Providing entertainment for a business for free. Would you?
Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 7:52 pm

---

I got this message from someone on meetup.com advertising a local city bar with a full ad write up saying they were starting an open mic night and were looking for entertainment. The deal was that there was $5 beer that night...
It's great to have these venues but do you think that it is fair for a business to ask people to play for free?
I wrote to the venue trying to explain that these days it is not really ok to exploit performers in this way and that all this does is undermine the value and worth of the effort energy and expense required to put this on the table.
I received an abusive reply. in fact it was so over the top that I suspected the guy was either on the pipe or just a psychopath.
Do you play for free? If not what would you expect the house to provide the players at an open mic night? I would have thought that some fingerfood and at least a beer would be the minimum.
Interested to hear your comments.
Thanks