A Message From Paul regarding Merchandising & Commission

A gentle word from Paul regarding venues' merchandise policies...



Anyone who knows me professionally is likely to have heard me rant about the issue of venues charging small/independent artists unreasonable commission on CD sales. I just wanted to address this now to make my position completely clear.

Many venues and festivals are likely to charge 10% commission, quite often 20% and sometimes even higher, not making any distinction between artists signed to major record labels, and independent artists trying to subsidise their living by selling a small number of CDs after a gig.

The highest rate of commission ever proposed to me was at a gig in the Royal Albert Hall Café-Bar, where they were insisting on taking 40% for us to sell our own CDs from the stage!
This appalled me to the degree that I dealt with it by giving CDs away for FREE….Yup, 40% of nothing is…?
What is unreasonable here is that the venue is making no distinction between a major artist like George Michael performing in the main hall to 5000 people per night (charge= 40% on merchandise) ,and a small independent, unsigned jazz group from Glasgow playing to 50 people in a café (charge=40% on merchandise). Not only that but the venue was offering no service whatsoever for their 40%. So why should they get a cut of a product that they have made zero investment in?! It’s ludicrous! Imagine that on Dragon’s Den! “OK, I’ll make you an offer – I want 40% equity in your business, for which I’m going to give you NO money, and on top of that, offer you NONE of my expertise.” Ha HA! No thank you Theo!!

How about this for an idea – we’ll give you 40% of our CD revenue if you give us 40% of your café and bar takings. After all, we’re bringing in customers to YOUR venue, who WE sourced at OUR expense through building a fan base, and who wouldn’t otherwise be buying your overly-priced beer, coffee or pain-au-cholcolate. We’re providing you with customers FREE of charge! Perhaps it would be reasonable, in return, to let us sell our product free of charge. That is to say, a product which is the culmination of years and years of study, practice, composition, arranging investment of time, money, blood, sweat, tears, late nights, arguments, market research etc.etc…

Just a thought – fair’s fair…or give us 40% of the bar takings, it’s up to you.

Don’t get me wrong, I do see why it can seem perfectly reasonable for venues to impose some sort of commission on merchandise, and it’s been a fact of life for years. However – it is now the 21st Century, and the music business - especially the record industry - has changed vastly, while music venue policies in this area have failed to adapt accordingly. We need to start introducing some common sense into this area, specifically that venues make policy distinctions between small, independent artists selling a handful of CDs, and huge commercial acts signed to Sony, or EMI – rather than aggressively pursuing flat-rate merchandise commission as a non-flexible piece of income revenue. Venues need to look at their policies and be prepared to exercise some reason and common sense, supporting and encouraging enterprising artists who are investing a great deal of time in building audience, not only for themselves but for the venue too. One good way of showing this support to artists is to consider exercising discretion in merchandise commission policy. It could be like a ‘thank you’ to the artist for bringing their fan base to the venue. All of this is ultimately going to be good for the reputation of the venue, the quality of its relationships with artists, and its successful integration with the modern music industry.

Then there’s the responsibility that lies with artists. We need to start standing up for ourselves in general, but also not allow venues to bully us by ambushing us, often on the evening of the gig, with whatever commission they see fit. If we want to do this properly, it has to be viewed as a business proposal with a contract that is negotiable and not one sided. If a venue is to take a cut on merch sales, we need ask the question “What service are you going to provide for your 20%?” In other words, what are the variables here? Will CDs be available before the gig? During the interval? After the gig? And for how long after? Where will the merchandise stand be located and how will it be presented? How will it be staffed? Will there be appropriate signage provided by the venue? If you are a club charging commission, do you offer a table to table service?....These are things that should be offered by the venue if they are going to insist on commission – artist’s shouldn’t simply sit back and allow them to take this lazy option for additional revenue.

There needs to be a fair deal.

It might also be a good idea to negotiate a sliding scale with variable rates of commission depending on how many units are sold. This provides incentive for the venue to be more proactive in selling the product, and driving CD sales. More CD sales means more revenue for both the artist AND the venue.

So, rather than a venue blindly hitting artist with a commission fee without obligation to provide any sort of quality of service, perhaps we should be using something like this as a basis for negotiating the terms of our contract:

First 5 CDs – No Commission
5 – 20 CDs – 10%
20 CDs and over – 20%
Services to be provided by venue :
- CDs to be available for purchase 30mins before the show, during the interval, and for 30mins after the show.
- Well presented table in a clearly visable location in foyer, bar or other suitable
- Printed posters directing audience to point of sale, displayed around the venue.
- CD presentation stands – maximised product visability
- Clear pricing notices at the table
- 2 Staff
- Allow audience members to sign up to our mailing list

To me this seems completely reasonable, and it is beyond me why we continue to let this area of our income lie solely in the hands of a venue’s bureaucracy.

Rather, we need to take control of the revenue stream that WE created.

Power to the artist!

P x

Independence and Flexibility in a Changing Jazz Industry

This article written by Paul was originally published in Wiltshire Jazz Festival's 2011 brochure.

It's a really great event, check out the programme (which includes Brazilian pianist Eliane Elias) for June 2012 http://www.wiltshirejazzfestival.co.uk/


“Independence and Flexibility in a Changing Jazz Industry”
By Paul Towndrow

Some time in 2002, a lifelong friend of mine sat next to me on a park bench in Glasgow and outlined his vision for creating and touring an ensemble comprising four saxophones and one car, with no rhythm section or start-up capital - along with the question “was I in?”.

The friend was baritone saxophonist Allon Beauvoisin, and the good part of a decade, and several personnel adjustments later – Brass Jaw (now three saxes and one trumpet) has begun to find its feet, and to carve out a clear ‘modus operandi’ in the ever-changing jazz industry. Importantly for us, we have needed this time, in order to mature musically and to learn about how we can best co-ordinate both our musical, and extra-musical values within the fractured and nebulous infrastructure of the music scene.

Long gone are the days where jazz groups seek out management, major label backing, and the team of experts who take care of all things business, so the musicians can concentrate on the music and on ‘being creative’. The 21st Century Jazz Musician is a much more independent beast, finding himself dealing as best he can with a multitude of different jobs : Musician, composer, arranger, accountant, tour manager, educator, sound engineer, driver, politician, fly-poster, publicist, motivational speaker, web designer, graphic artist…the list goes on. The secret to survival for us has been to use the strength of our creative resources, to help us compensate for not having that ‘team of experts’ that many artists in the mainstream take for granted.

The more keen minded and forward thinking music promoters, festivals and funding bodies, have realised that this sort of independence and creative work ethic is worth supporting and developing. We are fortunate to have received a great deal of help and mentoring from friends on this side of the business, particularly from those behind London and Glasgow Jazz Festivals, and from funding bodies like Jazz Services, the Scottish Arts Council (now Creative Scotland). London based music production company Serious provide some fantastic opportunities for emerging artists in the area of professional development. This sort of thing just didn’t exist twenty years ago, and now we are seeing the results of initiatives like this – a new breed of independent and hard working jazz artist.

Good musicians seem to share the same set of core values, in particular the desire to maintain an unfettered creative outlet, produce consistently high quality work, and to reach as many people as they can with their music. As a group, Brass Jaw is driven by all of these ideals – not just in our music, but in how we manage the business aspects of our group as well.

It was with these core values in mind, that when trumpeter Ryan Quigley joined Brass Jaw in 2008 we started to examine the efficiency of how we were working. We realised that we had many unique traits as a group. We performed completely acoustically, we had no additional equipment other than our horns, we could fit (with only small amount of discomfort) into one vehicle, we all liked each other, we all loved to be involved in education, we could all find humour within and outwith our music. We realised that our sound check routine of turning up several hours before the gig only to inform a delighted sound engineer that we didn’t need any microphones, thus allowing us a leisurely dinner and pint before the gig, could be time used to serve a greater purpose. So we began to make it our policy, that wherever possible we would use the extra time afforded to us to deliver workshops, masterclasses, and generally to hang out with the local musicians and members of the community. Lo and behold, these people would then turn up to our evening gigs, dragging a few friends along with them and as a result our audience figures and CD sales began to rise.

All of the members of Brass Jaw are friends, and have been since we were young. This is something we owe to the Scottish music scene’s strong youth jazz initiatives in the 1990s . A sense of friendship, respect, and lack of inhibition in an ensemble is a real boon as it opens the door to musical risk-taking, open and frank discussions in rehearsals, and above all a huge sense of fun and mischief, both onstage and off. We have a fairly open policy about the things we get up to on stage too. So that means if it feels right to gaffer-tape somebody’s feet to the stage, or chain them to a music stand, or wander off stage and dance with the audience, then we just go right ahead and do it. We are very careful not to contrive this sort of thing, but we don’t suppress it either. It’s easy for musicians to forget that music can be great fun at one point, and serious at another. But who wants to look at four po-faced musicians for an hour, standing stalk still and delivering their music like automatons anyway – when I go to a gig I want to see them have some fun!

Over the last couple of years, we have found that festivals have been able to utilise our flexibility, mobility and willingness to use unconventional spaces. For us this has meant being programmed to play at every conceivable type of venue from concert halls and jazz clubs, to open-top buses and trams, and from nightclubs and churches, to bandstands in the middle of ponds! Festivals who book us have also found that, because of our acoustic nature, and our short set up time – more time is afforded to have us on call for photo shoots and radio & TV broadcasts, all amounting to greater exposure for the festival, and for us.

The way I see it is that all of this visibility, and community involvement is good for the image of jazz. Jazz is a wonderfully rich and socially aware art form, that came out of the community and should always return there.

As a group we have been labelled as ‘quirky’, ‘unusual’ in our instrumentation and attitude towards making music – but perhaps a look at the origins of a community driven, mobile, joyous, colourful, wind instrument based music in New Orleans at the beginning of the 20th century would show that Brass Jaw isn’t that unusual after all.

Tour Date Cancelled Due To Hurricane

It's very rare that circumstances would be severe enough for us to be forced to cancel a gig, but that was sadly the case yesterday when our trip to Grimsby fell victim to 'Hurricane Bawbag' (so named following a bout of Glaswegian viral-tweetery!).



This was perhaps one of the most striking images of the storms damaging effect - one of the wind turbines catching fire and subsequently collapsing. On the roads, lorries overturned and roofs got blown off of a wide variety of buildings.

Delighted to see however, that this wee guy dealt with the situation exactly how we would have. Get the jacket up in the air like a sail and try to FLY!!!




And of course - one of the viral classics from yesterday's storm "OMG TRAMPOLINE OMG!"




Our apologies go to our followers in Grimsby - sorry we couldn't make it down on this occasion, but we hope to make it up to you in 2012.

Home, Sweet Home (for now)

Brutal and epic journey from Cornwall to Glasgow yesterday. Arrived back in The Weeg sometime around midnight...and now it's snowing! HEY, it wasn't December when we left!!!

Maybe this sort of behaviour accounts for our extended journey times :



Anyway, we're now gearing up for tonight's gig at Glasgow's City Halls . Should be a good one!

In other news - The Great Online Q&A experiment continues :

Paul's Beermat of The Month

We've often been told we should get a Proper Job, and our visit to St Austell Brewery provided the best opportunity yet. Instead we opted for pints of Tribute, another St Austell staple.

Great gig to a capacity crowd, promoted by the fantastic Phill Webb. Looking forward to our return visit.

Questions From Finchley

Here are our questions from a few days ago in Finchley - sorry we're falling behind with things a little bit but we promise to do our best to answer ALL questions.

Following our lovely afternoon gig at The Arts Depot in Finchley, We thought we'd video our answers in the comfort of a lovely London Pub.

Sound Cellar, Poole - 31/11/11

The Sound Cellar is located beneath pub called The Blue Boar, and it's a real old fashioned arched ceiling cellar - great acoustics for us. Rob is doing an amazing job of developing this relatively young gig, and for the atmosphere of the venue and the fanstastic programmes he puts together, I would recommend it strongly to all jazz fans in the area, and beyond.

The pub itself is lovely - great bar, friendly vibes and open fire.

IN OTHER NEWS...

Konrad ate a whole lemon.

Konrad threw some ginger over a multi-storey car park.

More of our Q & A sessions to follow here, once we've got them edited...

On the way to Cornwall today.