Thats why I dont usually do open mics or jams because those same places that used to pay a band now get the music for free. I would rather play at home with friends or busk on the street
Unless there is some very good reason like the very special benefit or something that might genuinely do you some good in terms of being in front of a large audience that you'd never get to otherwise, never play for free. Otherwise all you're doing is being part of the problem.
I had a gig once in a pub, upstairs in the function room. We'd set up and were just waiting for kick off time. Turns out the local rugby hero was getting married and all the locals were at the reception. Landlord asked me how much it would cost to just have us pack up and go home. I told him, "$300 quid." "But that's your full price and you haven't played a note!", he says. So I told him, "Look, we've got to load the gear out of the house and into the cars. Then out of the cars, up the stairs, and set up. Then we have to break down, down the stairs, load back in the cars, go home, and unload into the house again. That's what you pay us for. Playing we do for free." "Go on and play then, " he says. So we did. By the time we were about half way through the first set most of the regulars showed up from the reception along with the rugby hero and his new Mrs. Pretty soon the place is rockin and good time was had by all.
I would probably suggest that dinner for the band and a chance to come back on a primo night might get him out of the full payment. But, such is life without contracts.
I'd be less upset about the load out, and more upset about the other place I could have played and been paid...
We don't have the problem with gigs here, but we're not an electric blues band either, so we are not limited by those venues (although we can play them too).
For guaranteed pay, I prefer the festivals (reputable ones anyway) where there is a contract, good pay, big stage with a sound man, and 1-2 sets for decent money.
Jawbone and Jolene just keep making progress. But we do pick and choose where we promote. Gone are the days of $15 a pop "promo packs" which have never brought us a gig. Instead, Jo sends an email with our links and so forth. This has in fact been working pretty well.
We played our first paid fest 2 weekends ago. Looking to expand on that area as time goes on. It has taken some sacrifice, like going out of town and playing some tip sets, but it's bearing fruit in this one instance. We had a busy week last week, a fest, a 2-set cafe gig in the middle of the week, and a 3-set pub gig last Saturday. Ironic, the pub's booking agent bounced a check to us! She's now sending a money order. If we do more with her I'm thinking maybe paypal. Any thoughts on that folks?
As a duo we can do street corner stuff, a cafe, or a medium size venue pretty well. We play for whatever comes along on the street because it has several benefits: Practice and work on new material, probably a few bucks, at least gas $$, most important! Turning a few people on to roots and blues music. We even sell a cd here and there.
Cafe, pub, club dates we charge since like LSC says, we lug equipment. (Great story LSC btw!) Also, we have worked hard to develop a good to great sound and unique approach to the material we do. Jams and open mikes locally we are done with since those venues have never hired us for a paid gig. ---------- ---------- http://www.reverbnation.com/jawboneandjolene
I began my first paid gig in the mid 70's. Getting screwed on pay was not uncommon back then either. Anytime you work in an environment that sells drugs(alcohol being a drug) it attracts a high % of mental cases/addicts as owners/managers. The biggest change that has occurred over the years is the continual decline of dedicated music venues. Now it is near impossible to make a living strictly playing these kind of venues. Musicians have greatly helped this problem by always having a large enough population to under bid, play for free, pay to play. When I ran blues jams on Sundays/Mondays in the 80's I made more money than my band did playing those nights. Pay to play jams were another big part of the decline. Blues jams use to be for pros and every major city had them and it was not open to amateurs like they are today. Live music has eroded to near extinction in the 100-200 seat venues with a dance floor, tables, pool table, bar. These places use to be in every decent size town. It was like the minor leauges for up and coming regional bands on weekdays and a stop for the big name blues guys on weekends. Look at the pro players today. How many have to give lessons, do seminars, sell instructional videos/book/cds on their own labels, sell off the stage? In my early days no one did this but I watched it increase to what it is today. There was a very detailed infrastructure in all areas of the music business that handled the rise of an artist. Now it is become for most a 1 man show to keep a band/artist gigging and with the decline of clubs there are very few pro blues musicians making a living from just playing. Heck I use to play 200 dates or more a year around the world and nobody hardly knew my name. Today you can be world wide known and not have a gig thanks to the internet. I think when we can look back historically as to why live music died the internet and multi channel cable will be among the major causes. We use to have a few channels of tv, have to put a record on the turntable and to skip a song took a lot of effort so you listened to the whole thing. Today I see kids in the high school I work in go through 50 songs in a minute on their hand held devices. That is progress for you. Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year in the Tunnel of Dreams Studio. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
I have the opposite problem. Load all the gear, play the set, go to the owner and he insists on over paying me. He says, "Here's $500 quid for the show." Then I say, "No frickin way man. I came here and we agreed to play for $300 quid. I'm going to the loo and when I come back I better see $200 quid less on this table." Bar owners eh?! Tongue firmly planted in cheek!
Yeah, I Just had this exact conversation with a bar owner friend of mine. It's not the bar owners that are at fault here. Yeah, there are some unscrupulous ones who screw over musicians. But there are good ones who are just computing a fairly simple equation.
In the case of my friend, he told me he can't get any young people to come out in any kind of numbers willing to pay a small cover ($5 -$10) to hear live music. But he can get them to come out in droves to go to "raves" and pay $25 a head. Said raves consist of a couple of "DJs" playing this overly bass driven God awful "dance music"(I'm using the term music loosely here). So what do you think he books? Hey, he's just trying to keep the doors open and make a living too. If over time, an owner realizes that he's paying the band several hundred dollars on a Friday night and it's drawing five extra patrons, he'd be insane to keep booking the bands.
Two other venues in my town have also just announced they're done with live music as well. It truly must suck to be an up and coming musician trying to make a living at it. I want to assign blame, but there are plenty of candidates. The indifference of young people/older people to live local music? The proliferation of other choices eg. karaoke, raves, etc., for a nights entertainment? All of the above?
I was so happy back in the day when disco went the way of the dinosaur, thinking great, we can get back to music again. Well, in a way, the disco days are back in spades. Nothing anybody can do about it. It just a different time. I'm glad I was young in another time. Yeah, I know, grumpy old guy syndrome. Hey its my only consolation.
rave on........meatheads.
Last Edited by Honkin On Bobo on Apr 24, 2015 6:26 AM
I was there when the disco dj started coming to clubs with a stack of records and undercut us bands by more than 1/2. I was hanging with Roy Smeck at the time and he chuckled when I told him about this. He said the radio and record player put 90% or working musicians out of business. Bar owners are not to blame I agree. They are making a living and if people won't come hear live music what can they do except book what does bring people out? I have concluded man has been trying to kill live music since as soon as he could invent something to replace it- like the wind up music box..... Everyone should watch this video. It was filmed at the time I was hanging at Roy's apt. History repeats itself once again. I wonder if people here have enough patience to watch it all the way through? That is another habit that has come from the boom in technology :-) Walter
---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year in the Tunnel of Dreams Studio. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
there is a bit more to a rave than a dj spinning tracks and it is the same thing that was happening in the mid sixties when butterfield played the fillmore only now they have designer drugs, and the weed is 10 times stronger
Used to partake in a little weed way back, but now it just knocks my head off and I can't even function, so I don't do it. So what's the point of it being the way it is?
