Members Kramerguy Posted December 16, 2011 Members Share Posted December 16, 2011 I'm looking for simple feedback, did you use them? What area? How did it go, and was it worth it? I'm on the fence, it's not a cheap service, but can be super lucrative... if it works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dan88z Posted December 16, 2011 Members Share Posted December 16, 2011 Tried it for a year because a gig we wanted only booked thru them. Didn't get that gig and didn't get any other gigs from them, so we dropped it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Agitator Posted December 16, 2011 Members Share Posted December 16, 2011 Never heard of them before now, but I went looking for "Massachusetts ska bands" and only got one band (looks like a GB band) in Massachusetts, and a bunch of reggae/party/GB bands from around the northeast. So it doesn't seem like anyone I know is using them. "Massachusetts Reggae bands" actually turns up one band I've heard of, along with some steel drum bands (reggae, mon!) and a booking agency(? wtf?). Color me skeptical. It might work for more general party bands, but the listings seem very haphazard and random (I clicked on Massachusetts and am getting recommendations for bands from Chicago, Dallas and Los Angeles!). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jeff42 Posted December 16, 2011 Members Share Posted December 16, 2011 i've been on the fence too. I know Guido uses them with Jumpstart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kmart Posted December 16, 2011 Members Share Posted December 16, 2011 Never heard of them before now, but I went looking for "Massachusetts ska bands" and only got one band (looks like a GB band) in Massachusetts, and a bunch of reggae/party/GB bands from around the northeast. So it doesn't seem like anyone I know is using them. "Massachusetts Reggae bands" actually turns up one band I've heard of, along with some steel drum bands (reggae, mon!) and a booking agency(? wtf?). Color me skeptical. It might work for more general party bands, but the listings seem very haphazard and random (I clicked on Massachusetts and am getting recommendations for bands from Chicago, Dallas and Los Angeles!). Well be a bit practical about it: 1) How many ska bands are there in the first place? You're searching for an ultra-small niche genre to start with. And if the existing member bands use 'ska' in their descriptors, then you're going to turn up bands that aren't necessarily 'pure' ska. A hit that's a reggae band who uses ska in their description is, IMO, a search engine working well. 2) The bands from other regions that came up are bands that are willing to travel to the locale you specified. Since the number of actually local bands that identify themselves as a ska band, or even a reggae band, would be small just by nature, it's only natural that the search engine on the site would then pull up bands that aren't local who are willing to travel. Point being, GigMasters is very likely NOT the place for finding ska bands to begin with (I suspect if you were the ONE ska band in a given geography, you'd clean up on show requests), but ska bands are (1) uncommon to begin with and (2) not likely to be targeting the types of clients GigMasters typically services in the first place, so it's a total chicken and egg situation. For GigMasters, you could probably swap out a search for ska band with metal/hardcore punk/etc. Here's what I know about GM: 1) It is a gateway to many wedding/corp/event opportunities, and CAN be a useful tool for a band targeting those types of shows.2) It's no magic bullet, and I suspect that it's not until you have established yourself as a successful and in demand wedding/corp/event band at least somewhat, you won't see much success with it. Of course, that begs the question of how DOES one become a successful wedding/corp/event band in the first place, but that's not for GM to answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Agitator Posted December 16, 2011 Members Share Posted December 16, 2011 Well be a bit practical about it:1) How many ska bands are there in the first place? You're searching for an ultra-small niche genre to start with. And if the existing member bands use 'ska' in their descriptors, then you're going to turn up bands that aren't necessarily 'pure' ska. A hit that's a reggae band who uses ska in their description is, IMO, a search engine working well.Yes, that's all true, but I'm not the one who listed "ska" as one of the categories on their website. They did. I was surprised to see "ska" listed at all. But I think the "reggae" listings are more revealing since there are, of course, many more "reggae" bands (or bands that list "reggae" as one of their styles) than there are "ska" bands, and I only saw one of the bands I know, meaning that numerous other bands -- who fall under the general category of "party cover bands", i.e., learning the latest reggae hits, mixing them with classics, giving the crowd a good time and not just standing onstage chanting and pounding hand drums -- are not using this service but are still successfully filling their calendars. Same thing with, for example, Marley tribute bands who are not using this service (they only list two in the entire country) but keep busy. 2) The bands from other regions that came up are bands that are willing to travel to the locale you specified. Since the number of actually local bands that identify themselves as a ska band, or even a reggae band, would be small just by nature, it's only natural that the search engine on the site would then pull up bands that aren't local who are willing to travel. Yeah, but, like I said, I remain skeptical. Bands from Chicago shouldn't be showing up on the first or second page of search results when I look for a "reggae" band. All it means is that for every band who uses this service, there are dozens (at least) of working bands who don't. Dan's experience seems to reinforce this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted December 16, 2011 Members Share Posted December 16, 2011 We use Gigmasters a lot. We keep two different profiles in order to cover a wider range of markets. I think they are an excellent service for hooking up bands with private event clients who otherwise don't have a first clue about how to go about finding a band. The thing they do best is they have great presence on search engines. Search for a band genre in almost any city and the Gigmasters site usually comes up very high. The 2nd thing they do well is they offer a very professional service to the client so I think many people feel much more comfortable dropping down a big chunk of money on a band they've never heard of by going through Gigmasters than by contacting the band directly. Do they charge a lot? I guess that's all relative. They want $179 a year plus 5% of the gigs. Yeah, that's real money. But if you book a couple of gigs a year you wouldn't have gotten otherwise....that's the way I always look at things like fees and commissions. Sure, nobody likes to pay out more money than they have to. I know there are bands who book over $100,000 a year in gigs through that site. How many of those would they have gotten otherwise? I dunno. But I feel pretty confident in saying that the gigs we get through them we likely would NOT have gotten otherwise, and there are some gigs that don't get booked officially through the site where Gigmasters was the reason for the initial hook-up. If you're looking for club gigs, this isn't the service to use. (Although we HAVE received club gig offers in the past through there.) As far as being an esoteric band goes? I don't think that's a hinderance. They have a zillion catagories and all sorts of acts from DJs to magicians use it. There seem to be a lot of tribute bands using it. I was first turned on to the site by a bass player I knew who said he got a ton of work through the site for the Mr. Wizard type act he did for kiddie birthday parties on the side. I would suggest to use the lowest-level 6 month option and see if you get any positive results from it. I don't think we got much at first. It does take time to work your way up their ladder usually. How your band comes up within their searches is based on how much money you book through the site. So not much is going happen until you book that first gig or two. But I also would recommend to not use it until you have your promo ready to go. Have your pics, audio and video demos ready to load. The pages for each band are generic and everyone looks the same. So the bands with the best audio and video are going to get the most notice. So until you've got everything in place, you might just be wasting your money to sign up too soon. The other thing is you have to be "on" it. The way the system works is that if a client expresses interest in a band, the site automatically sends out notices to a few other similar (or sometimes not-so-similar--for some reason we always get notices for people looking for Mariachi bands...) bands. You'll know the difference between whether your band was the "expressed interest" band or not, but in a lot of cases the early-bird gets the worm. We've gotten a lot of gigs because our bass player, who handles this end of things, usually responds to people right away, tries to make phone contact as quickly as possible, and is a good salesman once he gets people on the phone. We've "stolen" a few gigs from other bands for this reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Kramerguy Posted December 16, 2011 Author Members Share Posted December 16, 2011 Thanks guido, good info! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted December 16, 2011 Members Share Posted December 16, 2011 Well be a bit practical about it:1) How many ska bands are there in the first place? You're searching for an ultra-small niche genre to start with. And if the existing member bands use 'ska' in their descriptors, then you're going to turn up bands that aren't necessarily 'pure' ska. A hit that's a reggae band who uses ska in their description is, IMO, a search engine working well.2) The bands from other regions that came up are bands that are willing to travel to the locale you specified. Since the number of actually local bands that identify themselves as a ska band, or even a reggae band, would be small just by nature, it's only natural that the search engine on the site would then pull up bands that aren't local who are willing to travel.Point being, GigMasters is very likely NOT the place for finding ska bands to begin with (I suspect if you were the ONE ska band in a given geography, you'd clean up on show requests), but ska bands are (1) uncommon to begin with and (2) not likely to be targeting the types of clients GigMasters typically services in the first place, so it's a total chicken and egg situation. For GigMasters, you could probably swap out a search for ska band with metal/hardcore punk/etc.Here's what I know about GM:1) It is a gateway to many wedding/corp/event opportunities, and CAN be a useful tool for a band targeting those types of shows.2) It's no magic bullet, and I suspect that it's not until you have established yourself as a successful and in demand wedding/corp/event band at least somewhat, you won't see much success with it. Of course, that begs the question of how DOES one become a successful wedding/corp/event band in the first place, but that's not for GM to answer. You have to understand how the service works. First of all, they don't "target" anyone. They just help create an internet presence and a central location for all the bands. The degree a ska band would be limited by Gigmasters would only depend on how much the internet limits ska bands. I did a google search for "Ska band San Francisco" and the Gigmasters link came up 4th. So if you're a Ska band in SF hoping to get a nice google result, that's not a bad way to go. Now, regarding Agitator's questions about which bands appear in the search: The way the system works is this: Bands who sign up put themselves under a "primary catagory" listing and then they can choose several (up to 18 depending on what "level" of membership you've paid for) sub-catagories. In our case we've simply chosen "cover band" as our primary catagory and we have many sub-catagories selected: variety band, wedding band, 80s band, 70s band, 90s band, dance band, classic rock band, pop band, etc etc etc. If somebody searches for a "Classic Rock Band" in our geographic area we'll appear in the search but not as high as a band that has chosen "Classic Rock" as their main catagory. So in the case of the search for Massachucetts Reggae Band, any band from that area that had "Reggae Band" as their main catagory would show up first, followed by a computerized-selected mix of nearby bands that might have selected "reggae" as a secondary catagory and further-away bands who had "reggae" as either a main or sub catagory. Since "reggae" is a fairly esoteric catagory, I can understand why the search results might become pretty irrelevant pretty quickly. Which, I would think would be a benefit to the only actual reggae band in MA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jimiv Posted December 16, 2011 Members Share Posted December 16, 2011 I've used them for the last year when we decided to dump clubs and go exclusively privates. Booked six gigs with them since last Feb. and made north of 15,000.00 from those gigs and residual exposures. Well worth the booking fees. You have to work it though. Your bookings will be in direct ratio with how much media you have to put up on the website. You must have a good product up on the webpage. 1st impressions are critical. Follow-up with your leads can be the difference between landing a 2500.00 + gig or getting nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wardjames Posted December 16, 2011 Members Share Posted December 16, 2011 I've gotten good results and about $3000 in private gig money in the last 6 months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted December 16, 2011 Members Share Posted December 16, 2011 I've used them for the last year when we decided to dump clubs and go exclusively privates. Booked six gigs with them since last Feb. and made north of 15,000.00 from those gigs and residual exposures. Well worth the booking fees. You have to work it though. Your bookings will be in direct ratio with how much media you have to put up on the website. You must have a good product up on the webpage. 1st impressions are critical. Follow-up with your leads can be the difference between landing a 2500.00 + gig or getting nothing. For a band just starting out in the private event market, I think it's great. A couple of years ago nearly 100% of our private gigs were coming through that site. Without it, we would have just sat around on our butts wishing for better paying gigs but not really having any way to get them. Gigs beget more gigs in this business and one thing Gigmasters does is it sort of levels-the-playing field in the eyes of the customer. A band just starting out probably has a much better chance of competing for a good paying gig against a "top" band with a client that has come through Gigmasters than with a client that has gone to a talent agency. Now that we've built our reputation and other presences better, we booked maybe 50% of our gigs through them last year. OTHO, some of the areas top bands that didn't use the site previously I see are starting to use it now. Why they are using it now, and whether it will work for them and they will continue to use it....I have no idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Agitator Posted December 16, 2011 Members Share Posted December 16, 2011 So for those of you who use them... I guess they make a cost-effective and/or more productive alternative to an agency? Do you think they cut into agencies' business or is there something extra that agents provide? I've worked with agents who basically did nothing except send out a contract after we'd booked the gigs, so it wouldn't be hard to improve on that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted December 16, 2011 Members Share Posted December 16, 2011 So for those of you who use them... I guess they make a cost-effective and/or more productive alternative to an agency? Do you think they cut into agencies' business or is there something extra that agents provide? I've worked with agents who basically did nothing except send out a contract after we'd booked the gigs, so it wouldn't be hard to improve on that. We don't use them as an alternative. We work with agents as well. But when we were first starting out we were just another band among dozens on most agents' lists and without a solid rep behind us we were far from their first choice to send to any gigs that came their way. At Gigmasters the playing field was much more level. But the main point is that they provide an alternative contact point for the clients. I don't know how much they cut into agencies' business because I'm guessing most people who go through Gigmasters don't have the first clue about how to even contact an agency. They're just searching for bands on the internet. I'll also guess that Gigmasters might make some people feel like they are more in control over which band they choose as opposed to going through an agency where they might feel the agent says "these guys will be perfect for you" without giving them quite as many options. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members J.Paul Posted December 17, 2011 Members Share Posted December 17, 2011 I joined for free when the first started 13 , 14 years ago (? something like that)....I am of the opinion that you have to draw the line somwhere with the amount of social networking (or just plain internet presence)and deleted my profile... What I would like to know is :At what point did they start charging?Is there anyone else here that started with Gigmasters?Did they make start making you pay or is your membership still free? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Scott Powell Posted December 17, 2011 Members Share Posted December 17, 2011 My band joined in August and have so far cleared about $2700 in gigs,and have three gigs next year that came from Gigmasters. The gigs we get are private parties or weddings,and are classier and pay more than our usual bar gigs. I'm glad we joined Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted December 17, 2011 Members Share Posted December 17, 2011 I joined for free when the first started 13 , 14 years ago (? something like that)....I am of the opinion that you have to draw the line somwhere with the amount of social networking (or just plain internet presence)and deleted my profile...What I would like to know is :At what point did they start charging?Is there anyone else here that started with Gigmasters?Did they make start making you pay or is your membership still free? How did they make money before? Just off the commissions? I should point out that the 5% they charge per gig is something the bands can ask the clients to pay. In fact, the way it is set up is that the default setting is for the clients to pay an extra 5% to Gigmasters unless the band chooses to pay the 5% themselves. We choose this option because I believe that, all other things being equal, the client will choose the band that offers to pay the 5% themselves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Kramerguy Posted December 19, 2011 Author Members Share Posted December 19, 2011 well it seems like it could be a worthwhile investment, but I see how you really need to get all your ducks in a row before committing, or you will probably be disappointed. I'm pretty certain we're not ready yet to make the leap- We have zero video up on our site and few decent pics, and audio files are even lacking IMO. I have been working on it and will continue to gather better media over next few gigs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wheresgrant3 Posted December 19, 2011 Members Share Posted December 19, 2011 We've never used or considered using it however in our area I'm not certain the advantage or impact it would have on the opportunities we are already receiving. I think for wedding/corporate or someone promoting a specialty band it could be worthwhile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members J.Paul Posted December 19, 2011 Members Share Posted December 19, 2011 How did they make money before? Just off the commissions?. Good question, I'm not sure and don't remember. Maybe it was just from the ads and click through rate..... I suspect it was during a period where they were building clientel and database, once they were able to meet certain numbers and criteria they could start charging and justify it. Something similar happened to me on another social network site recently. You join for free , use it (however infrequently), and one day (when the membership reached beyond 5,000), I was asked to pay to login.My thinking is that if I was one of the 5,000 of the database that enabled the site to start charging then I shouldn't have to pay.....of course they were happy to leave my profile in place (as well as the other 4,000 that registered and barely used it) to continue to pad their numbers. So of course I deleted my profile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted December 19, 2011 Members Share Posted December 19, 2011 One other thing I'll say in Gigmasters' favor: we've signed up with other similar online "agencies"---some free; some we paid to join. The only other one we even got any sort of action from at all (and I can't remember if it resulted in an actual booking or not) was GigSalad. Whether any band needs to be connected with any sort of online agency or not is obviously a function of that band's particular situation, but for those that do, GM is certainly the one I would recommend starting with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members J.Paul Posted December 19, 2011 Members Share Posted December 19, 2011 I'm pretty certain we're not ready yet to make the leap- We have zero video up on our site and few decent pics, and audio files are even lacking IMO. I have been working on it and will continue to gather better media over next few gigs. Yeah. Content is everything. Places like Reverbnation are great training wheels for sites like Gigmasters. You can assemble you kit in your own time and however incomplete, still have a homebase. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted December 19, 2011 Members Share Posted December 19, 2011 I think it's a good vehicle for cover acts. At the time it wasn't the right thing for an all original rock act. Yes. I can't imagine the site being of much value at all for an original act. well, maybe something very esoteric. I suppose many people looking for say, a salsa band for their event might not care if the band plays covers or originals. In which case they might go to Gigmasters to find one. But for a rock band? Yeah, I have a hard time seeing it being of any value. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jeff42 Posted December 19, 2011 Members Share Posted December 19, 2011 We had a talk about this recently and want to go after more privates and weddings so we are going to try gigmasters for a year see what happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members J.Paul Posted December 20, 2011 Members Share Posted December 20, 2011 Yes. I can't imagine the site being of much value at all for an original act.well, maybe something very esoteric. I suppose many people looking for say, a salsa band for their event might not care if the band plays covers or originals. In which case they might go to Gigmasters to find one. But for a rock band? Yeah, I have a hard time seeing it being of any value. Ugh yeahI just said that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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