There’s been a lot of controversy lately about musicians being asked to play at corporate gigs for free. You may recall Sydney reggae outfit Black Bird Hum kindly declining an offer from Fairfax to play the newspaper giant’s Night Noodle Market.
Well, the last time we checked, Louis Vuitton is a pretty big company too. Its revenue in 2016 is $10 billion and it’s one of the most widely known luxury brands in the world, often cited by your favourite rappers when boasting about how large they live it.
So you’d think they’d have a few shekels to splash on a live band, no? Apparently not. Because as musician Laura Rose, who runs a string quartet, found out, the company is so cash-strapped they asked her to play the launch of a new line of luxury watches for the ‘exposure’.
“It is an event for Louis Vuitton. They are launching a new collection of Jewels and Time Pieces (known to the rest of us as watches;),” an agent’s missive read. “I’ll cut to the chase. There is no budget.”
“This is the first time this brand has ever done a launch of this type and they are inviting all of their top end clients.” The agent suggested Rose do the gig for the exposure, which includes a feature in the company’s newsletter and some photos at the event she could use for promo purposes.
“Of course, you could potentially get a re-booking from one of the guests at the event, however, this is out of our hands.” Rose declined the offer in perhaps the most badass way possible.
“Thanks for the details for the Louis Vuitton launch,” she wrote. “We’d be delighted to help out the company that must be struggling in these times of austerity and of course we would waive our normal fee of £6-£700 for the event.”
“We would only ask in return for a charity (ours) donation of a Louis Vuitton ladies watch per player as a token gesture. We wouldn’t be so presumptuous as to expect a model such as the Tambour Monogram Shine which retails at £36,000, something like the cheaper Tambour Brun (£2000) would be perfectly acceptable.”
“I look forward to the company’s response.” Indeed, so do we.
