On paid meet and greets
13:17If you know me, you know I stand for the same thing Bury Tomorrow do : fuck paid meet and greets. Since another band I like (namely Pvris) has decided to make their fans pay for the right to meet them on their upcoming European tour and it made me angry, I will try to word my thoughts in a better way than those five words.
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| Taken from Pvris' official Facebook page |
These past few years, VIP packages, VIP upgrades and meet and greets have taken the alternative scene by storm - sadly so. Most of the time, for a certain amount of money on top of the price of your gig ticket (the cheapest ones are usually about £20 and the most expensive ones can reach thousands of pounds), you will get the right to meet your favourite band. In those VIP upgrades/packages, you can also get limited memorabilia, such as special t-shirts, wristbands, posters, books, laminated lanyards... You also often get what is called early entry - it simply means you are allowed in the venue before everyone else. Some VIP packages offer more original things like dinner with the band, the right to stand side stage while they are playing, and God knows what else.
I am strongly against them.
Why?
Quite simply put, we are all human beings, why should meeting one another have a price?
I have idols, too. I am just like the people who would be willing to pay to meet Pvris, Thirty Seconds to Mars or Bullet for my Valentine - there are people I am dying to meet too. I would not reject the opportunity to meet Linkin Park or Brand New. But would I pay for it? No.
I have met some of my idols, too. I have been lucky enough to meet some people I admire and respect a lot. I have met A Day To Remember, Joel Birch (The Amity Affliction), Jenna McDougall (Tonight Alive), Trenton Woodley (Hands Like Houses), Enter Shikari, Jimmy Eat World, Yellowcard, Simple Plan, Fall Out Boy, I have had a chat about Sea Shepherd with Sam Carter (Architects), the list is long. Did I pay for any of this? No.
I also understand that some people, especially young teenagers, cannot wait after gigs to meet their favourite bands. Maybe they have school the day after. Maybe they need to catch the last train home. Maybe their parents do not want them to wait after the show because it will be late at night and the venue is in a dodgy part of town. There are plenty of reasons why your average teenager cannot stay an extra hour outside the venue for a picture with their favourite band. It still doesn't make paid meet and greets okay.
In my opinion, paid meet and greets exploit the desire that everyone can have to meet their idols. Whoever makes the decision (whether it is the band themselves or their management) knows how much kids want to meet their favourite band and exploit that desire by making it available... against a certain amount of money. These bands and their managements, they know. They know people want to meet them and instead of taking a certain amount of time at the end of the day to make as many people as possible happy, they choose the corporate way - the paid meet and greet. The limited memorabilia is thrown in there mostly so that you don't think you're paying that much money to meet someone, but let's be honest for a second here - how many people who pay for meet and greets are doing it for the signed poster? Yeah, that's what I thought too.
There is nothing wrong with meet and greets as such, and there is nothing wrong with wanting to meet your favourite band. However, there is something wrong with paying to meet someone. We are all human beings, in the end. As much as I admire him and as imporant as his music has been in my life, Chester Bennington is a man made of flesh and bone just like me, my local grocer and you. There is nothing that sets him apart from me or anyone else in that regard. Yes, he is a great musician and Linkin Park has had a major influence in my life, but that doesn't make Chester Bennington a deity. And it sure as hell doesn't entitle him to my money if I want to meet him.
The question has been raised by many, many people, notably Rou Reynolds of Enter Shikari, but if someone asks for your money in order to meet them, are they really worth meeting? They want money in exchange for a couple of minutes of their time, what does that make them?
Some people are going to argue that it is their management that decides on meet and greets, and to that I object. Maybe the idea has been raised by their management, it could be true. But your favourite band, they have said yes. No one has put a gun to their head and threatened to pull the trigger if they said no to a bloody VIP package. They have said yes.
Another thing that these paid meet and greets create is trouble amongst the fans themselves. Because of the explosion and importance of social media nowadays, being a fan of a band is not just about liking the music anymore. It is about who is the biggest fan - who is the most dedicated, who knows the most, who has the biggest sob story, who sees them live the most, who meets them the most, who gets recognised. Some will say you are not a true fan if you do not pay for these meet and greets or if you do not approve of them. As a band, you should not want to create little wars and possible bullying between your fans, right? These meet and greets, they are an open door for them.
There is also the fact that you have to pay for them. Do we need to remind every band that when you are a teenager, money does not grow on trees and you often have to save up for a very long time to be able to get a gig ticket? Only the wealthier fans would be able to pay for those meet and greet packages. If you don't have the money, I'm sorry, but your favourite band doesn't care about meeting you. If they wanted to meet as many people as possible, they would not hold paying meet and greets. By doing so, they (I'd say, probably accidentally) say they only want to meet the ones who are rich enough to pay for five minutes of their time. They say that meeting them is a privilege only available to the rich.
Granted, some of these bands are a bit too famous to meet everyone after a show. If the average capacity of your show is seventeen thousand people and if you can headline a stadium, I'm not realistically expecting you to stay for five hours outside every day taking selfies with everyone. In that case, why not offer free meet and greets through a raffle or contest? Every person who wants to meet you would sign up online (for example) and some of them, picked at random, would get to meet their favourite artists. As an example, it is pretty much how it works to meet Taylor Swift - the Loft 89, held after every show of the 1989 tour, offers fans the possibility of meeting their idol and they are picked at random during the show, as far as I am aware. I mean, if the most famous popstar in the world doesn't do paid meet and greets, why would small, alternative bands hold them? Come on.
I think, in the end, my views can be summarised as follows :
- if your favourite band wants your money in exchange for a few minutes of their time, are they areally worth meeting?
- yes, it's okay to want to meet your favourite band, but no, they should not exploit that desire and make money out of it. Ever.
- we are all human and one's time isn't more valuable than another one's. Equal and all that.
I'm not exactly being ground breaking here, I know. I just pisses me off to see bands making people pay for meet and greets day in, day out. It was time I added my two cents to the battle, I guess.
I also understand that some people, especially young teenagers, cannot wait after gigs to meet their favourite bands. Maybe they have school the day after. Maybe they need to catch the last train home. Maybe their parents do not want them to wait after the show because it will be late at night and the venue is in a dodgy part of town. There are plenty of reasons why your average teenager cannot stay an extra hour outside the venue for a picture with their favourite band. It still doesn't make paid meet and greets okay.
In my opinion, paid meet and greets exploit the desire that everyone can have to meet their idols. Whoever makes the decision (whether it is the band themselves or their management) knows how much kids want to meet their favourite band and exploit that desire by making it available... against a certain amount of money. These bands and their managements, they know. They know people want to meet them and instead of taking a certain amount of time at the end of the day to make as many people as possible happy, they choose the corporate way - the paid meet and greet. The limited memorabilia is thrown in there mostly so that you don't think you're paying that much money to meet someone, but let's be honest for a second here - how many people who pay for meet and greets are doing it for the signed poster? Yeah, that's what I thought too.
There is nothing wrong with meet and greets as such, and there is nothing wrong with wanting to meet your favourite band. However, there is something wrong with paying to meet someone. We are all human beings, in the end. As much as I admire him and as imporant as his music has been in my life, Chester Bennington is a man made of flesh and bone just like me, my local grocer and you. There is nothing that sets him apart from me or anyone else in that regard. Yes, he is a great musician and Linkin Park has had a major influence in my life, but that doesn't make Chester Bennington a deity. And it sure as hell doesn't entitle him to my money if I want to meet him.
The question has been raised by many, many people, notably Rou Reynolds of Enter Shikari, but if someone asks for your money in order to meet them, are they really worth meeting? They want money in exchange for a couple of minutes of their time, what does that make them?
Some people are going to argue that it is their management that decides on meet and greets, and to that I object. Maybe the idea has been raised by their management, it could be true. But your favourite band, they have said yes. No one has put a gun to their head and threatened to pull the trigger if they said no to a bloody VIP package. They have said yes.
Another thing that these paid meet and greets create is trouble amongst the fans themselves. Because of the explosion and importance of social media nowadays, being a fan of a band is not just about liking the music anymore. It is about who is the biggest fan - who is the most dedicated, who knows the most, who has the biggest sob story, who sees them live the most, who meets them the most, who gets recognised. Some will say you are not a true fan if you do not pay for these meet and greets or if you do not approve of them. As a band, you should not want to create little wars and possible bullying between your fans, right? These meet and greets, they are an open door for them.
There is also the fact that you have to pay for them. Do we need to remind every band that when you are a teenager, money does not grow on trees and you often have to save up for a very long time to be able to get a gig ticket? Only the wealthier fans would be able to pay for those meet and greet packages. If you don't have the money, I'm sorry, but your favourite band doesn't care about meeting you. If they wanted to meet as many people as possible, they would not hold paying meet and greets. By doing so, they (I'd say, probably accidentally) say they only want to meet the ones who are rich enough to pay for five minutes of their time. They say that meeting them is a privilege only available to the rich.
Granted, some of these bands are a bit too famous to meet everyone after a show. If the average capacity of your show is seventeen thousand people and if you can headline a stadium, I'm not realistically expecting you to stay for five hours outside every day taking selfies with everyone. In that case, why not offer free meet and greets through a raffle or contest? Every person who wants to meet you would sign up online (for example) and some of them, picked at random, would get to meet their favourite artists. As an example, it is pretty much how it works to meet Taylor Swift - the Loft 89, held after every show of the 1989 tour, offers fans the possibility of meeting their idol and they are picked at random during the show, as far as I am aware. I mean, if the most famous popstar in the world doesn't do paid meet and greets, why would small, alternative bands hold them? Come on.
I think, in the end, my views can be summarised as follows :
- if your favourite band wants your money in exchange for a few minutes of their time, are they areally worth meeting?
- yes, it's okay to want to meet your favourite band, but no, they should not exploit that desire and make money out of it. Ever.
- we are all human and one's time isn't more valuable than another one's. Equal and all that.
I'm not exactly being ground breaking here, I know. I just pisses me off to see bands making people pay for meet and greets day in, day out. It was time I added my two cents to the battle, I guess.
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