Orkestar Bez Ime

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Show cancellation, how best to support live music

Hi, OBI friends and fans. We’re sad to say our Sept 29th show at Crooners Supper Club has been cancelled for now, due to low ticket sales. This fall seems to be especially tricky for live music, and we’re not the only ones experiencing this. We’re looking for a future date and will let you know once we’ve rescheduled. Until then, some food for thought:

The pandemic changed a lot. We all feel it, and it presents in different ways depending on life circumstances. For live music, one of the big shifts—understandably—has been a heavier reliance on ticket pre-sales. It makes sense, right? Shows are expensive to put on, both for the venue and for self-producing performers like OBI: Without a guarantee (i.e., advance ticket sales), it’s hard to take that risk that you might not break even, much less make a profit. So, that’s what happened with our show at Crooners: We made the decision together with the venue that it was less risky to reschedule rather than hope for at-the-door sales to make up for the shortfall.

To be clear, we’re not upset; rather, we recognize that audiences may not be aware of how much we rely on commitments before the day of the show. So we wanted to give you some insights into what goes into taking home a paycheck when you’re a live performer that’s not represented by an agent or backed by a label (like us and many, many more independent artists).

So, how best can we each support live independent music?

  • Buy tickets for shows in advance, like you would for big arena and concert hall shows;
  • buy the artists’ merch, including buying their music outright rather than relying only on streaming services; and
  • when you love an artist, spread the word early and often to help grow the community—word of mouth is still the best way for people to learn about local independent artists.

We love you and are grateful to you for being OBI fans. We hope to see you at a show soon!

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