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Gigging musicians, have you ever heard of "Afton"


sxyryan

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Afton is the new name for "Big Time Entertainment."

If your band has a MySpace page at all, chances are by now a "local" rep from their organization is very excited to book YOU for an upcoming show they are putting together. :rolleyes:

A quick Google search of "Afton scam" will reveal the MANY reasons why you might not want to bother with them.

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It seemed all mighty fishy.

 

I'm very optimistic with my band's prospects, but the stuff on our myspace is quite juvenile and very roughly recorded. I actually got out voted, when we had the discussion of posting them.

 

Anyhoo, they contacted us, based on our myspace stuff. That was the first thing that threw me.

 

From what I can tell... its not so much a "scam". Well it is, but not as terrible as it may seem.

 

They book us at a local venue, offering us X amount to play there. The more tickets we presale, the more money we get, on top of X. So it is a scam, in the way that we are selling the tickets, and they are getting most of the money, but we are also getting exposure and everything.

 

I wonder if its worth the trouble.

 

Edit:

 

What I mean, is, what happens when we get to this gig, and the place has no idea what we are talking about.

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After the comments here, I dug a little deeper.

Afton's business practices make me feel a little ill. Ok, really ill.

I am all about promoting my band but this goes against all my morals and everything.

I am going to pass on this gig, well, that's my vote in the argument. Hopefully the rest of the band gets what I am laying down.

Afton booked two other bands, both sound pretty sweet IMHO, and I have contacted them to tell them what is going on.

http://www.wig-out.com/&pay-to-play.htm

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^^
It seemed weird to me, but part of me is just an innocent musician who wants to play shows.

I'm not playing anything to do with afton, and in fact, I am not sure I want to have anything to do with a venue that helps them run this scam.

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^^

I'm not playing anything to do with afton, and in fact, I am not sure I want to have anything to do with a venue that helps them run this scam.

 

 

The venue probably neither knows nor cares how they do business. A "promoter" filled a dead night for them. How the show was promoted or how gate money gets split up doesn't really interest them in the least.

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^^

It seemed weird to me, but part of me is just an innocent musician who wants to play shows.


I'm not playing anything to do with afton, and in fact, I am not sure I want to have anything to do with a venue that helps them run this scam.

Scam is scam, your naive, in denial or both.:facepalm:

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Afton is scam-tastic. They buy out unpopular nights at clubs and then try to sucker in young or clueless bands. Here in Boston, anyway, they don't pay you unless 25 people come out to see you - they have to buy a ticket from you or state they're there to see you if they buy at the door or they don't count towards that number. Each band could bring in 24 people, selling out a small venue, and then Afton would be the only one getting the cash. They won't set a band order in advance, and set up early-starting shows with 6 or 7 acts. Playing with the math of the cash flow (ticket money minus the room rental, how much goes to bands and to them) will make you sick to your stomach, especially when they don't do any promotion and just throw bands together for the bills.

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