What can original artists learn from the prevelance of tribute bands?

In 2012 I took my Dad to see a Dire Straits tribute band at the Brook in Southampton. We then went to watch a Phil Collins Tribute at the same venue, and then an Eric Clapton tribute in Fareham. None of them were particularly great - my biggest problem was that there wasn't much attention paid to the arrangements of the music, or the sounds of the records that, as fans, we (I think) hold quite dear. But I was struck by the number of people, the price of tickets, and the profile of the musicians performing the show.

So when I realised that no jobs are safe, I decided to come back out of full time work and continue to build a music career, of which a Dire Straits tribute show was a part of it.

In 2024, I am part of 3 shows - DS:UK…in Tribute to Dire Straits, 50 Years of Fender, and Seriously Collins - that play, collectively, around 150 theatre shows per year, and I have a PA company that's built around providing production specifically for Tribute bands.



It's always interesting to me to read editorial and comments about how the "tribute shows are killing original music", because 1- it's blatantly wrong and 2 - it's likely a tenuous attempt at artists trying to assign a blame for their lack of participation in original music shows, for which there are likely many reasons that you'd have to look inside yourself to find.

Tribute shows are not, in any way, 'killing' original music. If you look at where tribute shows perform, it's Theatres, Hotels, Art Centres, Social Clubs and pubs - venues that aren't, traditionally, hubs of activity for original music. If anything, it's probably more accurate to surmise that tribute shows suck up the programming space for original 'theatre productions', but not grassroots music.

I will accept that there are grassroots venues that have started to take in the odd tribute show but it's not on the scale that wipes out original music performance opportunities. But, I think, for one thing, you have to understand why Tribute shows have become popular to accept it, and take some lessons away that can be applied to your work as an original artist.

How did we get here?

Quite simply - the country has simply become too expensive to exist in. If you think about your own financial situation: you have an income that's either fixed or ebbs and flows depending on what you do; you have fixed outgoings like food, energy, rent, phone, internet, etc; and you have luxury outgoings like subscriptions, alcohol, hobbies, etc. We accept we need to earn enough to cover our outgoings, otherwise we can't cover our outgoings and we get into trouble.

Venues are the same - but their outgoings are way way wayyyy higher! They have business rates, tax, staff, energy, equipment maintenance, etc etc etc and all of those have gone through the roof in recent years due to rising energy costs and staff requiring more income, not to mention the Chancellor's raid on income tax contributions. Their income comes from visitors coming in the venues and nothing else, so they need to ensure themselves a good chance of high attendance and their shows to meet their costs. If they don't they'll simply close!

Moreover, they're battling against the fact that we all have to be careful with our money as well, and there is plenty of entertainment inside our houses, plus it's a real effort to travel to venues, so venues (and artists/bands/musicians) have a real job to wrench people out of their houses and money out of their wallets to pay for tickets and drinks (and parking!).

Think of what tempts you out of your house and to a venue - It's something you know and something you know you'll enjoy. Hence the popularity of the tribute band - good quality musicians (hopefully) performing music that you know and love to listen to. They provide the venues a high probability of meeting their income needs for a night.

Juxtapose this with original music performances and open mic where literally anything can happen - look around the venue and see how many are there and do a rough calculation as to how much money is being made. It's likely fairly low. Consider the people who are there: those guys who are looking to discover new music; friends and family of the band(s)…. That might be it! How much were tickets? Free? £3? £5? Ticket prices are unlikely to be high.

It's going to be hard for them to break even let alone make profit.

There's no doubt that we, as a society and a people, need to get more people to engage with new music, and particularly music made by real people and real instruments. It's sickening that the charts are dominated by electronic based music while there are thousands of bands across the country making interesting music the traditional way. But we can really understand why venues might favour the more recognisable over the emerging - they need income to survive or we literally won't have venues any more for anyone to perform in!

What's the solution?

The solution, as I see it, is fairly simple - we need to simply give more opportunities for people to engage with original music; we need to make it more accessible; and of good quality. The people with the power to do that is literally the artists themselves.

Write your music; record it well so you have it ready to earn from and for your fanbase to enjoy; build your fan base; set up shows and perform at them.

The only other option is to wait for someone else to do it for you. Do that - you could be waiting forever.

The only way you can guarantee some level of success is just to do it.

You might an artist reading this and saying "oh I don't know how to set up shows" or "I can't afford to tour" or "how do I build a fan base" or "I can't afford to make a record" - all complaints that I hear and understand. And they're valid! But I also think that you, as artists, have to understand that this is literally how building a 'product' works! It requires investment, understanding, and time. It's always been hard - and it's always been why Record Companies have existed: to pay for everything, but in return for pretty much all of the income!!

At White Room Production Studios, I'm offering something truly unique - emerging artists the opportunity to build their music career with more affordable studio time for commercial grade recording, help with understanding on how to build a fan base, help with understanding how to organise and market music shows, and how you can earn from your shows.

During the course of my work, I've seen how possible it is to earn £1000 for a show with around a 200 person audience, after all of the costs. Although this is for Tribute and Concept Shows, this doesn't mean it's impossible for original artists. And I'd love to see if my experience can help an emerging artist can get themselves to a point where they're playing 30-40 shows, and earning £40-50k per year.

All you need: a good library of songs; a product to sell; a good show; understanding how to build a fan base (and it doesn't have to be a huge one); and understand how to organise and market shows.

I'm currently running a subscription at White Room for £500 per month which includes:

• 4 days of studio time per month (Monday - Thursday)
• Dolby Atmos and Stereo releases of your albums
• Help with composting and arranging music if you need it
• Marketing and tour management advice and help.
• Strategies for building your fan base

Take a read of some of my other blogs on my website to gain a further understand of what I'm doing at White Room, and take a look around the White Room website to see what I offer as a Recording Engineer and Producer.

You can email me on Dave@davephillipsmusic.co.uk and you're welcome to visit me to discuss what you'd like to achieve to see if what I'm offering is right for what you're doing.

I work from home in Itchen Southampton, although it's not impossible to work remotely through Avid Cloud if you're a Pro Tools user and have access to good microphones and interfaces. It's also not impossible to work remotely via the likes of Zoom.