Founding membership — first 20 members, $15/mo
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What happens
after you join.
A membership organisation is only worth what it does in the weeks after the payment clears. This page is the whole mechanism, written out: the member journey step by step, why the shows pay the bands, where the money goes, and why the thing compounds instead of merely accumulating.
From payment to paid work
Ten steps, in the order they happen. None of them requires you to be already established, and the first one pays for the year.
- Day one01
You join, and the rate is fixed
Monthly or annual, on the founding rate while any of the twenty places remain. That price is held for as long as the membership runs without a break — it is not an introductory year that quietly steps up. You get an account, access to the member areas of the site, and the newsletter.
- Week one02
You book the setup
The included professional setup is the first thing most members use, and the fastest way to feel the membership. Bring one instrument in; strings, action, intonation, truss and nut height, done properly. It is $175 at the counter, which is more than a founding year costs.
- Week one03
Your profile goes up
If you want a public artist profile, we verify it and publish it: bio, genres, lineup size, typical draw, links, photographs. Verified is the operative word — a booker working through the directory is not gambling, which is why they use it.
- The first month04
You come to a show, free
Guild Live runs about twice a month. Members walk in with no door charge and see the announcement in the presale window, 48 to 72 hours before public sale. Bring somebody on a guest pass; you were going to bring them anyway.
- The first month05
You meet the room
This is the part that cannot be written into a benefits list. Being in the same room repeatedly is how the sub network, the gig board and every band that has ever formed actually work. Membership buys you the room, cheaply and often.
- Ongoing06
The bench stops being expensive
Every job after the annual setup runs at twenty per cent off labour, and members go to the front for anything time-critical. The emergency benefit is invisible until the afternoon before a load-in, and then it is the only one that matters.
- Ongoing07
Work starts arriving
The gig board carries paid work posted to members first — venue slots, session dates, deputy calls, private functions. The substitution network covers you when a player drops out three days before a date, which protects both the fee and the relationship with the room.
- Ongoing08
The discounts accumulate quietly
Partner rates across Austin: rehearsal rooms, print, studios, food and drink. Nobody joins for this and a great many members find it returns the dues on its own. Every partner added is added to your membership at no extra charge.
- When you are ready09
You play a Guild show
Twenty-minute Showcase sets, or a full slot on a genre night. Bands are paid a guarantee of $500 to $1,500 before the door is counted. The night is filmed on multiple cameras with a feed from the desk, and you keep the footage and your music outright.
- Every year after10
It renews at the rate you joined at
Another setup, another year of admission, and a network that is larger than it was because everything above has been happening to everyone else at the same time. Monthly memberships cancel whenever you like, with no notice period.
It is not a discount card.
It is a wheel.
Every part of this pays for the next part. That is the whole design, and it is why the membership is cheap: it is not meant to earn out on dues, it is meant to fill rooms.
- 01
A musician joins
Fifteen dollars a month, or a hundred and fifty for the year.
- 02
The instrument gets set up
A professional setup, included, worth more than the year costs.
- 03
The discounts turn up
Strings, print, rehearsal rooms, food. Austin businesses, member rates.
- 04
They meet other players
A directory of vouched-for musicians, and a room they are already in.
- 05
Work follows
The gig board, the substitution network, the Showcase. Paid work, not exposure.
- 06
They come to Guild Live free
Every show, no door, plus the presale before anyone else sees it.
- 07
They bring people
Guest passes, and friends who buy tickets and stay for the next one.
- 08
Those friends join
They came for a band. They leave knowing what the membership is.
- 09
Businesses want in
A membership worth reaching is a membership worth partnering with.
- 10
The benefits get better
More partners, deeper discounts, more reason to join.
- 11
The shows get bigger
More members, more tickets, more sponsorship, larger guarantees.
And then it starts again, one turn wider. The eleventh step is the first step, which is why the founding rate is capped: the wheel is easiest to join before it is turning fast.
A series that pays
sounds different.
Guild Live guarantees between $500 and $1,500 a night, agreed before the door is counted. Nobody plays a Guild show for exposure. That is a brand position rather than a cost line: a series that does not pay attracts the acts who cannot say no, and everybody in the room can hear the difference.
It also explains why membership is cheap. Dues are not where this earns out. Dues fill the room, the room sells tickets and draws sponsorship, and the tickets and sponsorship pay the bands. A member who never spends another dollar but brings two friends to four shows a year is one of the most valuable people in the organisation.
And every night is filmed. The artist keeps the footage and keeps their music — no rights grab, no licence buried in a booking form. The pitch to a band stops being “come play our show” and becomes “come play a Guild show and leave with professional live footage”.
- 100 public admissions at $20
- $2,000
- 50 members
- Free
- Band guarantee
- −$1,000
Against venue, production and marketing, before merchandise, sponsorship or the bar. It is a thin night by design. The fifty members who walked in free are the reason the hundred paying admissions turned up at all, and they are the reason the next night is bigger.
Three series, three jobs
They are not the same event at different sizes. Each one exists to do something the others cannot.
Guild Live
The main series and the front door of the whole organisation. Themed genre nights — acoustic, rock, Americana, blues, experimental — with paid bills. Members free, public $15 to $30. This is where non-members meet the Guild for the first time.
The Guild Showcase
Five Guild members, twenty-minute sets, professional sound, multi-camera video and stills, industry guests and scouts in the room. This is the series where membership visibly advances a career rather than merely saving money.
Guild After Dark
The premium room: an acoustic set, a Q and A, a meet and greet, gear demonstrations, food and drink. Cheap for members, priced properly for everyone else, and small enough that the member presale decides who gets in.
All three are recorded as Guild Live Sessions. The artist owns the footage and the music, and nothing is published without their say-so.
LMBHC LLC operates the Guild.
Mythic is the anchor partner.
It matters more than it sounds. The Guild signs its own artist agreements, venue deals and sponsor contracts, holds its own members and settles its own money. Mythic Guitar Company is the reason the bench benefits are as good as they are, and the included setup is a real transaction between two businesses rather than a favour absorbed quietly by one of them.
Other partners sit alongside Mythic, not beneath it. If Mythic were to disappear tomorrow the shows, the roster, the board and the network would still be here.
Reasons not to join,
answered properly.
I only play a few shows a year.
Then admission is not the reason to join, and we would rather say so. The setup is $175 at the counter and the membership is $150 for the year, so the bench alone puts you ahead before a single door. Everything after that — member repair pricing, priority when you need it, partner rates across the city — is on top of a number that already worked.
I already have a tech I trust.
Keep them. Nothing here obliges you to move your instrument, and a good relationship with a tech is worth more than a discount. Members use the Guild for the annual setup and the emergency job at four in the afternoon before a seven o’clock load-in, and take everything else where they always did.
I am not gigging yet.
This is the cheapest part of the year to join, and the part where the membership does the most. The directory, the gig board and the substitution network exist precisely for players nobody has called yet. Turning up to a Guild night as a member and meeting the room is how most first calls actually happen.
Twenty-five a month is real money.
It is, which is why the founding rate is fifteen and why we publish the arithmetic instead of asking you to take it on faith. Run the calculator with your own numbers. If it does not pay, do not join — a membership somebody resents is worth less to us than an empty slot.
Is this just a discount at a guitar shop?
No. The Guild is operated by LMBHC LLC and books its own shows, signs its own venues and pays its own artists. Mythic Guitar Company is the anchor partner, which is why the bench benefits are as good as they are. If Mythic vanished tomorrow the shows, the directory and the network would still be here.
What if I join and it turns out to be nothing?
Monthly memberships cancel at any point and run to the end of the month you have paid for. There is no notice period and nobody is going to ring you about it. We would rather you left cleanly than stayed out of inertia, and the founding rate you leave is the rate you would rejoin at inside the same year.
Twenty people get in at fifteen a month.
Then that number is gone.
Not a launch promotion. The founding rate is held for the people who joined before there was anything to look at, and it does not rise for them afterwards.
Founding $150 a year, or $15 a month. Cancel any time.
The inner circle
New builds drop here first.
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