I don't know whether this has been said but I think, from a business perspective, everyone has to work hand in hand to achieve the basic objectives of a gig.
Hell, I am in no way experienced in this kind of stuff but I suppose this is how things usually happen (do correct me if I am wrong) -
1) Bands want to play to an audience and garner support and recognition for their talent, technical proficiency, performance and song-writing skills. Others might actually be wanting to promote their own CDs and stuff.
2) Some bands are willing to play for free, some expect some sort of payment.
3) Gig organizers want to make money out of hosting a gig.
4) Some gig organizers are musicians themselves and are doing it to push for support for local music.
5) Some audience expect to watch for free, most gigs nowadays you have to pay for entrance, just like going to most clubs.
I think ideally, a gig organizer usually has to source for sponsorships and work with brand names who are looking constantly to create awareness for their products ie. marketing. So, for example Marigold wants to reach out to teenagers and get them to drink more healthy drinks like their Nutritea range, instead of carbonated drinks - so, gig organizer approaches the F&N and signs a deal that states F&N will pay a certain amount to gig organizer and F&N gets to hang banners and basically advertise at the event. That certain amount goes to hiring the venue and equipment.
Then gig organizer approaches a second sponsor and the second certain amount of money goes to paying the bands, and marketing the event.
The gig organizer finally approaches a third sponsor and the amount goes to the organizer as their profit.
The bands who are selected to play, in their part pay for the jam practice sessions themselves, as part of their own marketing budget.
This is of course, based on the presumption that the bands featured are well known and it's almost guaranteed that their fans will indeed come and support them. For the scenario where the bands are not so well-known but are being part of a push to promote local upcoming bands, I guess the marketing efforts have to be more aggressively done, and more sponsors or even support from eg. NAC or something will be needed.
But remember, this is an ideal scenario lah.
If I am guessing correctly, gig organizers who even take the initiative to look for sponsors maybe having a tough time with local companies, with the fact that most Singaporeans don't really support local music, and that most of these gigs - the turnout is like what, a hundred? Two hundred people? So, for some companies, it's hard to justify the money involved.
Of course, like a lot of things in life - it's quite circumstantial lah, these things. You don't usually get what you want or expect but I am sure if more people are aware of exactly how things work - they may be able to cooperate with each other, instead of going at each others' throats. No doubt there are very evil, conniving people but there are very nice people abound too.
At the end of the day, it really depends on whether the gig organizer is out to just make money and not care about the bands and the music involved, or they want to make some money but at the same time, they really want to be involved in creating awareness for local music, and share the passion.
I don't know. Maybe my views are just very simplistic but hey, everybody's learning at all points of life.
So, I just want to learn and see what exactly are the issues faced by all parties involved.
Surveys can help a lot, I think. Ask the audience what they think of the shows so far, and what they want to see in the future. Ask the potential sponsors how a holistic marketing effort can be done to benefit the brands, the companies involved, the organizers, the musicians and the audience. All at the same time.
Of course, there'll always be a problem of saturation and how it is easy to be jaded when there're gigs like every weekend.
How do we try to overcome all these factors?
Well, that''s my short contribution on this topic.
