Surface Unsigned Festival 2008

[melanielanes]

Surface Unsigned Festival 2008

In 2008 the Surface Unsigned Festival will be expanding throughout the UK. Events will be held in the North (Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds), the Midlands (Birmingham, Wolverhampton) and the South (London, Southampton, Brighton) making it the biggest event of its kind.

In total this means:

Over 300 nights of live music,

5,000 musicians from across the UK,

And approximately 45,000 fans.

We are at present receiving applications for the 2008 Festival every day via our website: www.surfaceunsigned.co.uk

To apply to the Festival and for information, news and updates about the Festival have a look at our website:
www.surfaceunsigned.co.uk


Surface Unsigned Magazine & Music Live

Surface Unsigned Magazine is the FIRST free magazine dedicated solely to unsigned bands and musicians. We will be launching the national Surface Unsigned Magazine at Music Live on November 2nd-4th (Come and see us at stand P24).

Surface Unsigned Magazine is working in association with Kerrang Radio, the BBC, unsigned music promoters, top industry sponsors and major music names to deliver content geared towards the unsigned market. The magazine will feature industry related tips, columns and interviews. It will also contain unsigned live music reviews including full coverage of the Surface Unsigned Festival 2007 and will look forward to the Festival of 2008.

We will be handing out 10 000 copies of the magazine at Music Live alone.

The Magazine has its own website linked up to our current Surface Unsigned Festival website: www.surfaceunsigned.co.uk/magazine

[Stereo Junkie]

Thanks for the post.

[melanielanes]

That's ok I hope it is of some interest to the unsigned musicians and bands on this forum.

[Velvett Fogg]

Hi melanielanes,

Thanks for your posts,
and all the information

WELCOME

to the Forum

Feel free to join in

[inthebellyofashark]

This looks odd to me. The leedsmusicforum had the same message - and it was deleted very quickly by the poster after one or two hard questions were asked. See the Leeds thread here:

http://www.leedsmusicforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=64888

essentially some people in Leeds are saying that unsigned bands have much better opportunities with local promoters and ordinary industry processes than in putting time and effort and money into third-party, overblown stuff like this. Good unsigned bands can get signed if they really want to, and if they have something that audiences want. An elaborately oversold event like the one proposed here doesn't seem to offer anything useful and the list of partners and sponsors looks tenuous. Members of the Leeds forum with links to their sponsors have contacted them to see if their involvement is genuine and whether they approve of the activities of Surface unsigned. This is a battle of the bands and a pay to play scenario. I would advise taking a look at the thread on the Leeds forum before going any further.

[Stereo Junkie]

Hello thanks for the message, we are a fairly new forum and as such we are still moderating all new posts, I think you have voiced your opinion and I am sure many readers will consider your thoughts before going in for such an event, I have personally heard similar views to your own before, it is a fair point.

[melanielanes]

All bands which play at the Surface Unsigned Festival will be paid for their gigs. At every gig you play your band will receive a percentage of all tickets you sold.

Surface Unsigned provides the venue, the technical organization, the sound tech, stage manager, lighting technician, presenter and every other aspect of organization i.e. the P.A., microphones, stage monitors etc. but also the backline (guitar & bass amps, drum set, cymbals). We also invite a journalist to every gig, who will write a review on your band, which is then published on our website. The top 14 bands also get a feature in the Surface Unsigned Magazine, of which 10,000 copies are distributed nationwide once the Festival is over.

For information, news and updates about the Festival keep an eye on our website:

http://www.surfaceunsigned.co.uk/

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us.


Kind Regards,

The Surface Unsigned Team

[JohnDTraynor]

Oh, they are back for 2009

Some comments about them here http://nopaytoplayinbrum.blogspot.com/ and here Organ forum (http://organart.freeforums.org/say-no-2-pay-2-play-and-on-the-other-side-good-promoters-who-do-it-right-f6.html) and here Drownedinsounddiscussion (http://www.drownedinsound.com/community/boards/music/4143770)

[JohnDTraynor]

On the Surface Unsigned website it states

"Our payment structure is considered one of the best unsigned payment deals in the U.K"

The payment is:

"25 tickets or more: You receive £1.00 per ticket. (At your first gig this acts as receiving your deposit back).
50 tickets or more: You receive £1.50 per ticket.
75 tickets or more: You receive £2.00 per ticket.
100 tickets or more: You receive £2.50 per ticket."

Tickets are £6 each (if bought from the band)
Capacity of Flapper is 190 (including band members)

Very kindly, Surface Unsigned publish the number of votes for each band at each gig on their website. Therefore, it is possible to work out almost precisely how much money is paid to Surface Unsigned (before their running costs are deducted).

Text votes income is the number of votes minus the ten percent for Oxjam (it doesn't take into account text votes made after the deadline)

Audience votes income is the number of vote points divided by five (audience votes carry a weighting of five) multiplied by six (£6 is the price of the ticket)

Assuming the audience members vote for the band from whom they bought a ticket, it is possible to know which bands achieved the 25 minimum in order to receive their deposit back. (Of course, some bands may have sold tickets to people who didn't turn up and so couldn't vote at the gig, so it isn't possible to be absolutely accurate with the number of bands who got the deposit back, nor is it possible to know the total number of tickets sold.)

From Surface's own website http://www.surfaceunsigned.co.uk/midlandsHomepage.html the totals for the first six gigs that took place at Flapper are as follows (I think at least one scheduled gig was cancelled due to snow)

Text votes: 897
Text votes income £897 - £89.70 = £803.30 (probably more due to votes placed after the deadline)
Oxjam income = £89.70 (Oxjam get 10p for each text vote)

Audience votes = 3670
Tickets sales income = (3670/5) x 6 = at least £4404 (probably more due to some ticket buyers not turning up to vote)

Bands selling at least 25 tickets = at least 9 (possibly more due to some ticket buyers not turning up to vote)
Thirty-nine bands played, so thirty didn't reach the minimum
Deposits not returned = 30
Non-returned deposits income = 30x25 = £750

Total paid to bands is a pound for each ticket sold over 25.
Total paid to bands = £43

Therefore, final figures are
Income for Surface Unsigned = £5957.30
Income for Oxjam = £89.70
Income for bands = £43

That's a lot money for Surface Unsigned. That is for six gigs - there are due to be forty-two at Flapper and a similar number in Bristol and in London.

"One of the best unsigned payment deals in the U.K"??!!