But do they make a loss?
Creation isn’t always about maximizing cashflows.
In a world where AI can make passable music, it’ll be less and less about maximising cashflow and more and more about fulfilling innate human need.
If they can pay their staff, their rent and the acts then what’s the problem?
I feel like we often forget this is the point. Do what you enjoy, get paid doing it, why does there need to be more?
If it made 30% profit it wouldn’t be a grassroots venue. It’d be a growing business.
The question should be what social need does it meet and how do we protect that.
The problem with such venues is that they are also difficult to find. The major problem is that you need to know of them to even find out what’s going on. They are on Instagram, facebook, and other social media, but if I go to a city and search for shows, the majority of venues won’t be found. Sometimes it’s a choice to stay cool, hip, underground, or whatever, but if so, they can’t complain about falling revenue.
What I especially don’t understand is why these venues aren’t on opensource stuff:
- Mobilizon for organising events
- Mastodon in addition / instead of xittter
- Pixelfed in addition to / instead of insta
- FunkWhale for uploading audio recordings of live sets
- Peertube for video recordings of performances
- OpenStreetMaps to find the venue on the map
All of this would make it easier for them to be found, interact with them, and even support them.
