[Dixielandjazz] Gigmasters & agents - was phone quoting

[Stephen G Barbone]

> Dixiejazzdata <dixiejazzdata at aol.com> Bart wrote - (polite snip)
>
> I use a site called Gigmasters.com  because they are all over the  
> internet, they are however the least productive of
> all the sites I use, because they insist that you bid on the jobs  
> with a price, and they send the gig lead to everybody in your  
> category of music.
>
> I bought their highest level plan for a year and never got one GIG,   
> worse than that never even got a reply to any of their gig leads, I  
> complained to them about this and they refused to talk about it.   
> They kept sending me renewal pitches and I complained again with  
> each reply.     And told them in no uncertain terms why their site  
> sucked and I would not consider renewing and paying them at any  
> level.    They then sent me a Free Top Level six month membership,  
> and I have received two gig leads so far and still no reply.    They  
> suck and people who only shop for live music with budget in mind are  
> usually not worth the time and effort to even deal with.   Have your  
> price structure and stick to it as much as possible, dropping down  
> to their "BUDGET" will only let other more sophisticated music  
> buyers know you are cheap, and or really not very good. . . .  
> (remainder snipped)

Hey Bart:

I also subscribed to GigMasters last year in the believe that band  
leaders should try anything once. VBG.

However I bought their lowest level service figuring I could "sell"  
our band. I found that we were always the highest or second highest  
priced band among those that bid for gigs. I got about 30 leads,  
followed upon all of them by phoning the bookers and was unable to  
sell one gig. Basically we were were priced way out of the ballpark by  
the many other bands that submitted extremely low bids.

I figure most folks who look for bands on Gigmasters are like those on  
Craig's list. They want the lowest price, period. When it came time to  
renew last month, I passed and told them why.

Same goes for most booking agents IMO. They are bottom feeders and I  
now longer pursue them.

Renewed my faith in doing it myself and getting gigs through my own  
target marketing efforts.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband