the engineer asking for a stage plot. He directed me to a website where you can purchase software for $40. You can grab instrument graphics and move them to the desired stage location, etc, but I didn't even see a steel guitar graphic! My band's sound needs are not too complicated, so I sent him back the same info that I send everybody else regarding our sound requirements. He replied, and practically insisted that I use it, but I haven't given in, because I don't think that it'a deal breaker.
It calls to mind another related phenomenon; When I've tried to book my band at festivals, they direct me to a site where you pay a fee, and then you can apply to these festivals through them.
All of this seem like a scam to rip off those of us that are at the bottom of the food chain in the entertainment business-the musicians!
I have so far refused to buy in to this, and I wonder what others think about this trend.

[chris ivey]

don't give in. 'new sound company' has a bad ring to it.
tell him you'll draw him a picture when you get there.

[Walter Killam]

I wouldn't spend any $ on it, In the past I have had a few venues request a stage plot, for that I usually just put together a simple block diagram in my word processor that shows where we like to be situated.

that's been good enough for the places I do business with

[Dave Harmonson]

from my experience they seldom look at the stage plot anyway.

[David Mason]

In the restaurant business, it was about 25 years ago that all these "added-layer" management businesses hit full speed. Quite reasonably, they realized that in an insanely-competitive field where 80% of the businesses zilch out* within two years, they figured out it was a lot safer for their own income to bleed naive restaurant owners dry rather than try to manage restaurants in a way that actually made money from selling food. It only requires a modicum of deceit and treachery at the very outset in your private business model, NOT the one you install for Mr. Moneypants.

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They're going to SELL YOU a drawing of a blank stage, and then (maybe) do what you beg them to? I'm getting a whiff of nostalgia here. It's not a pleasant one.


*(A kinder calculation was that it's only about 60%, in three years. Wo! Hey....)

[Leslie Ehrlich]

a site where you pay a fee

One of the pitfalls of the Internet: a growing number of pay per view and paid subscription sites.