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jelly jelly jelly jelly

have an awesome time!!!!!!!!!!

lets get real for a second here:

i dont think you want constructive criticism, you want LISTENS

and i will give them to you

OOH, i would be happy to answer and questions. i think there is a TON of misapprehension about setting up shows that could be easily smoothed over with a little bit of advice.

Per your questions:

1. There is this idea that many in the scene have that venues are going to be like "thats not Rock And Roll so im not booking you :[" and that hasn't happened a single time in my 3 years of booking chip shows all over the east coast. Honestly, from my experience venues and bookers are generally PUMPED to do something interesting and new, provided you dont act/look like a total flake and dont totally screw them over. They dont have to "understand" anything beyond that really.

The most important things to do when pitching a chip show to a booker or venue is to is to have all of your shit together and at least ACT like a professional. This means having artists lined up already, giving 2 or 3 months for promotion time and having some sort of crew to show up so the place isnt just you and yer moms. For clubs, its not some big confusing thing: they need a minimum of X people there buying drinks or tickets to be able to pay the sound person / rent, and if you can do that for them, then you are awesome in their book. For first contact, i would recommend having a nice little booking letter that has a short paragraph about "what is chiptune" and "look at these other successful chiptune shows/artists", with your intended artist list, SUPER short bio and links to each artists' bandcamp / soundcloud.

2. Costs and profit vary from venue to venue. For a legitimate club with a decent sound system, you can expect to pay from $300 - $700+ for a night, whether thats upfront or taken from the door. I would STRONGLY suggest doing zero-cost DIY or "random bar with a PA" type shows first to gauge interest and start to build an audience before throwing down on a decent club. And thats not including paying artists or anything. For one B8B show specificcally, i paid upwards of $1300 out of pocket for venue / promotion / artists travel money. Granted, I made it back on that particular occasion, but if you want to do it big, dont be surprised to lose a bit of money. Its for the love. My personal philosophy for proceeds is to 1. give as much as possible to traveling artists / "headliners" to cover their expenses 2. cover as much expenses as you can and if possible 3. local artists. FWIW, for B8B shows despite often being the largest drawing band on the bill, I have yet to actually "make a profit" off of a show. But thats not what its about.

One thing that is very interesting thing to note about chiptune is that "headlining artists", unless they are Anamanagucci or I Fight Dragons or something, for the most part arent going to get any more people in the door than a local artist with a bunch of friends. Internet fame is not particularly helpful for local show draw.

3. Chip shows in the most basic form can be just fine with freaking laptop speakers or a loud boombox, but personally I get stressed if the system is smallter than like 1000watts with 15"s, at least one stage monitor and a sub of some sort. Having a stage mixer seems like the best way to do things so the sound guy isnt swapping DI's every act and when you clip or do something nasty its not hitting THEIR expensive compressor / rack stuff, just your shitty xenyx.

4. See 1. I think. Other than that, maybe communication? Not being "needy"? Having some sort of consistent turnout?

5. General promotion like flyering or whatever is a JOKE. You MIGHT get 1 person a show from something like that. Getting coverage in local papers / zines / radio shows can be beneficial, and is as easy as writing a few emails usually. Give those guys a bunch of notice ahead of time though, because their deadlines are usually pretty early. Just make sure that you have a bunch of people that WILL come, like say 20-30 (i mean, if you have 5-6 artists on the bill, thats 5 people per person... if you they cant manage that, then they shouldn't be playing shows yet probably), then do tons of word of mouth and get as many people excited about it as possible. Make it a THING. Also, having a chip/low-fi open mic before the show is HUGE for both attendance and community building.

Hope some of this helps? Ill answer any more questions too, Im more than happy to help people get their scene going

EDITED FOR MORE STUFF

i didnt know jeff goldblum wrote chiptune!