Should you compete?

I often get asked about battle of the bands competitions and their value. There certainly seems to be a great deal of scepticism surrounding them with many of you thinking they are fixed! Now I can’t speak on all of them but in the past I have heard from a member of a panel that before the final of a national competition she was instructed to vote a certain way as a deal had been put in place. It also seems to be a common phenomenon that these competitions are simply vast money making machines where bands have to sell ticked at quite expensive prices.

The Negatives

Well selling tickets at an over-inflated prices can damage your gigs around the same time as people can’t attend both (so plan gigs carefully in this period). A lot of promoter for battle of the bands actually award points for selling tickets which puts some people at a severe disadvantage and it would seem popularity/number of friends is more highly valued than talent. Personally I have never bought a CD due to the artists number of friends, maybe I’m missing out! This does mean that bands at college or school tend to do pretty well here as they have a vast pool to draw on.

The other issue is does not doing well in such a competition make you look bad? If you came dead last, potentially through no fault of your own, does this mean people may write of your music in the future?

My Advice

On the plus side due to the increased pressure to sell tickets these events are usually really well attended and can get you in front of a larger crowd, many of which may never go to gigs. So you could actually pick up a few fans and sell some CD’s. The key thing here is to play harder and better than you ever have. Win over the crowd rooting for another act and try to pick up as many fans as possible. Treat it as a real opportunity and don’t focus on winning plus make sure everyone in the band feels the same. Your aim for this gig is to gain fans not win prizes.

Finally even if you don’t win you can put a positive spin on it stating you go through to the final or even the fact that you were selected to play in the first place above other acts.

See you soon