Are open mic nights killing live music?

Open mic nights seem to be flourishing in the UK. Right across the country, many pubs, venues and cafes are all getting their own open mic nights started. That said, they can be a very contentious issue amongst musicians, with some claiming that they are trying to get entertainment on the cheap.

You may remember a controversial blog post on gigsandbands.com from way back in 2014 titled 5 reasons why open mic nights are killing live music. It was shared widely on social media, but can be summarised as making the following five points against open mic nights:

This is obviously a very controversial opinion, given the large number of comments on the original post that disagree rather strongly. The article prompted a fairly heated post on wordpress.com from an open mic host, a variety of comments on reddit and even a mention by a musician from Arizona! However, a follow-up post gave the alternative opinion supporting open mic nights:

Obviously, this is a subject that promotes strong feelings in the musical community, so we asked our members of UK Musicians For Gigs (our public Facebook group) the following:

We’ve picked some of our favourite replies from our UK Facebook musicians:

I think it can be both of those things, but in my experience they’re usually organised by genuine music fans and/or musicians and so aren’t as cynically motivated as they may seem. They definitely have a place and serve a purpose in the UK music scene and in keeping it alive and vibrant. Having said that, as a keys player I’m not a big fan of playing them, all the hassle of a full gig for just a few songs!

Peter Owen

Music should be paid for like any other service or profession. How many other professions give their services for nothing? If venues want music they should pay for it. I doubt very much if many of the them are doing it for the sake of the musicians! Most are out to make money. Being a professional singer, I am absolutely against open mic nights, jam nights in public places, playing for door money and being expected to bring along 50 friends. It’s ruining the art and the living of many musicians and just making money for the venues. There are just too many places doing this now. All professional musicians were amateurs once. Most didn’t have or need all these ‘play for nothing venues’ to be seen and heard and become professional. They hired a rehearsal room or all got together in someones house to try out new material and jam.

Renee Sears

I think it depends on the venue and who’s putting the night on.. Usually I think open mic nights are put on for the right reasons (exposure and practice for less-experienced performers/a fun night for people generally) but they aren’t always executed very well by organisers. That said, I have a friend who puts good ones on in Liverpool which are very effective. The venues are all cool places that suit the style of music performance (both aesthetically and in terms of what drinks they serve, overall ethos, etc) and, as a result, the nights draw the right sorts of people – those who want a quiet-ish night enjoying music rather than heavy boozers who want a party/fight. He also has a few set rules about what people can play (no Beatles covers, no angry songs about ‘fire and brimstone’) which keeps the performance standards a little higher and then if he likes an act/they get a good reception, he’ll get their details and book them for other nights that he does. It’s a model that benefits all involved and one that I think other organisers should adopt. Anyway, that’s enough rambling from me, I hope this helps!

Noah Kelly

Open mics are great to practice your new material, and discover new music and make friends, it’s a community thing for fun, it’s very rare the venue makes money out of it though, as people who really spend money on drinks, don’t often want to be in a place they can’t talk and listen in a quite room, and musicians who are playing sometimes too nervous to drink – if the open mic is no talk place. But if it’s loud, it can bring more ppl, but it makes it hard for musicians and esp the host, so it depends on the night, and the culture of the place. Your best bit is to ask venues really, they have accounts! 🙂

Elena Dana Ray

Elena Dana Ray sorry, but really disagree with the first part of your first sentence, as I think one of the main Open Mic problems is that people do not practice enough at home and think that they can practice on the stage. I think it’s disrespectful. Think about it from other profession perspective – we would not allow the young doctor to go and practice surgery on our friends body just because he needs to practice; but somehow when we talk about music it becomes ok to come and practice on the stage and becomes ok for friends (and a lot of people we don’t know) ears to listen that practice. I think it’s important part of learning to think about it and be sure that you’ve achieved something with yourself first and that you are in a position to be able to express your thoughts and talk in the language of music. As well as important to remember the fact, that in the audience is usually always someone who might never been to open mic before, someone who maybe don’t like music at all and with that performance we have a chance to either open the doors to music and make someone feel better, or leave them disappointed. Maybe if more open mic performers would be a little more respectful and think not only about what they need to achieve with their performance, but more about patients=listeners experience while listen to the performance – situation from all sides in my opinion would be different (and maybe we would have less girls trying to learn 3rd song in their life, but already presenting themselves as they are almost better than Adele..).

Brave Wee Ant

There is a place for both paid bands and open mics. As a landlord I used to put on music events with paid bands even when they made a loss, because I wanted live music in the pub. In fact that is what got me playing again. I now run an open mic once a month, play paid events as a solo singer/songwriter and in two totally different bands. Without exposure at open mics I would never of had the confidence to perform on my own. It also helped me hone songs in a live environment for recording. Some publicans do abuse it and get cheap entertainment and a ready made crowd (mostly just the musicians) whilst others run them at break even or a loss, just to make the place more lively and build footfall. At the end of the day it is up to the individual musician, as we all want different things from different events. Pubs are a business and landlords need to make a living too or venues will close down.

Trev Brunwin

In my humble opinion: Ultimately… whether it’s a beginner or professional band/ musician, I believe that if people are being entertained, and money is being made from this… then the entertainers SHOULD be paid (even for charity events – unless EVERYONE involved is providing their time and service for free). Open nights/ jam nights are 90% of the time a quick (and cheap way) for venues to create extra trade and revenue – with performers often doing all the hard work (including promotion etc.), whilst still being expected to buy their own drinks!

Ian Thompson

I personally think that yes, it is definitely cheap/free entertainment and there are so many of them that it has pretty much killed week day gigs all together which is sad. Better to pay a decent solo artist or a duo in my opinion.

Kareña K Ashton

When I was younger we travelled the UK (from Scotland to Cornwall) for a few months playing open mic nights in each place and busking for the petrol money to the next. I learnt my craft with open mic nights and now I gig weekly and run my own open mic each week in Suffolk.. It’s been amazing seeing musicians developing their craft and becoming comfortable playing in front of people. Audience members love it too and we have a growing community of friends each week. It doesn’t matter how much you play to yourself in your bedroom, music is all about sharing! Some very interesting views here, thanks for posting.

Charlie Law

Let’s not make this to complicated. I have never considered being a musician is a real career. I’ve been a musician of 30 years and I am paid money for my talent to play, however I personally feel unless you are playing every day making good money , you be fooling yourself it’s a career. Instead of getting a real job your convinced yourself your profession is one of a musician, so please don’t insult yourself be convincing yourself it’s a career. It’s a hobby and music should be free to every one, being a good musician is a gifted talent. Anyone can learn to play, Jams introduce the network platform to meet other musicians and form bands, rip each other off, become delusional you a rock cock, turn into a egotistical two face back stabbing social dossier. No legislation. No rules. Tax avoidance with a average band career lasting 5 years if someone in the band hasn’t punched you out high off his face from last nights gig money. If your lucky your be bothered to drag you arse out of bed somewhere around midday. A real musical career nowadays is a rare opportunity for a few talented individuals, however with out name dropping, I have played gigs. with true professional musicians who make a good living with this gifted talent. I even met my childhood inspiration playing at a jam, it’s really a truly odd feeling performing along side someone you idolize trying not to make yourself sound crap , hitting bum notes. However with out jam session and networking with the many abundant musicians out there you will have a really hard time. Jam nights built the platform for me to get notoriety establishing my capability as a player. My final note. A jam night either works or doesn’t, if you promote it, and run it with entertainment value then you can expect to earn a bit of pocket money and contribute to the promotion of new and exciting talent out there. To give inspiration to other wannabes is the very essence what makes a real musician. I am addicted to this obsessional hobby.

Stewart Bell

“Being a musician and a landlady, my perspective is this, a band or musician that can generate a profitable evening on a Monday or Tues is welcome to get paid, most open mic nights are weekday events, we pay bands at weekends, open mic nights are a way of making contacts, practising playing in front of live audience and possible bagging yourself a gig – I attended them for 2 years before opening our music bar, which helped me get to gig level, I have pushed shy newcomers to the stage and now they are getting paid gigs, thats what open mic nights are about, pubs do not make enough money to fork out to every entertainer that gets on stage, hard enough to get people out on the weekends let alone week days”

Sue Adams

Having looked at the original question again quite a few times, it seems to be that the two aren’t mutually exclusive and you can’t generalise “all venues” or “open mic nights” as they exist in so many different formats – as one commenter pointed out, does this include “jams”, “folk nights” etc?

Perhaps the only way to really address this more complicated issue is for the majority of musicians to agree on something that’s fair and then build an awareness campaign within the community.

Votes 48

Are open mic nights a hinderance to the live music scene?

• No!
• Yes!
• There are valid points on both sides

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The Musicians Union Work Not Play campaign seems to have had an impact – it has become quite prolific amongst the music community, and their infographic has been posted on many different web sites and social networks:

While this is a great guide that is genuinely useful, I noticed that the following question could be hard to interpret:

• Is it truly an amateur event, as opposed to work that should be offered to a professional musician?

I expect some people would disagree over what constitutes a “truly amateur event” and what is work that “should be offered to a professional musician” – aren’t these are subjective things?

Sources

• UK Musicians for gigs Facebook thread
• Captainandy
• Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

What are your thoughts on open mic nights? Post your comments below…