Should Bands/Musicians Pay to Play?

"Heck nah" is my answer!

But it depends upon whose perspective from which the response comes.  As a musical artist, I often come across "opportunities" for me to perform at various venues.  More often than I would like, there is a fee to participate such as a "Battle of the Bands" type setup where "industry reps" whom you never heard about will be there.  The other tactic I typically see promoters using to get bands to play at their venue without demanding a fee to be paid is to get the band to sell tickets.  If you sell a certain number of tickets, you don't have to worry about paying a fee, and in some cases, you get some of the profit.  Regardless of that benefit, for many bands, this comes across as a scam and discourages their participation because no one can ever be certain about how many people will come.  

Why are so many bands/musicians against paying (or selling) to play?  Well, I think it comes down to who they feel should be doing the band's promotion.  Many bands do not promote themselves very well, if at all and cannot pull out a crowd to watch them perform, so they depend upon the venue to do it for them.  On the flip side, the venue depends upon the band to bring out new patrons and need to guarantee that money will be made if the band is booked.

As you can see...it all depends upon who answers the question.  From my experiences with this type of performance opportunity, nothing significant in terms of the advancement of my musical career was garnered from my participation.  For this reason, I choose not to partake in pay-to-play (or sell tickets to play) shows, unless there is some tangible that can be gained.

What do you think?

Here is an article by One World Pool on the subject that has sparked great debate, read more about it HERE.