“Indie” band who “lost” money on tour called out for marketing stunt
Last week, Jack Conte of indie duo Pomplamoose published an article on Medium detailing how his band grossed $135,983 on a 28-day tour and still ended up losing $11,819. “Being in an indie band is running a never-ending, rewarding, scary, low-margin small business,” he wrote.
It caused an immediate uproar. Fellow musicians were quick to point out the band’s irresponsible expenses—$17,589 on food and hotels (four rooms a night) and $50,000 on a backing band, to name a few.
In response, Artery VP/band manager Will Stevenson wrote, “They say that less than one percent of musicians can make a living off of playing music. Bands should always keep this in mind when they decide to make a go with this lifestyle. They also need to realize that in order to do something like this, they will have to sacrifice along the way, whether it’s not getting a hotel room every night, or not paying themselves salaries, even if they are making money.”
Now, websites like Gawker are calling the whole thing a marketing stunt to promote Conte’s startup company. At the end of his article, Conte slips in an endorsement for Patreon. (He’s CEO of the company.)
“Our patrons give us $6,326 per video through our Patreon page. We sell about $5,000 of music per month through iTunes and Loudr. After all of our expenses (yes, making music videos professionally is expensive), Nataly and I each draw a salary of about $2500 per month from Pomplamoose. What's left gets reinvested in the band or saved so that we don't have to rack up $24,000 of credit card debt to book another tour.”
In a follow-up post, Conte denied the allegations. “Some people even insinuated that I was lying about Pomplamoose’s numbers and had an ulterior motive,” he said, adding, “To say that I’m hiding my affiliation with Patreon or our fundraising is absolutely ridiculous.”
Still, as Gawker puts it, “failing to disclose in your widely disseminated essay that you're the CEO of the company you're endorsing remains shady as hell.”
Let us know your thoughts on this!
