Oh yes that’s definitely a good side gig. I know a few not so big names who do it too. It’s gotta be sweet to be able to live off music even if for someone else, as opposed to dealing with people over a counter lol
Rehearsal feels really depends on how often a band goes tho.
but it can vary about $50~$100 a time.
Staff isn’t always paid bands also work with free-staff a lot.
live house fee: depends per gig. depends on the norma of that day.
homepage: depends per host but 450dollar per year sounds bit much for nowadays…
Haha, I’m not saying that all bangya’s want to hook up…
But… bandman often do think that and expect bangya’s to pay for all their stuff, using their bangya’s as an ATM. That’s what I mean. And they can go mean as “If you can’t buy this for me, I don’t need you” “If you don’t come to my show, I don’t need you” etc. And you don’t even get something in return from that guy, not even a frienship.
Sure some do, and you often also notice via their SNS if they kind of write for “other” people or so.
And a few are also open about other kind of part-time jobs.
Just know who you support 
Not all bandmen are that scummy. But a big number of them surely are. Just as there is a big number of scummy predatory men. And any other type of shitty person.
I guess I’ll count my blessings and be happy my honmei says he doesn’t need anything when I ask what he wants present-wise LOL
We see the uglier side of the industry more than ever because of how accessible it has become, but I do not think it’s a recent development.
It’s not really a recent development, but it feels as there are more “scummy” bandman than before.
Or it’s just because its more easy to notice as you say.
Maybe it’s a bless.
But sometimes its nice to know what someone want.
If it’s a bit of expensive or really expensive, but you can effort it anyway to buy it, you always can say “if you are good to me, (I might) buy it for you”. You can put your own power over the guy 
but depends on what you want yourself from your honmei.
Ok so I know the ins and outs of this.
Basically the music world is full of pimps and the artists are the hoes.
Being a Prince fan I aimed to free myself from those middle men leaches to where now events seem to know to not even ask me to play norma gigs and one cd shops manager begged me to return and I was like nopeeee.
If you are smart you can make tons of profit even as an indie band.
I take the approach of treating it like say… Local craft beer. You may not be a big company, but if you make something good and of quality, focus on your core customers, you will have success.
As I do everything from production to pressing weve had multiple months of our profit margin being around 150,000en and even 200,000en one month. lots of that has gone back into growing the business and preparing the full album plus covering the cleanup of members suddenly quiting, that set us back months. But still profit is high. Plus I do composition jobs on the side and music is my only job. Got a 6 month Composition contract to help grow the band too this month.
Really any band could do this if they work smarter and not harder/dont let people screw you over.
Recently an artists told me they paid 300,000en for a photoshoot and I was like gurll… you got played.
That kind of stuff happens alot here.
And often labels are the biggest vultures.
Bigger legacy bands like diru etc. You know they are set money wise, houses etc.
Young bands that seem famous and are doing nationwide tours and tied to a label? Probably only geting 2~3man per person a month and then living off of cheki profits.
So sometimes im making more than major artists just by using my head/sacrifing my body haha.
So basically you need to work independently, use your noggin, cut out all unnecessary middle men. But alas: musicians will always be dumbies, crazy, lazy etc. So the pimping continues forever! Capitalism 101
Thank you to everyone overseas who buys everything too 
the trouble with post offices after corona sucks but you make a big difference for us
8 Likes
300,000en for a photoshoot? Who the hell they paid that much…and why did they even paid that much, why not looking for a different photographer…
Another side note, did you notice that most new vkei shoots are edited so awfully bad…you notice on a distance that it is over-photoshopped… and people even pay for that shitty edit…
4 Likes
Right I was shocked.
But even the price of a certain vk label’s own “photo studio” aka an empty concrete room baffles me but hey! Get yo money eh? If they are stupid enough to pay for it.
Basically the idiot move everyone does now is: overpay to use the same photo studios everyone else has used already, pay someone else to do your makeup etc. Pay someone to edit it without passion or heart etc. The result: generic current era vk band photo 
money down the drain. there goes your profits! And you spent more on all that than you did on production for your actual music ah… fun stuff!
3 Likes
Do you actually know the reason behind the windows paint session/setlist flyers?
I offered to make flyers for cheap to some bandman, but they prefer to make theirs in paint.
Whenever they do sessions, why don’t they want having a pro-looking flyer promoting their session?..I mean don’t they want make people more curious and visit their gigs?
3 Likes
So many vkei bands are made up of middle/high school dropouts too, so they’re gonna be easy to take advantage of if they haven’t learned enough financial literacy to know if they’re being ripped off. The groups that stick around a while tend to have someone that seems business-savvy and resourceful enough to use their resources wisely because they’re always going to be limited.
Feels like a meme to bring up Jiluka as always but Sena markets himself really well with social media and has been described as the brains behind the whole Jiluka operation. Not all bands have people that are willing or able to be involved enough on a personal level to ensure that the band succeeds.
6 Likes
i wonder if its just a huge inside joke at this point or something, because some of them are SO BAD it must be intentional…
Shinrabanshow, I’m looking at you…
3 Likes
If you have such a lack of sense and lack of efforts to the point that you are doing session gigs then you are def lacking the sense to actually make a decent flier haha. Those fliers make me cringe sooo hard!
Younger Japanese men too were raised very pampered and are super prideful, even when ive offered to help some bands they go into 逆ギレ mode.
2 Likes
Honestly I think some of them just dont care, if they can play their pretend rockstar menhera fantasy out, hey good on em, its their life so.
Some little session shit came in acting like a rockstar or something to backstage recently and I was like 
this lil clown.
Its always the broke ass, no talent ass, mafakas
5 Likes
This is why i dig through tanuki threads to find bandmember history…it’s so fun to see the difference between someone’s official twitter presence and reports about their actual behavior to see who’s legit and who’s not.
Tanuki is full of insanity and wild rumors, but there’s always a grain of truth to be found.
4 Likes
Tanuki can either be insane lies or complete truth
Recently I saw someone said “they cant sell” while im sitting in ma pajamas at home chillin while the postee prob out being a prostitute angry I turned them down haha
If you dont do manslut things you get the rumors even harder from the jaded hoes:joy:
But yah, lots of fake people putting up a front for that cheki or even mitsuge money
2 Likes
Well playing sessions is okay as long you turn into a real serious band after a while. Because forming a real band and disbanding within 3 months is also not everything that feels even more as a joke 
Well if they go into 逆ギレ mode for that already, they surely not survive in the hard vkei world
I also noticed that some “serious” guys who love to create music have a hardship to find bandman who are serious enough to form a band with or even serious enough session.
But sometimes a topic get flowed about the band fans only. which I think is too annoying. I don’t care rumors about which fan sleeps with which bandman. Just let them be happy and able to support the band instead being jealous at other fans.
3 Likes
Yah finding anyone legit who dares to enter the dead tumbleweed of pain that is vk is rare these days. 
2 Likes
I gotta point out Sena also LISTENS a lot to advice given because hi’s egyo and marketing ability a couple of years ago was awful. So, like @ghostpepper said, know how to market yourself to your niche and focus on that.
Their manager is also very smart and widely respected even among other bands/their fans. Like, I’ve seen him being brought up on Tanuki as a good example when people diss on other bands’ management
1 Like
I wonder if I would be considered a netogya by my favorite Japanese rocker, TK from Ling tosite sigure?
It has crossed my mind that I might be seen as useless to Toru-san. I mean I buy all his expensive music CD releases, merch (band t-shirts, keychains, etc.). And yes, I am very vocal on IG the only social media I have but I wonder if I am as good as his domestic Japanese fans.
I mean. I am even part of his official fan club, Kalappo Lab. I don’t think just any regular fan joins a music artist’s fan club.
But I just don’t go to live shows. It isn’t personal I can’t stand concerts, movie theaters, parties, or church. I would rather do so many other things than those activities. Like Netflix and Chill or read a good book.
Plus, I know a lot of the Japanese superfans of TK are extremely wealthy I see them updating their IG a lot but even if I wanted to travel to Japan for his concerts that would not be possible for me. It is too expensive and out of my budget. I do not understand how some of them can go to so many of his concerts, some of them seem to never want to miss any one of his shows. That’s crazy to me. If I had the money and liked that kind of thing I would still only want to go to one of his live shows once or twice, every 2 years or so. Once I have seen him a few times I feel like I would have seen him enough. I rather get new studio recorded music I can listen to on my earbuds. No offense.
1 Like
Many great replies!
How much would you guess for example Kyo is cashing in every month (one of the most famous and active people in japanese rock today), like 5grand? Of course its hard to guess but I just wonder what level we are talking about.
It’s not a question of “if” you’d be considered a netogya. What you described IS the definition of netogya. Netogya=internet fan: a fan that only supports you online. Even if you buy tons of merch, if you never attend concerts and are only present in their online space, that’s a netogya. That’s for Visual Kei though, most of these fan categorizations are. This band you’re talking about doesn’t seem to be visual kei. So maybe you’re not a netogya by the semantics that they’re not visual kei. Someone who’s familiar with the general hard rock scene would have to fill you in on that one.
The other type of fan you’re talking about (who goes to every show and spend tons of money at the merch table) are called jouren fans (the regulars). And yeah, they’re hardcore. It requires extreme devotion. Your life has to basically revolve around that band.
1 Like