Rehearsal Space - Don't Believe Anything From The Review Sites

This post has to do with those so called review sites that are useless, filled with lies and falsehoods good and bad and should never be used when looking for this type of service and here's why:

First off, many of the fledgling rat trap dumps struggling to stay in business, will try to give the few good places a bad rap by posting fake and bad reviews in an effort to bolster their own place, and writing bogus good reviews about themselves. They do this by having their minions associated with their studio, write very negative lengthy almost seemingly real reviews about their competition even though its all fake and most of the people aren't real with fake names. In the rare event it happens to be a real person, they usually have been paid to write it. Many times they send in their spies masquerading as a band to find out how a rehearsal space is operated, illegally steal information, then spit it back out negatively to make it seem real. This behavior has been documented numerous times by reputable complexes, and now many are on the look out for these low lifes and scrutinize everyone carefully coming in the front door. Some of these spies that were exposed and the studios they represented have even been sued successfully. In some instances, former members of bands have even been paid to write bad reviews against competition for some quick drug money. They do this in bulk to make it seem as though many are of the same opinion. Yes it is a dirty dog eat dog business with no shame apparently, because those at the bottom of the heap offering a lousy quality jam space would like to topple the few good places at the top. While these jam space owners duke it out with their lies about each other, this becomes a disservice to anyone seeking rehearsal space, because now nobody can trust any of these reviews bad or good. Add to that, the fact that the review sites themselves are not very legitimate, by filtering out the onslaught of good and bad reviews into what they call "recommended reviews" and "not recommended reviews", the latter of which is usually a grayed out link to that section that is hard to find, geared so you don't attempt to read them. Documented is that negative and false reviews usually end up in the "recommended reviews" section so that the review site companies can force the businesses to buy paid advertising in an effort to get rid of their so called negative reviews, and positive reviews end up in the "not recommended reviews" section so you never get to see them either, unless you hunt for that grayed out hard to find link . . . and of course the whole things happens in reverse also, with any kind of review either being hidden or promoted by the review site companies for their own carefully manipulated reasons to obtain revenue from the businesses . . . very similar to organized crime tactics, and that is why the big company players in the review site game have been sued over and over again . . . None of it is honest, not the review site companies, not the false reviewers who makeup 99% of all the reviews appearing online.

Another way the review sites have been made useless, is because they have become a forum for rants from the disgruntled when they themselves usually were the cause of whatever happened to them. Almost always these disgruntled reviews are fabricated exaggerated fish tales and made up stories, and mostly never even happened the way it was written just because someone was spiteful, and they either got kicked out of a complex or left due to some mishap like these usual ways that had nothing to do with the jam space itself and we have seen it all:

1) They didn't pay the rent
2) They violated the rental contract
3) They trashed the building
4) They were conducting illegal activities on the property that could get the rehearsal space shutdown
5) They were overtly using the rental space for activities unrelated to music even trying to live there!
6) Their bad behavior was disrupting all the other people at the jam space (like pissing and passing out in the hallway)
7) They gave access to people that had no authority to be on the property (i.e. security of the building)
8) They wanted to hang homemade flammable sound proofing on walls (i.e. remember the station nightclub fire)
9) They complained about the sound (its a loud building with loud bands, not a recording studio for crying out loud)

The best way to size up a rehearsal space, is to go to the facility yourself and make your own decision, and not rely on any review or anyone else but yourself. There is a good reason for doing it this way. Everyone has a different vision and desire on what they seek in a rehearsal space, and this varies from band to band, musician to musician. One example is, if you are the kind of band that needs to drink a keg of beer at every rehearsal, party in the hallways, and want to have all of your groupies come to your rehearsal space for illicit activities not related to your music, then you might want one of the abandon warehouse arrangements or similar low class places, where anything goes including having your gear ripped off when you are not there, and/or until the city shuts it down of course.

Another example might be that you and your band are of a little more respectful nature, and you desire to have something real secure, so that you aren't the ones worrying whether your gear is going to get ripped off like in the previous example. Also you might just want to get down to some serious rehearsing, and might not want to be bothered with having to avoid all the bad behavior that comes along with the friends of friends of the derelicts that just wander into the building unsupervised for the sole mission to hangout, party, and rip off your gear. So I think you can see why anything that winds up on a review site about rehearsal studios can't be trusted, because aside from all the lies from the minions of the owners, you get a wide swath of those discrediting a place, just because it is well managed and really didn't fit the unrelated activities they wanted to do there, and certainly didn't meet their most unrealistic expectations of what a rehearsal space is.

It can't be stressed enough to only find a music industry operated facility run by the music industry itself in your area. Never use a review site to locate one, use a search engine that takes you directly to the rehearsal complexes own website or craigslist musician section. Stay away from the places run by unscrupulous private owners, and that have not been in business very long, because that is where all the problems usually lie.

The music industry is connected with tightly managed rehearsal space, and they put their experienced people in place to operate them. You want to find a place that has the management skills in place, and understands the entire music industry, so your needs are met professionally and without incident. They are hard to find, but they usually stand out because they have been around awhile. There is music industry rehearsal space that permit local bands and beginners use of their facilities too, because this is how they help cultivate their own industry and give back to the community.