Yes... And most clubs operate via pay to play (I was heavily involved in the Hollywood club scene in my early 20s). The promoter rents the club and has a minimum alcohol sells number to hit (the club owners operate the bar and also why most clubs are 21 and over). The promoter will then pay a headliner band, the warm up acts buy tickets at about half of what they can sell them for, 100 minimum. The lower tier bands rarely sell the tickets, thus pay to play. The warm up acts typically do back yard parties to generate the money to buy the tickets. The rich kids (Motley Crue in particular) can buy hundreds at a time and paper the house. It's definitely a huge advantage. And yes, they are the kids that get a Les Paul and a Marshall stack for Christmas as well as music lessons for years. It's very rare, but bands such as No Doubt do work their way up. Those bands still need to get that break because there's a lot of good bands out there. The best bands rarely make it. No Doubt may never have broke through if Eric Stefani had not left the band and started working cartooning for the Simpsons and was listening to "Just a girl" when the right person walked by and wanted the song for that movie (I forgot the name, it's been years). It's a strange business...
Yes... And most clubs operate via pay to play (I was heavily involved in the Hollywood club scene in my early 20s). The promoter rents the club and has a minimum alcohol sells number to hit (the club owners operate the bar and also why most clubs are 21 and over). The promoter will then pay a headliner band, the warm up acts buy tickets at about half of what they can sell them for, 100 minimum. The lower tier bands rarely sell the tickets, thus pay to play. The warm up acts typically do back yard parties to generate the money to buy the tickets. The rich kids (Motley Crue in particular) can buy hundreds at a time and paper the house. It's definitely a huge advantage. And yes, they are the kids that get a Les Paul and a Marshall stack for Christmas as well as music lessons for years. It's very rare, but bands such as No Doubt do work their way up. Those bands still need to get that break because there's a lot of good bands out there. The best bands rarely make it. No Doubt may never have broke through if Eric Stefani had not left the band and started working cartooning for the Simpsons and was listening to "Just a girl" when the right person walked by and wanted the song for that movie (I forgot the name, it's been years). It's a strange business...