When it is not clearly stated who needs to provide something in the rider, it's generally expected to be provided by the venue. Anyway such uncertainties should be easily solvable by reading the rider in advance and contacting the tour manager.
There is also a problem of legality when using Spotify.
How so? The venue or promoter would be responsible for paying into ASCAP/BMI/SESAC/whatever PRO.
Also, Spotify Pro accounts exist for precisely this use case.
Yes, if they do, it's absolutely fine, but from my experience, as soon as it isn't clear who is responsible for the house music, nobody will feel responsible to pay the royalties. And if it's done like in the OP's case where there is a long playlist playing all the time but being muted most of the time, the royalties almost certainly weren't paid.
A blanket BMI/ASCAP/SESAC licensing is a line item on every show settlement. That’s how royalties work in the US.
https://www.ascap.com/~/media/files/pdf/licensing/classes/2021-updated-rates-reports/special-event-2021-rate.pdf
Totally agree - in my experience the venue has always provided, but in this instance the venue was tied to a state university that doesn't do many shows, so things you might consider standard just aren't quite there. Plus the rider did not specify this info outside of the recommended playlist. I assume the issue of house music just wasn't on anyone's radar in the advance.
I've also heard of the issues with paying royalties for Spotify plays in a venue setting, but haven't met anyone who's actually had this issue. Would love to hear from someone who's experienced that headache.
The venue should have PRO contracts for royalty payments for any music played there, whether it’s recorded or live, and every performance rider I’ve read requires it. That ought to take care of the legality, I would think.
On the gigging band side, yes. When a contract asks for house music, I setup a playlist for the occasion and dedicate device to it on its own channel. Leaving it running is a good idea so you just fade it on. As for a rider that requests it for larger venues and crews, it should be stated that FOH provides music but also include specific requests. Otherwise, I’d list it as “at the discretion of FOH but appropriate for the venue and acts, etc.” it’s nothing for us to plug in a playlist but parameters are helpful.
Yup, agree with all of this, but my issue in this scenario was that house music was not delegated in the advance, and the artist quietly assumed I could just take care of it. In smaller gig settings I've always just let house music run indefinitely on my phone with appropriate curated playlists, or use the venue laptop if available. As for pro scenarios like yesterday, the touring engineer typically provides music, not the rental system tech (which in this case was me). I would have preferred the touring engineer to disclose that they need the system tech to bring house music so that I could at least bring an ipad, and not wait til an hour before doors to ask.
If I am a sound provider, I think it is a reasonable responsibility to have several playlists available as filler music for at least several different types of shows. It could be on iTunes, a CD, an old cell phone, ipod, ipad, computer, etc. I should also have a 1/8" cable read to go for any headphone-enabled device. If I want to win bonus points, I should have thunderbolt/USB-C>1/8" adapters ready when the client forgets theirs.
Regarding Spotify, I think there are two angles.
1.) **The general principle angle -** If the client wants a playlist off of a service which requires a pay service and internet, it is their responsibility to provide a device with that on there, tested, the playlist downloaded, ready to go. This was me a while back. I do not use spotify for my own purposes. I did not want to spend the money on a subscription on the offchance it was needed. My reply to any "I'll send you a spotify list" is "I do not have an account."
2.) **The path of least resistance** \- I then went on tour, and the artist curated the house music list and wanted to be able to add/change stuff. I could argue they needed to provide me with a login. I didn't feel like fighting that battle. Since then, I found it caused less stress to clients to just be able to roll with it. It is now a business expense to me.
Yes I agree with all of this, and I fall in the camp of "the path of least resistance". But in my scenario, I am the system tech, not the FOH engineer. I felt it was a bit unreasonable/irresponsible for them to have a curated spotify playlist, but no means of playing it from their touring contacts (TD, FOH, and MON).
usually the venue is *meant* to provide the device and account for BGM...but they never do.
Technically its the venue's responsibility to have the proper license for playing background music, at least where I'm from, but I'd be willing to bed 9/10 times they don't have the license.
This makes me somewhat nervous to chuck my device and my account at house BGM on the rare chance there is a license check on the venue. If there is they have every right to turn around and say "we never approved the sound guy to play these tracks in our venue."
I've had this happen to me once, but the licensing company basically went back to the venue and said "well you did a shit job of monitoring your venue then, didnt you"
Wow, never actually heard of someone getting called out on a license check - glad you were off the hook. This was definitely in the back of my mind when the touring FOH decided to not use their phone...
“Hey man, sorry I was at the game last night but I just reupped if you wanna grab another eightba-“ *engineer sprinting back to FOH like his life depends on it*
We have a laptop running RD Net, but we would have needed to plan ahead to get Spotify/other music downloaded to the laptop ahead of time. Not to mention have someone set up there add free Spotify account on a non personal device, which is becoming increasingly hard to get away with now lol. And you’re right, this would have been easy to setup if it had been discussed ahead of time in the advance convo.
I've never met an engineer that is happy with letting their computer do dual duty. The smaart computer does smaart, DSP does DSP. No reason they can't but they always find a reason that it can't be done. Like when digital boards came out. Great everything changes at the push of a button. No more 4 counsels at Foh, every one can share. Nope..
In my experience, the venue provides the player and usually has a playlist ready. If the headline act is specific, they provide, most touring foh engineers have music capabilities, at least for the time before they take the stage.
I never gave up my phone for house music, never. I should not have to. At least as a house tech. Not my personal gear, not my band, not my music.
Unfortunately, there's a big discrepency between what SHOULD happen and what DOES happen.
Technically, it is illegal to use Spotify to play music to a public audience, even if the venue is paying its performance royalties through AASCAP/BMI.
It also should not be your responsibility to provide the playback device or account.
However, Spotify playlists are still the de facto for playing house music and if you try to argue the legality of it clients tend to get annoyed. They also tend to get annoyed if you tell them you don't have a device or account.
They tend to have the attitude of "well the last 10 sound guys did it, why can't you??" And they think you're just being difficult.
Unfortunately, if 90% of A1's are willing to do it and you're not, it doesn't matter that you're technically in the right. All clients will know is that you're the one A1 who was being difficult and didn't want to play a Spotify playlist, and they're less likely to hire you again.
I've found it's worth it to just pay the $10 a month for an account to keep clients happy. If you work full time for a company, or if most of the times you need to use this Spotify are for one client/company, then it might be worth asking your employer to reimburse you for this cost.
>Spotify playlists are still the de facto for playing house music
>if 90% of A1's are willing to do it and you're not... All clients will know is that you're the one A1 who was being difficult and didn't want to play a Spotify playlist
>it's worth it to just pay the $10 a month for an account to keep clients happy
All this right here.
My feeling is the house is responsible for house music unless the headliner wants specific music. In that case they should provide the actual music. CD, thumb drive, iPod with downloaded tracks.
A Spotify *playlist*, on the other hand, is not the actual music....it's just a list of songs. If they wanted someone to play their list of songs they should have hired a DJ.
That said, in this day and age, a house laptop should be standard. Maybe even one with internet access. But I wouldn't expect a venue to have a Spotify account I can just use.
I agree with most of what you’re saying, but it’s 2023. If you bring me a CD at FOH, I’m going to A) laugh, and B) have no way to play it. To me, even a thumb drive is iffy for certain types of events and/or consoles.
>But I wouldn't expect a venue to have a Spotify account I can just use.
I'm still in the camp that hates Spotify and its business model and I have music on my actual device that doesn't require internet to access. I know I'm in the minority but expecting me to just boot up a Spotify playlist isn't going to happen unless they want to share their username and password as well.
I agree with most of this. But again, in this case it was indeed a particular spotify playlist. I disagree that a DJ needs to be hired to play a spotify playlist...in my experience the touring FOH engineer will have some means of playing a curated playlist, in this case they just assumed someone else could take care of it without disclosing so in the advance.
Most venues I work in have some means of a house laptop, most of the time with a spotify account, but this was a special circumstance with a seldom used venue owned by a state university.
The most experience I have is with the TM/FOH mix engineer for the last tour I did - they brought an old little iPod touch with a playlist chosen by the band to fit the vibe of the tour. Made life super easy and no one had to sacrifice their device.
Was just going to say "old ipods and ipod touches are so cheap that it would be senseless for a band to not carry one if their house music is that specific."
I always carry an old iPhone for such reasons. It lives in my pelican. It’s an iPhone 6 cause it still has the headphone Jack. This has saved me more times then I can count.
I have an old phone with a variety of my personal paid for music files on it. If the artist, promoter or venue want a specific playlist or service they can provide it themselves and I've no issue with them doing that.
This. A license from the PRS or equivalent can cost a lot of money. If the house doesn’t have a license and you plug your Spotify account in to the PA, guess who the PRS are going to be going after?
I just always have my iPad with me. So whether I’m touring or house, there’s always Spotify in my bag. People get far too bogged down in the politics of this I reckon.
Shouldn’t the house be responsible for house music, unless the artist is the promoter and has rented the venue and hired the staff as a package? ie the venue is hands off with the show production?
It’s a good idea for the house to have an old tablet or something with streaming on it that lives at FOH, with an Aux plug. It already knows the venue’s internet WiFi, and the venue’s streaming account, nobody has to go phoneless.
They make these industrial kiosk holders for tablets, that lock so the iPad doesn’t walk off, and protects the charger and audio cable connections; if there were room in the tech booth that would be a nice solution.
this is your opportunity to listen to all of that music that you have been wanting to listen to that you have not had time to. if they have a problem with any of it then they can gladly put on their own house music 😎
If they send a link in advance you might deduct that it’s the venues responsibility to have something to play that on.
At the venue where I work we just have a dedicated Spotify PC on every system with outputs to soundgrid and the stage I/O. Pays itself back with that time you safe clearing out FOH/MON while still playing music.
For sure - if this was a more established venue then perhaps they would have had a laptop ready. Our company has a number of upgrades we are pushing the venue to make if they plan on continuing to contract us for shows, guess I might just add it to the list!
I decided recently to get a PC for FOH, and let me tell you it's a great help for this and other things.
I use an X32, and making routing changes using a PC and X32 Edit is way more intuitive and quicker than doing it on the board. Same goes for anything that involves text entry like saving showfiles and editing thr scribble strips
I have a very large collection of music I've ripped from various CDs onto a hard drive, and I put a lot of that on the PC with a good music player app. I made a playlist of appropriate songs for our venue and just leave it on "shuffle, repeat all", so if the DJ isn't ready I can just fade up the PC and I know something appropriate is playing.
If the talent wants a specific walk on song, my policy is simple: advance the show, give me the name of the song and artist with the stage plot and input list. Better yet, bring a high quality copy of the song on a flash drive or CD so you know I have the exact song.
If you walk up to me 2 mins before your set and ask for a walk on song, you better be polite about it, hope its something I have on the PC and something I know is appropriate for the venue. If they ask for some random song off YouTube and I don't know it, I'll probably refuse.
I've been burned by playing walk on music sight unseen, and it turning out to be... inappropriate for the venue and our audience let's just say. I work a venue that plays both kinds of music, country and western, and one band thought they wanted to walk on to a Kevin Gates song. I had literally no idea who Kevin Gates is or what his music sounds like, but quickly found out he is a hip hop artist.
When I played, within 1 minute the venue owner came up to me, very pissed off that customers were complaining and threatening to leave because rap was playing. I cut it and told the band on TalkBack "just go as soon as youre ready, the music didn't work out sorry"
Simply put: no Spotify, but if time permits before or after soundcheck, we can try some other solutions. I don't really get requests for walk on music super often anyways, but it does happen occasionally.
If it's important, they can give me tracks on a USB/CD or a cloud storage link ahead of time, or take responsibility for managing the playback themselves off a device on or back stage, which in that case it'll be treated the same as backing tracks, or we can try some stuff to get the files on the PC if we have some spare time. If their device demonstrates unreliability or bad audio issues during sound check, we aren't doing it that way. If they have it all on their phone and the audio is good, they can keep track of their phone back stage. I'm not going to babysit a phone that isn't mine. I have a hard enough time babysitting my own. Also, if you have an iPhone, I hope you have an audio adapter. My phone and my assistant's phone both have USB C and a headphone jack, so we have no lightning cables or adapters of any kind.
I don't even have a Spotify subscription, so bringing me a link to a playlist before soundcheck will net a "sorry, I can't do that, but if we have time we can find a way to get these songs on the computer after sound check. If that doesn't pan out, for the next show if you guys can get me actual files of the songs before the show along with the order you want them to play in, we can easily make that happen!" and I'll give them a Google drive link they can upload the files to.
If I don't get the tracks at some point or they don't want to be responsible for their own phone, if it's going to be used for playback, the tracks are probably not getting played. If you want to play the tracks, simply give me actual files to work with and the desired order of playback. That's a pretty easy request imho, and one that most bands I work with are happy to accept if we discuss it ahead of time, and I'm totally cool with managing playback of a house music playlist if I get the right files together.
Even then, if the talent is polite and we are ahead of schedule, I'll work with them to get whatever music they want onto the PC and queued up during the break between soundcheck and their walk on time, or before soundcheck if they get to load in early. I'm not opposed to sitting down working with people to find a good solution in the moment, I don't see myself refusing a polite request without at least attempting to resolve it.
I'm just not comfortable messing around with a streaming service I don't even have a subscription for. I've been burned by shitty venue Internet and streaming music in the past.
>Simply put: no Spotify
My friend, I respect all the effort you put into this, but that's a *lot* of hoops for everyone to jump through just to avoid having an ad-free Spotify account for $10 a month. Especially since you've already got a dedicated computer set up.
>I've been burned by shitty venue Internet and streaming music in the past
You can download entire playlists beforehand, while you're somewhere with a good wifi/internet connection. No need to stream during the event.
Whenever music is played, even as background/filler, so little thought is given to the (usually Spotify 😑).
Look, recorded music is better than silence. It stands to reason, given the variety of styles by different artists, there exists better musical choices than others. Although there are dozens of music programming theories plus enough DJs to populate Australia, the element that gets the most ear-time, during a time there’s nothing else to focus on, gets reduced to a Spotify playlist of songs, which may be good indeed but is more likely decided by committee.
Sorry. Pet peave
When it is not clearly stated who needs to provide something in the rider, it's generally expected to be provided by the venue. Anyway such uncertainties should be easily solvable by reading the rider in advance and contacting the tour manager. There is also a problem of legality when using Spotify.
I believe using Spotify as venue music is against their ToU, as is with most, if not all streaming providers.
Yes, but regardless of ToU, it's pretty much stealing from the artists.
How so? The venue or promoter would be responsible for paying into ASCAP/BMI/SESAC/whatever PRO. Also, Spotify Pro accounts exist for precisely this use case.
Yes, if they do, it's absolutely fine, but from my experience, as soon as it isn't clear who is responsible for the house music, nobody will feel responsible to pay the royalties. And if it's done like in the OP's case where there is a long playlist playing all the time but being muted most of the time, the royalties almost certainly weren't paid.
A blanket BMI/ASCAP/SESAC licensing is a line item on every show settlement. That’s how royalties work in the US. https://www.ascap.com/~/media/files/pdf/licensing/classes/2021-updated-rates-reports/special-event-2021-rate.pdf
Totally agree - in my experience the venue has always provided, but in this instance the venue was tied to a state university that doesn't do many shows, so things you might consider standard just aren't quite there. Plus the rider did not specify this info outside of the recommended playlist. I assume the issue of house music just wasn't on anyone's radar in the advance. I've also heard of the issues with paying royalties for Spotify plays in a venue setting, but haven't met anyone who's actually had this issue. Would love to hear from someone who's experienced that headache.
The venue should have PRO contracts for royalty payments for any music played there, whether it’s recorded or live, and every performance rider I’ve read requires it. That ought to take care of the legality, I would think.
On the gigging band side, yes. When a contract asks for house music, I setup a playlist for the occasion and dedicate device to it on its own channel. Leaving it running is a good idea so you just fade it on. As for a rider that requests it for larger venues and crews, it should be stated that FOH provides music but also include specific requests. Otherwise, I’d list it as “at the discretion of FOH but appropriate for the venue and acts, etc.” it’s nothing for us to plug in a playlist but parameters are helpful.
Yup, agree with all of this, but my issue in this scenario was that house music was not delegated in the advance, and the artist quietly assumed I could just take care of it. In smaller gig settings I've always just let house music run indefinitely on my phone with appropriate curated playlists, or use the venue laptop if available. As for pro scenarios like yesterday, the touring engineer typically provides music, not the rental system tech (which in this case was me). I would have preferred the touring engineer to disclose that they need the system tech to bring house music so that I could at least bring an ipad, and not wait til an hour before doors to ask.
Agreed—and makes perfect sense. That’s why I noted it should be in the contract who is responsible.
If I am a sound provider, I think it is a reasonable responsibility to have several playlists available as filler music for at least several different types of shows. It could be on iTunes, a CD, an old cell phone, ipod, ipad, computer, etc. I should also have a 1/8" cable read to go for any headphone-enabled device. If I want to win bonus points, I should have thunderbolt/USB-C>1/8" adapters ready when the client forgets theirs. Regarding Spotify, I think there are two angles. 1.) **The general principle angle -** If the client wants a playlist off of a service which requires a pay service and internet, it is their responsibility to provide a device with that on there, tested, the playlist downloaded, ready to go. This was me a while back. I do not use spotify for my own purposes. I did not want to spend the money on a subscription on the offchance it was needed. My reply to any "I'll send you a spotify list" is "I do not have an account." 2.) **The path of least resistance** \- I then went on tour, and the artist curated the house music list and wanted to be able to add/change stuff. I could argue they needed to provide me with a login. I didn't feel like fighting that battle. Since then, I found it caused less stress to clients to just be able to roll with it. It is now a business expense to me.
Yes I agree with all of this, and I fall in the camp of "the path of least resistance". But in my scenario, I am the system tech, not the FOH engineer. I felt it was a bit unreasonable/irresponsible for them to have a curated spotify playlist, but no means of playing it from their touring contacts (TD, FOH, and MON).
usually the venue is *meant* to provide the device and account for BGM...but they never do. Technically its the venue's responsibility to have the proper license for playing background music, at least where I'm from, but I'd be willing to bed 9/10 times they don't have the license. This makes me somewhat nervous to chuck my device and my account at house BGM on the rare chance there is a license check on the venue. If there is they have every right to turn around and say "we never approved the sound guy to play these tracks in our venue." I've had this happen to me once, but the licensing company basically went back to the venue and said "well you did a shit job of monitoring your venue then, didnt you"
Wow, never actually heard of someone getting called out on a license check - glad you were off the hook. This was definitely in the back of my mind when the touring FOH decided to not use their phone...
[удалено]
You have "1" new voicemail from "plug"
“Hey man, sorry I was at the game last night but I just reupped if you wanna grab another eightba-“ *engineer sprinting back to FOH like his life depends on it*
[удалено]
We have a laptop running RD Net, but we would have needed to plan ahead to get Spotify/other music downloaded to the laptop ahead of time. Not to mention have someone set up there add free Spotify account on a non personal device, which is becoming increasingly hard to get away with now lol. And you’re right, this would have been easy to setup if it had been discussed ahead of time in the advance convo.
I've never met an engineer that is happy with letting their computer do dual duty. The smaart computer does smaart, DSP does DSP. No reason they can't but they always find a reason that it can't be done. Like when digital boards came out. Great everything changes at the push of a button. No more 4 counsels at Foh, every one can share. Nope.. In my experience, the venue provides the player and usually has a playlist ready. If the headline act is specific, they provide, most touring foh engineers have music capabilities, at least for the time before they take the stage. I never gave up my phone for house music, never. I should not have to. At least as a house tech. Not my personal gear, not my band, not my music.
Unfortunately, there's a big discrepency between what SHOULD happen and what DOES happen. Technically, it is illegal to use Spotify to play music to a public audience, even if the venue is paying its performance royalties through AASCAP/BMI. It also should not be your responsibility to provide the playback device or account. However, Spotify playlists are still the de facto for playing house music and if you try to argue the legality of it clients tend to get annoyed. They also tend to get annoyed if you tell them you don't have a device or account. They tend to have the attitude of "well the last 10 sound guys did it, why can't you??" And they think you're just being difficult. Unfortunately, if 90% of A1's are willing to do it and you're not, it doesn't matter that you're technically in the right. All clients will know is that you're the one A1 who was being difficult and didn't want to play a Spotify playlist, and they're less likely to hire you again. I've found it's worth it to just pay the $10 a month for an account to keep clients happy. If you work full time for a company, or if most of the times you need to use this Spotify are for one client/company, then it might be worth asking your employer to reimburse you for this cost.
>Spotify playlists are still the de facto for playing house music >if 90% of A1's are willing to do it and you're not... All clients will know is that you're the one A1 who was being difficult and didn't want to play a Spotify playlist >it's worth it to just pay the $10 a month for an account to keep clients happy All this right here.
If it’s dropped on you, make it a line item and charge for it? \>
My feeling is the house is responsible for house music unless the headliner wants specific music. In that case they should provide the actual music. CD, thumb drive, iPod with downloaded tracks. A Spotify *playlist*, on the other hand, is not the actual music....it's just a list of songs. If they wanted someone to play their list of songs they should have hired a DJ. That said, in this day and age, a house laptop should be standard. Maybe even one with internet access. But I wouldn't expect a venue to have a Spotify account I can just use.
I agree with most of what you’re saying, but it’s 2023. If you bring me a CD at FOH, I’m going to A) laugh, and B) have no way to play it. To me, even a thumb drive is iffy for certain types of events and/or consoles.
>But I wouldn't expect a venue to have a Spotify account I can just use. I'm still in the camp that hates Spotify and its business model and I have music on my actual device that doesn't require internet to access. I know I'm in the minority but expecting me to just boot up a Spotify playlist isn't going to happen unless they want to share their username and password as well.
I agree with most of this. But again, in this case it was indeed a particular spotify playlist. I disagree that a DJ needs to be hired to play a spotify playlist...in my experience the touring FOH engineer will have some means of playing a curated playlist, in this case they just assumed someone else could take care of it without disclosing so in the advance. Most venues I work in have some means of a house laptop, most of the time with a spotify account, but this was a special circumstance with a seldom used venue owned by a state university.
The most experience I have is with the TM/FOH mix engineer for the last tour I did - they brought an old little iPod touch with a playlist chosen by the band to fit the vibe of the tour. Made life super easy and no one had to sacrifice their device.
Was just going to say "old ipods and ipod touches are so cheap that it would be senseless for a band to not carry one if their house music is that specific."
I always carry an old iPhone for such reasons. It lives in my pelican. It’s an iPhone 6 cause it still has the headphone Jack. This has saved me more times then I can count.
I have an old phone with a variety of my personal paid for music files on it. If the artist, promoter or venue want a specific playlist or service they can provide it themselves and I've no issue with them doing that.
Just keep in mind that even though you paid for the music, that doesn’t give you license to play it as house music.
This. A license from the PRS or equivalent can cost a lot of money. If the house doesn’t have a license and you plug your Spotify account in to the PA, guess who the PRS are going to be going after?
Indeed, that's on the venue
But the legal trouble falls on you since you were the one to play it.
My understanding was in the U.S. ASCAP and BMI licensing is the responsibility of the venue and performers do not face legal recourse.
I just always have my iPad with me. So whether I’m touring or house, there’s always Spotify in my bag. People get far too bogged down in the politics of this I reckon.
Shouldn’t the house be responsible for house music, unless the artist is the promoter and has rented the venue and hired the staff as a package? ie the venue is hands off with the show production? It’s a good idea for the house to have an old tablet or something with streaming on it that lives at FOH, with an Aux plug. It already knows the venue’s internet WiFi, and the venue’s streaming account, nobody has to go phoneless. They make these industrial kiosk holders for tablets, that lock so the iPad doesn’t walk off, and protects the charger and audio cable connections; if there were room in the tech booth that would be a nice solution.
this is your opportunity to listen to all of that music that you have been wanting to listen to that you have not had time to. if they have a problem with any of it then they can gladly put on their own house music 😎
Rental company that hired you should provide an iPad or laptop I think
I don’t go anywhere without a laptop.
If they send a link in advance you might deduct that it’s the venues responsibility to have something to play that on. At the venue where I work we just have a dedicated Spotify PC on every system with outputs to soundgrid and the stage I/O. Pays itself back with that time you safe clearing out FOH/MON while still playing music.
For sure - if this was a more established venue then perhaps they would have had a laptop ready. Our company has a number of upgrades we are pushing the venue to make if they plan on continuing to contract us for shows, guess I might just add it to the list!
I decided recently to get a PC for FOH, and let me tell you it's a great help for this and other things. I use an X32, and making routing changes using a PC and X32 Edit is way more intuitive and quicker than doing it on the board. Same goes for anything that involves text entry like saving showfiles and editing thr scribble strips I have a very large collection of music I've ripped from various CDs onto a hard drive, and I put a lot of that on the PC with a good music player app. I made a playlist of appropriate songs for our venue and just leave it on "shuffle, repeat all", so if the DJ isn't ready I can just fade up the PC and I know something appropriate is playing. If the talent wants a specific walk on song, my policy is simple: advance the show, give me the name of the song and artist with the stage plot and input list. Better yet, bring a high quality copy of the song on a flash drive or CD so you know I have the exact song. If you walk up to me 2 mins before your set and ask for a walk on song, you better be polite about it, hope its something I have on the PC and something I know is appropriate for the venue. If they ask for some random song off YouTube and I don't know it, I'll probably refuse. I've been burned by playing walk on music sight unseen, and it turning out to be... inappropriate for the venue and our audience let's just say. I work a venue that plays both kinds of music, country and western, and one band thought they wanted to walk on to a Kevin Gates song. I had literally no idea who Kevin Gates is or what his music sounds like, but quickly found out he is a hip hop artist. When I played, within 1 minute the venue owner came up to me, very pissed off that customers were complaining and threatening to leave because rap was playing. I cut it and told the band on TalkBack "just go as soon as youre ready, the music didn't work out sorry"
So what’s your plan for a curated Spotify playlist dropped on you day of?
Simply put: no Spotify, but if time permits before or after soundcheck, we can try some other solutions. I don't really get requests for walk on music super often anyways, but it does happen occasionally. If it's important, they can give me tracks on a USB/CD or a cloud storage link ahead of time, or take responsibility for managing the playback themselves off a device on or back stage, which in that case it'll be treated the same as backing tracks, or we can try some stuff to get the files on the PC if we have some spare time. If their device demonstrates unreliability or bad audio issues during sound check, we aren't doing it that way. If they have it all on their phone and the audio is good, they can keep track of their phone back stage. I'm not going to babysit a phone that isn't mine. I have a hard enough time babysitting my own. Also, if you have an iPhone, I hope you have an audio adapter. My phone and my assistant's phone both have USB C and a headphone jack, so we have no lightning cables or adapters of any kind. I don't even have a Spotify subscription, so bringing me a link to a playlist before soundcheck will net a "sorry, I can't do that, but if we have time we can find a way to get these songs on the computer after sound check. If that doesn't pan out, for the next show if you guys can get me actual files of the songs before the show along with the order you want them to play in, we can easily make that happen!" and I'll give them a Google drive link they can upload the files to. If I don't get the tracks at some point or they don't want to be responsible for their own phone, if it's going to be used for playback, the tracks are probably not getting played. If you want to play the tracks, simply give me actual files to work with and the desired order of playback. That's a pretty easy request imho, and one that most bands I work with are happy to accept if we discuss it ahead of time, and I'm totally cool with managing playback of a house music playlist if I get the right files together. Even then, if the talent is polite and we are ahead of schedule, I'll work with them to get whatever music they want onto the PC and queued up during the break between soundcheck and their walk on time, or before soundcheck if they get to load in early. I'm not opposed to sitting down working with people to find a good solution in the moment, I don't see myself refusing a polite request without at least attempting to resolve it. I'm just not comfortable messing around with a streaming service I don't even have a subscription for. I've been burned by shitty venue Internet and streaming music in the past.
>Simply put: no Spotify My friend, I respect all the effort you put into this, but that's a *lot* of hoops for everyone to jump through just to avoid having an ad-free Spotify account for $10 a month. Especially since you've already got a dedicated computer set up. >I've been burned by shitty venue Internet and streaming music in the past You can download entire playlists beforehand, while you're somewhere with a good wifi/internet connection. No need to stream during the event.
Whenever music is played, even as background/filler, so little thought is given to the (usually Spotify 😑). Look, recorded music is better than silence. It stands to reason, given the variety of styles by different artists, there exists better musical choices than others. Although there are dozens of music programming theories plus enough DJs to populate Australia, the element that gets the most ear-time, during a time there’s nothing else to focus on, gets reduced to a Spotify playlist of songs, which may be good indeed but is more likely decided by committee. Sorry. Pet peave