McDonald's Asks Bands to Play Show for Free, Is Dickish When Rebutted
EntertainmentLike many major corporations these days, McDonald’s wants badly to get in on the SXSW action, reaping the benefits of the long-running music festival but becoming part of the reason it’s not as fun as it used to be to attend. But because SXSW’s core focus is (ostensibly) “emerging” musicians, as McDonald’s put it, the company apparently believes said musicians should play its showcase—in essence, work—for free.
On Wednesday, the pop group Ex Cops posted a complaint on Facebook about their experience after McDonald’s asked them to join their SXSW showcase. Brian Harding wrote:
Their selling point was that this was “a great opportunity for additional exposure,” and that “McDonald’s will have their global digital team on site to meet with the bands, help with cross promotion, etc”
I don’t, and doubt that they know what this means either.
Getting past that rhetoric, at the very least a big corporation like McDonald’s can at least pay their talent a little. Right?
“There isn’t a budget for an artist fee (unfortunately)”
As of 2013, McDonalds is valued at 90.3 billion dollars.
Harding went on to detail other McDonald’s-cited “benefits” of playing their showcase, including being “featured on screens throughout the event, as well as POSSIBLY mentioned on McDonald’s social media accounts like Facebook (57MM likes!)” and also, “free food to all audience members.” (He also brings up the way McDonald’s treats its regular employees, which seems pretty close to what it expects from its musicians, minus the Facebook shout-outs.)