This is Ryan Kintz, the owner of Afton Shows and MyAfton. For many years, there have been dozens of bands, rappers, and musicians on the internet that claim Afton is a scam, or pay to play, or a battle of the bands.

Today I’m going to dive into this, openly and honestly, and give a few concrete examples of some of these misleading posts and what I have to say about them.

Considering that we’ve booked well over 200,000+ acts since we started in 2004, and paired with the fact we have thousands upon thousands of positive testimonials and 3rd party verified reviews – it still may seem concerning to some that there is this much hostility about what we do.

What’s interesting is, the hostility and hate from these posts, for the most part, are coming from people who have never actually worked with us or played on our shows.

Even more disappointing, is that I see claims about us in these “bash posts” that are either:

1. Not true at all.
2. Mixing us up with a completely different company.
3. Or, False rumors about who we are, what we do, and how we operate.

So this makes you wonder – what’s really going on? Are these rumors true? What actually is true? That’s what I want to talk about.

Ultimately, if our shows don’t fit your needs, that’s ok. Don’t play them. We never want an artist to play our shows if they don’t feel it’s the right fit.

So let’s get into an example, I saw this post recently:

When I saw this, I direct messaged this person but as of yet have not heard back. As always, I like to dialogue and discuss any issues directly.

Here are the facts and some clarity regarding this post specifically, and excerpts from the message I sent this person.

WE NEVER HAVE BEEN PAY TO PLAY OR A BATTLE OF THE BANDS.

You claim that we are the “definition of pay to play.”

There could be nothing further from the truth. Since day 1, we have never made a band pay for unsold tickets, or pay us up front for a face value block of tickets. Period. There indeed are a few dozen bands over the last 16 years that have “claimed” this, but anytime I’ve talked to them directly I find out they confused us with another company entirely. 1 band swore we made them pay to play, and after going back and forth they realized it was with a battle of the bands company that went out of business years ago.

We work on the HONOR SYSTEM, meaning when an act books with us, they agree to sell 15 or 20 tickets in advance. But if they sell 1 ticket, they do NOT owe us for the other 19 tickets. The band is not on the hook for the tickets not sold. All of our booking is risk free to the artist. We never require an act to pay us $200 up front for a block of 20 tickets.

Furthermore, sign up and membership at MyAfton.com is free, and all booking services are free. Acts don’t pay us to book them. We just book them on the show they want, they do the eContract and either agree to the terms or choose to cancel the show and not do the agreement – and then we provide them online ticketing, cash tickets, and other promotional tools so they can effectively promote the show. If the show loses money, acts do NOT pay us anything. The only revenues coming in are from the Fans who buy tickets for the show.

Pay to Play means you are PAYING someone to book you either up front, or you are on the hook financially for tickets you did not sell.

We are clearly neither of those things. We have an honor system requested ticket requirement, and if a band books and draws 0 fans we simply do not book them again.

If you want to call us Promote to Play, I guess you can. It’s true that we are not interested in booking acts that refuse to draw fans and refuse to promote their shows. But honestly, I have yet to meet a venue owner that is stoked to book an act that will draw 0 fans to their club. From my experience, any show you’re booked for, the Promoter or the venue is going to ask you to draw more than 0 fans…

We have never been a battle of the bands, a contest, a meet the A&R rep type gig, and we never have made wild promises to our artists.

$1 PAYOUT CLAIM.

Payout – To say “you MAYBE get to keep $1 you sell and the rest goes to Afton” is misleading and not the whole truth. Maybe you are referring to our pay scale from 14 years ago when we were a much smaller company barely struggling to survive, but even then most acts got paid much more than that. I think in 2006 we had $7 tickets and acts earned $1 to $4 per ticket sold.

Here’s how payout works now myafton.com/artistpayment. Acts are Guaranteed $50 to $600 if they draw 20 – 100 fans + a bonus payout.

This means we payout what the eContract states even if we lose money on the show. If an act does not abide by the eContract it can void their pay (if they barely draw any fans) or they may get $1 per ticket sold if they fall short of their contract agreement and draw 15-19 fans. Our artists know where the pay jumps are, and acts are very aware that if they have 18 tickets sold, 2 more ticket sales increases their total payout by $32. Or that having 48 tickets sold means that 2 more tickets sold increases their total payout by $67.50 – we also invest more and more into the promoting the artist as they get more tickets sold myafton.com/perks

Many times acts are also getting an additional $1 per ticket sold bonus pay on top of that base pay scale, and acts that draw well a few times are going to a larger flat pay scale where they always make 40% to 60% of what they sell no matter how low their draw is. The majority of fans buy their tickets at advance discount price with Promo Code which comes out to $9 to $10.

A more factual statement would be: Afton pays out about 20%-25% on the low end as long as you draw 20 fans, and pays upwards of 60% if you are drawing 75-100 fans. Though the % can vary, because fans pay different prices if they buy way in advance or not, if they use a promo code, etc.

Another factual statement would be: If you completely breach the eContract for an Afton show, do not do anything you agreed to do, and draw 0 fans, your pay will be voided and they won’t want to book you again. Chances are, the venue won’t want you back either if you drew out 0 people to their club…

We talk with our artists a lot, and most of them tell us that our pay scale pays out better than most of the venues they talk to. But hey, it varies – we tell acts if you can get paid more elsewhere then you should go play those shows. We are always here on a month when you need a gig, we are just another option.

Unfortunately, no matter how much we love an artist’s music, we don’t have the budget to pay them $500 to draw 0 fans.

AFTON DOES NOT POCKET ALL OF THE MONEY NOT PAID TO ARTISTS.

I feel that it’s very misleading that you claim that “AFTON keeps the rest of the money.”

You are a Promoter yourself. You know firsthand that there are show expenses, and a lot of them. To say that Afton pockets all money except the money paid to artists is not only untrue, but impossible, unless the venue donates the venue for free, and all their staffing.

You know, as a Promoter, that after paying the artists you have to pay the sound tech, all venue staffing, a DJ if it’s a hip hop show, a possible Bar Guarantee if bar sales fall short of what was agreed, actual venue base rent, etc. We also have to pay our onsite Afton show manager. Even after that, as any Promoter knows, we have to use what’s finally leftover to pay our booking staff, support staff, software developers, office lease, server hosting, internet bill, event insurance – the list goes on and on.

Just like when you Promote shows, we are left with a fraction of gross sales when everything and everyone is paid out from the show. But with Afton, the artists and the venue get paid first. They are guaranteed their payout based on the eContract no matter what happens.

I feel that a more factual statement would be: Afton pays the venue and artists first, per the contract. Then they pay the rest of the show expenses, their booking staff, and all of their internal costs as a company that operates in 70 cities, and they pocket whatever is leftover after all of that. Just like with any show, the Promoter gets paid last (if money is leftover at all), and the Promoter is stuck paying out of pocket any losses that are incurred for the show.

TICKETS ARE MUCH LESS THAN $15.

To say “people pay $15 per ticket” is also not entirely true. A fraction of our attendees pay the $15 door price.

The vast majority of Fans are paying much less. Advance Tix are usually $9 to $12 depending on the show. In addition, we setup $1 to $3 off Promo Codes for online and cash tickets. Most Fans choose to buy a $10 cash ticket from the band before the $2 off promo code expires, so they pay just $8.00 total – far less than the $15 price you claimed.

$15 door sales make up less than 5% of our total attendance. The majority of fans buy advance tickets which are cheaper and many use a promo code.

We tell our acts that if they’re moving advance tickets because of the promo code incentive, when it expires we will give them a new one. The whole point is to incentive fans to get in gear and buy a ticket so they actually show up to the show. Especially since over 80% of Fans that “promise to buy at the door” flake out last minute and fail to show up.

A more factual statement would be: Afton advance tickets range from $9 to $12 typically, day of price is $14 or $15 depending on the show. Afton gives promo codes to every artist, usually several codes to help promote for $1 to $3 off tickets. Fans can buy cash tickets from the artist or buy tickets online, their choice. The majority of Fans end up getting the discounted advance tickets with the promo code discount applied, so most fans are paying $8 to $11 to get into the show. Fans that miss out on promo codes, don’t help the band they like by buying tickets early, and wait until the last minute end up paying the $15 door price – but that accounts usually for < 5% of the total attendees.

ARTISTS DO NETWORK AT OUR SHOWS, AND IT USUALLY LEADS TO MORE GIGS.

Contrary to what you claimed, many artists tell us that they have great success at networking with and meeting other acts we book them with and that leads to more shows. They also have the opportunity to meet the venue staff and venue booking person, and many of our venues end up booking the acts that we bring in if they are impressed with that act and they draw well.

To say that our acts “won’t make any real connections” is just not true. Time and time again, we see a rapper that sells 60 tickets for us and shortly after they’ll get booked directly by the venue we just had them at, or the venue will put them as opener on a tour.

We never over promise anything. We are not a battle of the bands, we are not a contest, there are no grand prizes, we do not promise an A&R rep or record labels will be there. We just book live concerts, to perform, gain new fans, and meet other acts and showcase your music. That’s it. So while we do encourage acts to meet the other artists so it leads to more shows, and impress the venue manager and meet them for future bookings, we never ever try and tell bands “hey if you book with Afton we promise it will lead to big connections.” I learned many years ago it’s the scammy fly by night booking companies that make wild promises like that.

THE REST OF MY MESSAGE TO THE AUTHOR OF THE ABOVE POST:

I saw your post about us and wanted to reach out. To be honest, many points you made are either very outdated or just not true. I’m all about freedom of expression, but it feels a bit unfair that your post says things that are false and misleading. I would appreciate a response so we can dialogue, and am open to hearing your thoughts. My goal here is to address each act that is upset in Denver so I can make sure that:

1. Their account gets deleted from MyAfton.com and we remove/block any contact info we have for them.

2. If any of them feel wronged in the past, that I can hear their story and look up which show it was and see what happened. Our software allows us to look up everything including our show reps notes about the band, show they played, draw, payout, etc.

So if you want to let acts know that, they can email us at Denver@myafton.com and I will make sure I personally reply.

Above all, we don’t want artists to be unhappy or upset with us. It’s very easy to unsubscribe from our MyAfton booking platform, delete your account, or just email us to tell us to never contact you again.

We’re a small staff, and the manpower behind keeping track of which bands have broken up, gone on hiatus, changed their name, etc. is not feasible with the 280,000+ artists on our platform. For every band that replies “we broke up 7 years ago, so remove us” we get 4 other acts replying to that same check-in email saying “Wow I haven’t seen your emails in years, yes we want to book now,” or, “Yes! I have a new project now I’d like to book with you.”

So that’s why we rely on our artists to communicate with us if there has been a change, so we can quickly and easily update their account or remove them completely.

I agree, over the years I have seen a lot of predatory booking companies (all out of business now) and looking through the comments on your post, it looks to me like several people that commented literally have us mixed up with someone else.

There is a lot of misinformation, rumors, mixing us up with other past companies that I don’t feel is a fair representation of what it is we really do.

Bottom line, if a band hates Reverb Nation or CD Baby they should not work with them. Same goes here, if our shows don’t fit someone’s needs they should instead book with someone like you, a local Promoter, or contact the venue’s themselves. We are all for doing what’s right for your project. But, we can’t read minds, we need artists to communicate their preferences to us if they previously signed up for our artist roster and booking platform.

Each year tens of thousands of acts play our shows, give us great feedback, love what we do for them, and continue to rebook more and more shows – so there is definitely a need for what we do and a large segment of the local music community that would disagree with the claims that you made.

That’s why we are so transparent and up front about how we work, what we do, what we ask bands to do, and why our eContract and booking platform always lists every single term of the show. No artist goes into booking a show with us, without knowing absolutely everything expected of them, and the commitments we are making to them.

I hope you take the time to read this and either amend the post or encourage bands to reach out if they have legitimate complaints. If we didn’t care about our artists, I would have ignored the whole post and not taken the time to reply to you at all, I hope you can see I am open for discussion and value feedback from every perspective.

A FEW REPLIES TO SOME COMMENTS I’VE SEEN:

Commenter: The typical “battle of the bands” scammers.

The truth: See above, we never have produced a battle of the bands. Makes me think he is thinking of one of the battle of the bands company that went out of business.

Commenter: They seem to prey on green folk and from what I noticed religious songwriters.

Commenter: Yes they definitely prey on younger artists hungry for their 1st gig.

The truth: The majority of our artists are over 21 and have played many shows. Less than 10% of the acts we book are religious. It’s extremely rare that an act we book has never played a show before.

We just work with artists who are committed to self promotion and effective marketing of their shows. They have seen the benefits of drawing 25, 50, 75 people on a show and that it’s more fun to play with other like minded artists that are focused on drawing as many fans out to the show as possible – and not complaining that “the venue is making me draw fans to my show.”

So many artists have this backward mindset of, “It’s not my job to promote the shows my band plays,” or “I’m not going to work hard to draw 100 people to my show.” But the best way a local unsigned act can go onto the next level is by growing their fan base, learning how to sell 100+ tickets to every show they play, and showing up all of the “veteran” bands in their city that only draw 5 people whenever they play a show. I don’t get it. The primary goal of a band or rapper aside from making great music should be maximizing their draw at every show and putting in the work to grow their fan base as large as possible. Ask any venue owner, would they prefer the best band ever that can draw 3 people? Or a decent band that can draw 100 fans. There is power in being able to draw a lot of fans and knowing how to effectively sell more tickets than any other local act in your region.

Commenter: Slots are determined by ticket sales.

The truth: To be most fair to the acts drawing the most fans, the prime time slots, longer set lengths, and higher payouts go to the acts that are drawing the most. It makes no sense to reward an act that drew 3 fans and letting them play for an hour. The only acts that would love that format are the acts that don’t promote their shows. Artists like working with Afton because we are fair and if you promote effectively and draw a lot of fans, you get everything you want. If an act is lazy or doesn’t promote at all, they get a short set and last pick of time slots.

Be honest. Who truly deserves the longer set, prime time slot, and more payout? The band that drew 2 people or the band that just drew 55 fans?

Commenter: Don’t forget the 10 piece drum kit for a 20 minute set.

The truth: If a band gets a 20 minute set on our shows, it’s because they did not honor the eContract agreement and they sold 2 or 6 tickets, or 0 tickets. We are very clear that set length is shorter if your draw sucks, because we want to give longer sets to the acts that are actually drawing fans out, abiding by the agreement, and helping to support the venue by bringing people into their club.

Why should a band get to play a long set when they were lazy with promotion and did not contribute to the show attendance? All of the other bands on the show WORKED HARD to promote, sell tickets, and get their fans out. Why should a band drawing 0 or few fans get to ride on their coattails? Typically artists that book with Afton ask us NOT to book them with acts that won’t draw anybody out.

Commenter: Don’t do it – they’re bad news pay-to-play leeches.
Commenter: Pay to play model it’s a no go for me.

The truth: As I discussed above, we’ve never been pay to play. Other companies have employed that practice, we have not. If an act books and sells 3 tickets they don’t owe us any money and they are not forced to pay us for the 17 tickets they didn’t sell.

Commenter: They have tried to recruit me for years.

The truth: Any act that tells us to remove them, block them, unsubscribe them – we do it. We don’t want to spend time contacting acts that don’t want our shows. We have an unsubscribe link in our emails and acts can delete their MyAfton.com account themselves as well. If we reach out and you don’t want our shows just communicate that to us, it’s as simple as that.

If we are contacting you in any way, shape, or form and you don’t want our shows please communicate that to us and we’ll make sure we never contact you again.

Commenter: They insist they aren’t a battle of the bands or pay to play but everyone’s comments disproves that.

The truth: If dozens of people say something, it doesn’t make it true. We have never been pay to play or a battle of the bands, and despite people claiming we are those things it doesn’t make it true just because people are spreading the same false rumor…

IN SUMMARY.

There are lots of options to book shows. We’ve never claimed to be the only route to go. Our sign up process at MyAfton.com is clear and up front, so are the show details and the eContract for our shows. We go out of our way to be so up front and transparent because as musicians ourselves, we never wanted to “slip things by” artists or try to “convince” artists to book with us.

The way we book our shows is the same way I booked shows for my band back in the day. We sold tickets because we knew it was the best way to maximize our draw.

Over the years we have been able to vastly increase our pay scale, the payout at lower draw ranges, invest more in promoting our shows and our artists, and we routinely launch new tools, features, and services that help unsigned musicians navigate this crazy, cutthroat, backwards industry. We will continue to put the artist first, and treat artists the way we’d like to be treated. There are a million easier ways to “make money” than by helping smaller, unsigned, local artists book shows where we take on all financial risk… But we’ve done this for 16 years because I remember being a musician, I remember when the ONLY option to play the legendary Meow Meow in Portland was through a 1-girl production company that demanded a $300 up front pay to play contract just to get booked on the show.

Play the shows you want, if you feel you need to tell acts that Afton shows are not awesome, or not something they should play – that’s fine. We all have the right to make our own opinions.

But I do ask that people get the story straight. Don’t just believe a rumor you heard, and don’t judge a company or a person harshly if you don’t have the whole story.

SO, NOW WHAT?

We keep learning, we keep growing, we keep improving. We fix mistakes when they happen, we dialogue with our artists when something doesn’t go the way it was supposed to.

We keep listening to everyone’s feedback, from the artist that absolutely loves us to the DIY purist that believes we are horrible. Because I believe listening to every perspective is valuable and helps keep myself and my staff accountable in the decisions we make and how we run this company.

The post Bands Claim Afton Shows is a Scam? appeared first on Afton.

Has This Happened To You?

Some people have been trying a scam on Afton artists. We want all MyAfton rappers, bands, and musicians to be aware of this so you don’t get caught in this Afton Scam. It’s only affected a small group of our artists, but we are always on the look out and shutting it down whenever we see it! 

Afton artists have reported that people are posting on social media that they are booking an Afton show (when in reality they have no affiliation with our company). These fakers are collecting money from unsuspecting artists and then going to www.MyAfton.com and creating an artist profile FOR that artist and booking them on one of our shows.

Remember, sign up is always free, membership is free, and our booking services are free!

We’ve also heard of some cases where someone is claiming they are from our company (and they are not) and they are collecting an entrance fee from our artists. Then that artist shows up to the Afton shows and finds out they are not actually booked.

Remember, there is no entrance fee for Afton Shows, and we don’t make any artists pay us up front for a block of tickets or make them pay to play.

HERE ARE SOME TIPS SO YOU DON’T EVER GET SCAMMED.

1. Always verify you’re booking with an official Booking Rep at Afton. If their email address doesn’t end in @myafton.com then they don’t work for our company.

2. Login to YOUR www.MyAfton.com account to see if you’re actually booked on a show. If you are, it will appear in your Confirmed Gigs Dashboard and you can view your eContract, flyer, details about the show, and see for a fact that you are booked in our system.

3. DO NOT let anybody sign up FOR you on www.MyAfton.com and be a middle man unless they are your manager. You can sign up for our booking platform for free yourself. Plus, it’s always best to have yourself in control of all of your bookings instead of relying on a 3rd party to use your MyAfton account.

4. WHEN IN DOUBT – REACH OUT! You can always email us and ask about anything you think feels a “bit off.” We can help clarify things and make sure that no scammers are trying to misuse Afton Shows or take advantage of our artists!

We were built for musicians, by musicians! We know there are some unsavory people in our Industry. But when you book directly with Afton at MyAfton.com, you are always going to be protected and taken care of.

Other Resources

Should You Ever Pay to Play

Are The Scam Rumors True

Is Afton Pay to Play?

Local Shows In Your City

The post A SCAM ON AFTON ARTISTS? appeared first on Afton.

Should I ever Pay to Play?

Thousands of Afton artists have asked us over the years, “Should I ever Pay to Play? Is it ever worth it?” You’ve probably heard many musicians call these types of opportunities a scheme, a scam, or a ripoff. It’s a valid question. Since we were founded by musicians, for musicians our founders and many of our Booking Reps have actually performed at pay-to-play shows at some point in their music careers. Our founder remembers playing in several battle of the bands shows where his band was forced to pay $600 up front just to get on the show.

“From our experience, we’ve never felt that pay to play shows are worth it. It just was a large up front cost to our band, and the shows didn’t really seem any better than a normal show. So we started steering clear of battle of the bands, contests, and any promoter that asked us to pay $300 or $600 up front to get onto the bill. That’s a huge reason from day 1, we decided that we’d never ask Afton artists to pay us up front for a block of tickets, or make our artists pay for unsold tickets. It was kind of like, let’s treat artists the way we’d want to be treated. So we created a way to book artists for free without charging them anything out of pocket.” explains Ryan Kintz, co-founder of Afton Shows and www.MyAfton.com

Every artist needs to make their own decision. But here are a few “Pay to Play” schemes we’ve seen and what we think about them.

1. TRUE “PAY TO PLAY.”

The Promoter or Booking Agent will require an act to buy a block of tickets up front for face value. Then the act can sell them, not sell them, or give them out for free. The Promoter doesn’t really care because they already got paid. Example: Band is required to pay $400 up front for a block of 40 tickets at $10 face value.

In essence, the artist is paying outright for a slot on the show. But here’s what we’ve found. If artists are forced to pay up front for their tickets, that usually means they don’t know how to effectively promote and sell those tickets, so they end up giving them out for free. The problem is, when you give FREE tickets to people, in their mind, you just greatly devalued your own show. They didn’t pay for it, they didn’t earn it, and they have no skin in the game. So, they usually flake out and don’t attend.

You really need to weigh if shows with this type of up front, buy-in requirement are worth it or not. We don’t believe it’s worth it.

2. PAYING FOR UNSOLD TICKETS (PAY LATER)

Another scheme we’ve seen, is a Promoter or Booking Agent will require a band or rapper to sign a contract stating if they fall short on the tickets they agree to sell, the artist OWES the Promoter for the unsold tickets at face value. This sucks. Even though you don’t pay up front or out of pocket, if the Promoter doesn’t teach you how to effectively sell your tickets, you could end up 15 or 20 tickets short – which means you end up having to pay $150 to $200 for those unsold tickets at $10 each.

We don’t think artists should be “on the hook” like this. But many venues and Promoters still employ these types of practices.

3. TOUR BUY-ON

What we found interesting, is in the National Touring world for acts signed to record labels – pay to play is actually VERY prevalent and common. National tour promoters and national booking agencies don’t call this pay to play, they call it a “Tour Buy-On.”

Essentially, a national tour headliner will “sell” their opening tour slots to other small-mid sized signed artists. The headliner knows they won’t draw, but they are signed to a label and have great music. So the headliner charges them $300, $500 or even thousands of dollars PER SHOW on the tour to have the privilege of being the tour support! A tour buy-on at $500 per show for 30 tour dates could mean the tour support act’s record label (or the band themselves) is shelling out $15,000 to be on the tour!

Side note for unsigned artists: If a signed touring band with 19,000 Spotify listeners that everyone in the industry knows can’t draw more than 10 fans, is able to BUY-ON to national tours for $300 or $500 per show, that may be something you should look into considering. This little known secret could be an easy way for you to get onto a notable tour if you have the funds.

It’s a bit ironic that the pay to play scheme some people use on local artists is commonly employed on the higher levels of national tours.

4. BATTLE OF THE BANDS / CONTESTS

You’ve probably seen battle of the bands, rap battles, and contest shows. Typically you pay an “entrance fee” of $200 or $300 to play 1-2 songs. This is basically a pay to play scenario, however in these cases what you’re really doing is buying a “lottery ticket.” You’re buying in for a chance to win prizes, or a record label deal, etc.

Again, these shows can have low attendance if artists buy on and don’t know how to sell tickets because when they give them away for free those fans have no financial obligation to the show so they’ll usually flake out.

You’re also at the mercy of the judges. We’ve been at several battles where the winners were clearly NOT the best musicians or song writers…

But, if your goals are to win contests and prizes, you’ll have to weigh if the entry fee buy-on cost is worth your chance of winning.

DECISIONS, DECISIONS…

So now what? Do you think it’s worth it to pay up front for a block of tickets, be on the hook for paying for your unsold tickets, to buy onto a tour, or buy into a battle or contest?

If not, we don’t blame you. There’s nothing illegal (in most cases) about what companies are doing with the above 4 pay to play scenarios above. But it’s important that musicians know what’s out there and what they want to be involved in – or avoid!

As always, if you’re looking to get booked for shows for free, without any up front cost or financial penalties, and you don’t want to involve yourself in paying to play – check out www.MyAfton.com we’d love to get you onstage. Membership is free, booking services are free, and we’ll always provide you with the tools, tips, and resources to help you succeed.

Other Resources

Is Afton a Scam?

Is Afton Pay to Play?

Local Shows In Your City

The post Afton’s Take: Should You Ever Pay to Play? appeared first on Afton.

Are the Rumors True?

Every so often, an artist will reach out and ask, “I heard that Afton is a scam,” or “My friend’s band said you made them pay to play in 2010,” or some other rumor flying around on the internet. The Music Industry is full of unethical Promoters, Booking Agents, A&R Reps, and Record Labels. So it’s always good to vet the company you’re about to work with.

Honestly, we love it when musicians ask us these questions. It not only shows us that they’re learning to be cautious and not jump into anything that sounds “too good to be true,” but it also gives us the chance to really explain what MyAfton is all about.

So far Afton has booked over 250,000 bands and rappers since 2004, and our MyAfton booking platform already has over 480,000 musicians. There’s a reason so many musicians choose to book with Afton.

Here are a few rumors we’ve heard this year that we’d like to talk about.

“I heard Afton is a Scam!”

Here’s the deal. We always do what we say we’ll do, we fix mistakes if we make them, we always abide by the eContract, and as musicians ourselves we care about the artists we book. We’ve never scammed anybody, we’ve never held a fake show that didn’t really happen, we always pay our artists exactly what is owed per the eContract – even if we lose money on the show, and we’ve always paid every venue we’ve worked with what was owed. Since the beginning, we’ve worked hard to be the company that keeps its word and pays out what is owed. This is a big reason over 250 venues work with us month to month, year round, and why over 250,000 unsigned rappers and bands have trusted us to book them on shows.

We book you for free, we bankroll the entire event, and all we ask is that our artists effectively promote and bring their share of the crowd.

 “I heard Afton is Pay to Play!”

Since day 1, our company has been against pay to play. So that’s not ever something we’ve chosen to employ in our business practices. There’s a great article on this HERE

“I heard Afton is a Ripoff.”

Thousands upon thousands of artists would disagree. We have an extremely high re-booking rate, and many times our shows fill up before everyone that wanted on the bill could get on. We are up front and transparent so every artist can decide if what we offer fits their needs. We never want an act to play our shows if what we do doesn’t fit their goals. That’s why we lay everything out in the open and have such a clear and thorough eContract. The truth is, we wouldn’t have been in business for the past 15 years if we truly were ripping people off left and right.

“I heard that Afton allows artists to pay to play if they want to?”

Actually, we don’t. We let all artists know that we want them to effectively sell their tickets so they grow their fan base and bring out their share of the crowd. This isn’t all about money, we want to maximize attendance so that every artist (and the venue) benefits from a large crowd.

More about this policy can be found HERE

“Afton is a battle of the bands company.”

Sorry! I played some battle of the bands shows back in the day and just didn’t like them. So this isn’t even something we ever tested out or played around with. We’ve never been a battle of the bands. We just provide fun shows to network collectively with other artists, and to connect with the fans.

“Afton used to be Gorilla / Sugarlight / fill in the name here.”

Sometimes artists confuse us with entirely different companies. We’ve been around since 2004 and we’ve seen many companies sprout up and then go away. Anybody remember BoDogg Battle of the Bands!? They were funded I think by a millionaire, but shut down shop after a few years… We’re grateful to our MyAfton artist community for keeping us around for so long. We couldn’t do this without you!

“My friend’s band said they sold $500 worth of tickets and Afton didn’t pay them anything.”

So far, we’ve heard this about 5 times in the past 10 years. We always research it, because IF somehow an artist wasn’t paid correctly we want to fix it. Fortunately, anytime a musician has claimed this we found out that either:

• The band they claim never got paid has never played an Afton show. They mixed us up with some other company, and the band has never existed in our database.

• The band they claim sold $600 worth of tickets ended up canceling on us, not showing up, or didn’t sell any tickets. It’s funny how some artists can mis-remember something like that, but our database and records show us everything about every show an artist has played for us.

• They made it up to see how we’d react… Gotta love the creativity.

We always double check if an artist claims we didn’t pay them so we find out exactly what happened. It’s rare, but if a mistake was made (the check was mailed to an old address), we fix it.

“I heard Ryan Kintz is an amazing Rapper.”

I wish. I play guitar and sing and had a rock band that I loved. I can’t rap, but maybe someday I’ll get better at it. Everyday I listen to new rapper submissions and I’m blown way with just how much talent there is in our unsigned hip hop/rap community. I’ve screened a lot of our rappers to open for the national tours we do, and I have to say – most of you are BETTER than the famous rappers I’m hearing on YouTube and Spotify!

IN CONCLUSION

I heard a great quote once, “A Lie can travel halfway around the world before the Truth can even lace up its running shoes.”

It’s so true, gossip travels fast and so do rumors. My promise to you is, we’ll always be up front and honest with our musicians. We’ll always keep our promises, and if we do make a mistake (we’re human after all), we’ll do our best to fix it. Cheers!

Other Resources

Local Shows In Your Area

Should You Ever Pay to Play?

Is Afton Pay to Play?

The post Are the Afton Scam Rumors True? appeared first on Afton.

The Ugliest Words in the Business

Three of the ugliest words in the music industry are “PAY TO PLAY”.

For a new musician or artist, or even seasoned veterans, finding out a potential show falls under the umbrella of a “pay to play” gig causes concern.

What is “Pay to Play” Exactly?

If you want to get down to nitty gritty details, technically every show is a pay to play performance.

Whether it’s the sold out arena show or the mom and pop coffeehouse, someone is paying for that show to happen.

Often times, it’s a promoter or manager, sometimes it’s the act themselves (if it’s a DIY rental). Sometimes it’s the venue.

The hope with every show is that whatever money is paid out is recouped at the end of the night.

Booking shows can be a risky business if you don’t know what you’re doing. That’s why tickets sales are so important.

But what we’re talking about, of course, is not your average show (whatever that means). What we’re talking about it is the dirty three-word “pay to play” gig.

If you’re not familiar with this concept, it’s pretty straight forward. Someone charges an act a fee (PAY) in exchange (TO) for a chance to perform (PLAY).

Often times, the gig is an opening slot for a larger nationally-touring act. Or it’s simply the opportunity to play an esteemed venue.

The Most Common Tactic

The most common tactic involves charging an act a flat fee for a specific time slot. This fee can range anywhere from $100-5000 or more! These arrangements usually don’t involve selling tickets (as the promoter has already made their money from the act’s payment).

In these scenarios, the artist isn’t compensated. No matter how well the show did. This is the age old “exposure” gig. “You’re playing to get your music out there”, they’ll say.

Often these deals are not in writing, there’s no formal contract, and it’s a cash-only transaction. In the worst situations, some acts are swindled completely.

They find themselves locked out of the venue the night of the show. They have already paid a ton of cash to perform. The “promoter” is nowhere to be found. The show manager has no record of them on the bill, and the act never even gets to perform!

This type of pay to play situation goes on at all levels. From the small local shows all the way up to large national tours. When it happens on national tours they call it a “buy on“.

In virtually all cases of pay to play, the act who paid to play doesn’t see a dime in payment.

Is it Illegal?

There’s nothing technically illegal about pay to play. Some see it as the way the industry works.

But for many musicians and artists out there, it’s just an ugly deal they’d rather not engage in. Respectfully so.

So, Is Afton Pay to Play?

That brings us to the $10,000 question: Is Afton pay to play?

Some people, websites and media outlets have certainly labeled Afton as such. But the reality doesn’t live up to the charge.

We have never been pay to play.

Here’s why: The artists we book never pay to play our shows. No artist ever pays us anything out of pocket for unsold tickets.

Our booking services are FREE. There are no up front fees to play Afton shows. We don’t require acts to pay up front for a block of tickets. No one pays us back for any tickets that they didn’t sell. We don’t charge any hidden fees.

Everything we do is completely free to the artist. All ticket revenues come from the FANS, not the artist.

We’re There Every Step of the Way

We do exactly what is agreed upon in writing and are always honest with our artists. We don’t just book the shows and check out.

We’re with the artist every step of the way to help them succeed. We supply advice and promotional support on multiple fronts. From flyers and handbills to social media spotlight ads, featured posts and featured artist blogs.

When an artist wins, we win. We take the risk on every artist and show we book. It’s in our best interest if that artist succeeds. If they lose, so do we.

To ensure success, we work directly with our artists. Our booking reps are available anytime for one on one support at all points, before and after the show.

Show Management And Support

The night of every show, we have a show manager in person, at the venue. They are in constant communication with support staff at our headquarters and working with artists on the ground.

The show manager runs everything from artist check-in and soundcheck to locking in set times.

They are there working with the sound engineers, club managers, hosts, DJs and artists to ensuring ticket sales are accurate. They report all artist/DJ/club payments.

Show managers stay on site through the end of the show, making sure it runs smoothly and without a hitch.

Afton wants every show to go well. We want the artists to sell as many tickets as possible and give everyone involved the experience of a lifetime.

When this happens (which it does 98% of the time), it’s a triple win. We win, the venue wins and the artists win.

We all make some money and we all have a great experience to look back on.

Accountability and Follow Through

When we make mistakes or something doesn’t go as planned, we hold ourselves accountable. We work diligently to make it right.

We aren’t taking anyone’s money and running. We’re always available to work with artists, venues. We’ve been in business for a long time with our approach and we’ve grown every year.

If we were pay to play, we wouldn’t succeed for as long as we have. We wouldn’t have worked with tens of thousands of artists all over the country. We wouldn’t have expanded as large as we have if we were a shady, corrupt pay to play operation.

Here’s something to know about how we work that’s important to this issue. Artists get paid even if the show is a loss for us.

We take on all the risk, pay all show costs up front. Our cut is never guaranteed. But the artist’s cut is. They are compensated as promised, no matter how the show sells, if they uphold their end of their eContract.

It’s disheartening anytime we get mis-labeled. We are adamantly against pay to play. The company was founded to be strictly against this business model and approach.

What’s the Catch?

All we ask is for an artist to sell some tickets. If the artist does, they make money!

Here’s a link to our artist payment structure.

That’s the catch that we are always asked by skeptical artists.

We have learned that selling tickets does matter. The catch is that we ask the artist to sell tickets. Which is not so out of bounds, when you realize that’s the catch of any show an artist would play!

No venue wants to open their doors to an empty room, and no one wants to play an empty room.

That being said, it’s very clear in all of our communications with artists they are never paying for the tickets. There are no financial penalties if an artist doesn’t sell tickets.

If an artist doesn’t uphold their end of the eContract, the only penalties they receive are shorter sets or last pick on their set time. If they don’t sell ANY tickets, their set can be cancelled or rescheduled. All of this is explicitly stated in our artist agreements.

We send weekly emails and texts, blogs, help articles, one-on-one correspondence and a plethora of perks and incentives to help artists sell tickets.

In the end, we pay the artists to play our shows. We are proud of what we do, and we always act with integrity and honesty at all times.

Don’t Just Take Our Word For It

Thousands upon thousands of artists can attest to this. You can see that for yourself: www.myafton.com/references

You can also read some of the recent success stories from some of our artists here: https://myafton.com/blog/afton-artist-success-stories/

It’s very understandable to be a bit skeptical, especially in our industry!

But we are NOT Pay to Play. We never have been, we never will be and we stand behind our business model 100%.

Our goal is first and foremost to help artists launch their music careers. We help artists achieve their musical goals and we are with them every step of the way. Afton was was founded on that principle and it’s what we strive to achieve every single day.

We don’t hide from criticism, as evidenced by this post. And we welcome a dialogue from anyone who still has objections to our business model.

If you’d like to touch base with us drop a comment below, hit us up on social media or drop an email anytime at feedback@myafton.com  

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