Crowdfunded gigs are a kind of a thing now. After stadium rock giants Foo Fighters agreed to play a gig in Richmond, Virginia which was totally crowdfunded and organised without their knowledge, similar campaigns have popped up elsewhere.
Not all of them have been part of a bid to get Foo Fighters to come to their town either. Apparently inspired by the industrious residents of Richmond, fans of other bands have begun, well, selling tickets to a gig that may or may not happen.
The logic of it makes some sense. Bands can only tour in places where they’ll turn a profit from ticket sales, so why not sell the tickets in advance and then inform the band that the money is theirs for the taking if they get their butts on a plane?
But there’s a fundamental flaw in organising a gig when the artist in unaware of it: the artist is unaware of it. However, this hasn’t stopped the craters of Live on Demand, a crowdfunding platform specifically designed to fund gigs without an artist’s knowledge.
Someone, anyone, can launch a campaign to get their favourite artist to visit a place of their choice and then begin selling tickets to the gig, all whilst the artist themselves are totally unaware of anything.
Take for example a Live on Demand campaign set up to get comedian Louis CK to visit Amsterdam. It’s received contributions from some 1,447 fans, all of whom purchased tickets priced at €80, for a total return of more than AUD$176,000.
As far as crowdfunding campaigns go, that’s a pretty good result. Except of course Louis CK doesn’t know anything about the gig, doesn’t know when he can make it to Amsterdam, and all of the “ticket-holders” don’t know when they’ll be receiving the show they paid for.
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You can see how this might create an awkward situation for artists like disco legend Nile Rodgers, punk icon Patti Smith, or Queen guitarist Brian May, all of whom currently have active Live on Demand campaigns, or Ricky Gervais, who recently responded to one of Live on Demand’s campaigns.
As readers can see in the clip below, a Dutch television station decided to track down the UK actor and comedian (in incredibly stalker-ish fashion) and ask him when he’ll be able to make good on the promise that was made in his name without his knowledge.
Gervais was surprisingly gracious and seemed to feel sorry for those who purchased tickets. “I will play in Amsterdam one day, but I don’t know of these tickets will be valid for that,” he says in the clip. “This is the problem with selling tickets without telling the artist.”
