The difficulty of supporting indie artists
This post inspired by a story I read in another thread, where a guy gave support to a small-time musician who had actually quit for a while before it sounded like passion was reignited.
Actually, let me give some context for this thought: I have an old friend who does a variety of arts, including acting and playing in a band. I'm pretty sure they're both side-gigs for him, but the stuff he posts on social media is all about "Support the small-time artists!"
So between that and the post I read here... it got me thinking. There are some very nice things about going and seeing smaller artists in smaller venues- it may not be as crowded, and it will probably be cheaper than anything Ticketmaster has its greedy hands in. In addition, there might even be a chance to talk to the artist/musician at some point, and making those connections can lead to a variety of possibilities.
So supporting these small-time artists can lead to a lot of great benefits... then what's the problem with it?
As I thought about it, the first issue is: you have no idea what you're getting into. I'll be the first to admit it: I'm very, very picky with my music tastes. About a year or so ago, I was invited to see some friends of friends perform. Again, small-time artists. I went to support them... and ended up VERY disappointed. Mostly because, the style of music they played was not to my liking at all.
Another difficulty of going to see small-time artists? In my case, I've been lucky to have gone to a variety of concerts to see big-name bands (side note: my preferred style of music is rock and metal), and after being used to those... seeing a small-time artist just feels very, very lacking (for obvious reasons). Sure, it is possible for them to improve given time- my friend that i mentioned above has done exactly that over the years- but the first impressions are super-important, especially when it comes to deciding if you want to continue supporting them or not.
I enjoy music, and there are some cool things about supporting smaller artists... but at the same time, due to lack of advertising, you never know what you're going to get. It may be an awesome experience, or end up a complete flop. I want to know, for anyone who supports relatively unknown artists, what's your take on it?
Seeing small bands in a small venue can be fun if it's cheap and a regular thing. Each month you go out, see three bands, and if they suck they suck but every now and again there'll be one that's great and you've got another band that you enjoy listening to. If you're with a bunch of friends you can commiserate about the terrible support act, or friendly-argue about that band sucks / no they're great you just don't know good music.
And then, a few years later, some of these bands become big and you get to say "I saw them in a small venue and boy they sucked then and I think they still suck" or "I saw them and they were great".
A short digression about a Gloucestershire band
You may have heard the song Unbelievable, by EMF. Before they were EMF they were a band called Apple Mosaic playing fairly standard late 80's indie pop. Anyway, I saw them a bunch as Apple Mosaic, and then a bunch as EMF, and it was weird seeing EMF become a pretty big thing in the UK.
One of the problems for the bands though is that often they lose money. The fees for playing can be tiny, and often not nearly enough to cover costs (eg, fuel costs of driving a van to the venue) let alone make any money. Today there are different ways to push your music out to an audience that are not as painful as driving three hours to a tiny venue to rush a soundcheck and play to a tiny unappreciative audience.
And this style of live music has essentially collapsed. In my town there were at least 5 venues doing live indie / rock music, but that's collapsed to one venue sort of doing it, but not very well.
I guess what you get out of a concert depends on if you view a live show as an opportunity for music and art appreciation in real time, or as an opportunity to cater to your own personal aesthetic whimsy. I think for you it sounds like the second one, and you will probably not enjoy spending your time on “local artists” if you consider any show where the songs weren’t all stuff you’d want to put on your playlist later as some kind of “fail” or “waste of money”.
In the area I live in, there are two issues with trying to support smaller local bands:
I have managed to find one group I enjoy and can support, but that's mostly because I work with the lead guitarist's father.