Michael DeLalla (from his Facebook page)
From Michael DeLalla on Facebook, 5/14/18: Booking concerts and tours is complicated. I don’t normally share how the inner wheels of that machinery turn, but this was simply too interesting not to share. I received this performance inquiry on Wednesday. I ignored it on Thursday. I responded to it on Friday (my response follows the inquiry):
Dear Mr. DeLalla,
Please allow me a few moments of your time to invite you to present as part of the Petroleum Museum’s Brown Bag Lunch & Lecture series. The Museum hosts a monthly series of informative and entertaining presenters to Museum’s members and friends information about services and points of interest in and around West Texas.. On the third Tuesday of every month guests bring their sack lunches and listen to speakers and entertainers representing various disciplines. The programs are scheduled to start at 11:30 AM and end at 12:30 PM, followed by discussion time.
So, with this in mind, we would consider it an honor to have your perform for our audience on the 18th of December.
Unfortunately, the Museum does not have anything budgeted to pay presenters for the program. But this gives exposure to new and potential audience.
Again, please consider this invitation – and let me know whether or not you will be able to be our program for Tuesday, December 18, 2018.
Sincerely,
_______________, Midland Petroleum Museum
Dear __________________ and Midland Petroleum Museum,
Thank you for contacting me about your lunchtime concert/discussion series. Unfortunately, I’m unavailable to come to Midland on 12/18 due to another performance obligation. However, keep me in mind for a future appearance; that is, if we can come to terms with a few things.
I find it ironic that a museum largely funded by the Conoco/Phillips Petroleum Company cannot even offer an honorarium of so-called ‘gas money’. Such an appearance would involve two days of travel from Boulder to Midland and back again, plus 2 nights’ accommodation, plus, finally, the presentation itself. I wonder if, for this particular event, you could find some funding in your budget to bring me to Midland? In exchange, I’ll provide a concert and a lecture/discussion I’ve given elsewhere called “What’s the Music Worth?” that illuminates the challenges faced by performing artists today when they are asked to provide their talent and expertise for nothing, save exposure.
Here’s an opportunity for the Museum to provide meaningful exposure: exposure to the notion that, just like any other profession, music needs to be paid for. Exposure to the notion that, just like a museum exposing its patrons to its information and knowledge base, a composer/guitarist (or any performer), when asked to share his craft, creative process and insight into how these things come to be, needs to be subsidized somehow. Finally, you have an opportunity to give exposure to the notion that an affluent industry such as yours needs more than a profit margin to be proud of its accomplishments—it should also be able to showcase its ‘cultural margin.’
I hope I hear from you in the future. I’d love to make such an event happen.
Warm regards,
Michael DeLalla/Falling Mountain Music
Comments:
Bill Polkinghorn: Ask for a one year gas card. They have access to a lot of gasoline I would suppose. A gas card in return for your services could support travel for other venues on the tour. Free music, free gas. With your travels their gas could get a lot of exposure.
Liz Valles: Michael – Having a dance band, I’ve heard it all. On top was last summer. A couple getting married in Aspen at the Hotel Jerome. 200 people coming and a crappy budget with no $ for hotel rooms for my 8 piece band. Loved it when she wrote that she didn’t have the budget to pay us what we are worth BUT THEY are a really fun couple and would make sure we could be well fed and have access to the bar! OMG, Michael! Having a dance band, I’ve heard it all. On top was last summer. A couple getting married in Aspen at the Hotel Jerome. 200 people coming and a crappy budget with no $ for hotel rooms for my 8 piece band. Loved it when she wrote that she didn’t have the budget to pay us what we are worth BUT THEY are a really fun couple and would make sure we could be well fed and have access to the bar! OMG!
Christopher E. Sexton: One cannot eat exposure. Exposure does not pay the bills. Exposure does not get you from point A to point B. Exposure does not provide a roof over your head. And an institute funded and put on the map by petroleum itself can’t give you gas money? Dubious at best.
MD: While most of the time these ‘exposure’ stories bring out one of two reactions from me–ignore it or snark on it–I was genuinely trying to see if I could make them see both the irony (a petro-industry giant) and provide an opportunity for them (and me) to discuss both the worth and value of music/culture, and how they could choose to support it. Given the amount of traffic on the low road, I prefer to take the high road when possible–let’s see if they respond. Taking bets–I’m guessing no.
Barb Dye: The big problem is… the artist who does not value his/her work who will play for “exposure”. They don’t understand that they are truly undermining their own career as well as that of others.