Vancouver musicians face issues receiving payment for events hosted on Facebook

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — Duane Keogh and Johanna Sö became fixtures of the West End community, hosting balcony concerts in the early days of the pandemic after the 7 p.m. cheer.

Since then, they’ve been performing for audiences during a time when travel is not recommended and venues are closed.

Like many, they’ve turned online – and recently got excited when Facebook offered 0 per cent commissions for creators selling tickets to live streamed events.

The band jumped on the opportunity and scheduled a live show for New year’s Eve.

Two and a half months later, Keogh and Sö say Facebook still hasn’t paid the earnings from the show, nearly $3,000.

“Originally, all of the creators terms and conditions guaranteed us payment on the 21st of the month following the event. So since the event aired December 31st, we expected payment by January 21.”

They say attempts to get in touch with the company have also proven difficult.

“Even when they would have tabs saying, ‘go to this site’ to check for something, you know to get payout or whatever, if that site wasn’t working like you know that page, wouldn’t be up and running,” Keogh explains.

“All the helplines for these issues seemed to be down. Those help links take us to no one really and their contact number but it didn’t work, Sö adds.”

She says even her own mother couldn’t buy a ticket, even with help.

“I prompted her I was walking through her through every step was on the computer with her. She’s like, ‘I’m buying the ticket but it keeps saying tickets are not available at this time.'”

Both say they spent a considerable amount of money on promoting the show through Facebook as well as making tech upgrades like a phone, computer, tripods, and lights.

CityNews has reached out to Facebook and the company says it is now looking into the issue.

For now, Keogh and Sö say they’re planning to host more live shows, through the band’s website.