Dont get me wrong a lot of the photographers in the company are as you have said just people that want a free night and so just either use the crappy bridges that tilllate provide or whatever DSLR is available at the local Jessops.
I cant speak for other areas of the country but certainly in Leeds we are very well respected by club owners and promoters and this is never a bad thing, I have done many paid gigs that I have only gotten through getting to know the promoters as a tilllate tog.
Getting in for free at clubs isn't what I'm in it for, sure it is a bonus and that if you are on a night out without the camera you usually don't pay/queue because you know the promoters but you also get to meet a lot of big names in the music scene.
You may say that it is hurting the nightclub photography scene but in my mind a lot of the promoters would not pay for a photographer even if tilllate/boocas/dsi etc didnt exist, sure there is the exception of when they have a big name DJ in but they usually still pay for a photographer when this happens as they want more usage rights out of the photo's for promotional use on their flyers/posters/website.
I know many venues/promoters who dont like tillate, many from discussions aswell. Simple reason why tillate get used is because they are free, well in a such. You have a guarenteed 2 photographers coming in in the big venues, for a nominal fee, + the fact you get advertising on the tillate site. Tillate then can sell the photos as the contract removes all rights from the photographer for the images.
If tillate were not there people would be paying more photographers because they would have to. Photos are a key marketing tool for any promoter, big or small club, either from adverising the main headliners/building an image bank for when they come in again/to getting hits on a website. + now with facebook etc.. they are being used more and more for this purpose.
Fact of the matter is if everyone was charging then they would just all start paying consistently, instead of trying to haggle you down on your set fee because someone from tillate will do it for free entry for him and his mate, and that I know because I work very closely with some key promoters.
I guess it boils down to what the venue is really. Some want quality images from respectable photographers, who wont go posting stuff which can damage a clubs reputation, others want cheap stuff and dont really give a toss.
on the subject of DSI they are incredibly better for photographers when it comes to image rights.
thanks everyone for your informed responses. Certainly doesnt sound like its worth bothering with. No way am i doing 40+per month! probably just do it purely for free entry, make new freinds / djs etc... and experience of photography.. would be cool to get gigs in europe though...
do they do other event related stuff? liek video productions? im actually a video editor so maybe they have other stuff -
http://tilllate.biz/schweiz/tilllate-custom/news/
german and event media solutions? er?
The euopean stuff you still have to pay for.
I was going to have to pay for my own flights and accomodation to work for them in ibiza.
Erm no thanks. Same went for the big ass party in some place each year.
40+ a month was a ****take by me, but ask anyone with back access to the tillate set up to see how many photo reports a manager has done, and its all high numbers, not necessarily good work.