Guest post by Jeremy Young. This article originally appeared on Soundfly’s Flypaper

I don’t know how to ease into this article nicely and slowly, so I’ll just dive right into the shark tank: Open mics basically suck.

Sure, they have some value. And by some value, I just mean they have very little value, easily replaceable and replicable in many other live music contexts. But they do help amateur songwriters out in a few ways, namely by offering opportunities for networking, on-stage practice time, and a chance to hash out some parts you’ve still not settled on in front of an intimate audience that can give you honest feedback, before taking that song to the studio.