I can make money playing originals?! WHAT?!?!?!?

#82
LowWay said:
Is mustang sally really that popular for cover bands? I’m in my 50s and have never heard the song played live once. I’ll admit I don’t get out to see coverbands, and have never been in one, but I’ve been around live music for almost 40 years and I don’t even think I can pick the song out if it came up on a streaming service. Is it a regional thing?
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I have it on a set list on a cover band that does 60's, 70's...people like it and dance to it...
 
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#83
I’m sure they do. It’s not a bad song, but it seems to be the butt of many jokes around here. Just never heard it myself. Am I too young as an old gen x? Is this a boomer classic?
 
#84
LowWay said:
I’m sure they do. It’s not a bad song, but it seems to be the butt of many jokes around here. Just never heard it myself. Am I too young as an old gen x? Is this a boomer classic?
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I dont know? Im 45, played it at "blues jams" years ago....then recently in this cover band I sit in with..It is the butt of the joke, I assumed cause everyone played it 1,000 times....I guess not.
 
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#85
Vincent Van Low said:
I dont know? Im 45, played it at "blues jams" years ago....then recently in this cover band I sit in with..It is the butt of the joke, I assumed cause everyone played it 1,000 times....I guess not.
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Yup. That’s why I was wondering if it might be a regional thing. I think many have played it 1000 times, maybe here in New England it’s just not as common as elsewhere. Or maybe it’s just my pocket of New England where it’s rarer.
 
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#87
Neil Folkard said:
Brown-Eyed Girl and Mustang Sally are one's that I've heard as the butt of most over-played jokes. And Sweet Child of Mine is another, but from the hard rock category.
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I always joke that my contract with the BL of our band contains a clause that limits the number of times per year I have to Play Brown Eyed to 10. Including rehearsals. At least it has a cool bass line. I have never played Mustang.
 
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#88
As has been suggested $60-80 a band is not really "making money" and it's barely that if it's per-person.

I've only ever been able to make actual money playing covers. and in the past 10 years the only time I've been able to look at playing and see hours in and a reasonable hourly wage out to me is playing covers for a few hours a week in bars with no rehearsing.

I do have an originals project, but it's not being done with an eye toward $. It's about creativity and stretching my musicianship. Our first real show did pay us each a reasonably bit of money, but figured against the rehearsals, open mics, etc that proceeded it I'd be lucky to be making 1 dollar an hour in this project.
 
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#89
Eilif said:
As has been suggested $60-80 a band is not really "making money" and it's barely that if it's per-person.

I've only ever been able to make actual money playing covers. and in the past 10 years the only time I've been able to look at playing and see hours in and a reasonable hourly wage out to me is playing covers for a few hours a week in bars with no rehearsing.

I do have an originals project, but it's not being done with an eye toward $. It's about creativity and stretching my musicianship. Our first real show did pay us each a reasonably bit of money, but figured against the rehearsals, open mics, etc that proceeded it I'd be lucky to be making 1 dollar an hour in this project.
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Good points all, but respectfully I think that you missed the overall point, or at least the tone, of my original post. For me to get ANYTHING above a free drink, is making money on that night, since I didn't expect to get any at all.

I play music that I helped to create for the love of it. I've been in other original projects and received nothing at all. I expect nothing and don't care, so even covering gas money with this new outfit, is icing on the cake and making money...to me.

Out of curiosity, have you factored in all of the money spent on equipment, possible lessons, time invested, etc. when you consider that you have made money, playing covers? Not being snarky at all, I'm just honestly curious.

For me, with the amount that I've spent on gear over the years, I had better love doing it. And with what I just spent on a new F-bass, I'd have to play a hell of a lot of even cover band gigs, to come close to recouping it, haha.
 
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#90
Update: Made another $120 last night, a new high. I'll be retiring in no time, haha. (insert massive sarcasm emoticon here).

Another factor in all of this, is that I only 'worked' (played, really) for 45 minutes last night. I'm guessing that most cover band nights are 2-3 sets so 2-4 hours a night?

Again, for me at least, this is definitely not a covers vs. originals thing. I hugely admire musicians who do either. With all the BS in the world, music is one thing that really helps keep a lot of people sane. I know that I'm one of those people.
 
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#91
Neil Folkard said:
...have you factored in all of the money spent on equipment, possible lessons, time invested, etc. when you consider that you have made money, playing covers? Not being snarky at all, I'm just honestly curious.....
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Those costs are the same whether someone is playing covers or originals. The chance for recouping those costs and eventually turning a profit are, in most cases, much higher in a cover band.
Chakuseki said:
I am shocked because I started doing solo bass sets this year and recently sold tickets to my own show where I had a solo bass set with other friends opening, and we sold $700 of tix in nyc. Got to play my original tunes and no one fell asleep!

It was a release show for my first single (solo bass) Sedona!
https://spotify.link/0eixapSurDb

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That's great!

LowWay said:
I’m sure they do. It’s not a bad song, but it seems to be the butt of many jokes around here. Just never heard it myself. Am I too young as an old gen x? Is this a boomer classic?
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A musician should be aware of music history in my opinion. Not having heard a song as iconic as Mustang Sally would be like a painter who had never heard of Picasso.
 
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#92
Neil Folkard said:
Good points all, but respectfully I think that you missed the overall point, or at least the tone, of my original post. For me to get ANYTHING above a free drink, is making money on that night, since I didn't expect to get any at all.

I play music that I helped to create for the love of it. I've been in other original projects and received nothing at all. I expect nothing and don't care, so even covering gas money with this new outfit, is icing on the cake and making money...to me.
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At the risk of leaning too hard on capitalist assumptions, I guess the question is what are you receiving instead of money? In my current original project which has lots of unpaid rehearsal and low-pay gigs I'm receiving the following.
-Time spent with 2 really good guys that have become friends.
-Creative expression and composition.
-Musical growth: Learning a new instrument (Pedal steel) and new musical roles (lead guitar).
-Live performance. An essential part of my enjoyment of music.

I suspect your list would be somewhat similar.

Neil Folkard said:
Out of curiosity, have you factored in all of the money spent on equipment, possible lessons, time invested, etc. when you consider that you have made money, playing covers? Not being snarky at all, I'm just honestly curious.
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It's a very good question.
During the 4 years I was playing covers almost weekly I wasn't buying alot of gear, taking lessons etc. I bought a few instruments, mostly achieved that by selling other gear. Also, there was NO rehearsing. Show up, play 3-4 hours, take my $ and go home. Usually there was a free drink or two involved and I never bought food and drink for myself.

That's why it was an actual money-making experience. Even figuring in transportation time and gas expenses I was still clearing better than minimum wage on a per-hour basis. I enjoyed the experience, but I wouldn't have done it for so long without the income which was an essential part of the equation. Admittedly most of that income became fun money for me, but it kept my fun off the family books and many times the band money went to household expenses as well.
 
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#94
Hey, let's not get crazy...the whole group, haha. But considering that we had to split the take with two other bands, and our gig time was only 45 minutes, I'll take it!

Yes, what I get out of originals aligns fairly closely to your takeaways. Playing music that I like, composing songs, coming up with bass lines for my bandmates' songs, enjoying the rehearsals and the hang, meeting cool people at gigs.

And probably more than anything, growing as a bass player. It has also provided me the opportunity to use four different basses, one in each original project, so it's good that the 'team' are all getting 'starting time' instead of sitting on the bench.

I've received more compliments over the last few months (apparently, legit ones, haha and beyond the standard: 'great gig, man' from the other bands), than I ever have. Hopefully, this means I am improving.

With the amount of money that I have spent on basses alone (Musicman, Ken Smith, Franklin Fender and now an F Bass), I'd have to make a lot of money to even come close to paying for them. Even if I was playing in a couple of cover bands, it would take some time, haha. So, I better be in this for the love of it.

As somebody recently told me (bearing in mind that I have no children): "If you aren't spending your money on things you enjoy, what is the point of having it".
 
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#95
I cannot imagine how much I am in the hole with all the gear I have bought and sold over the years. Ten years ago I was supplying a full array style PA for our band. I got paid an extra share for providing it. In other words, $150 to $200 for a 2 night weekend. You have to do a lot of gigs @ $200.00 to pay for a $10K PA system. My point being, if everything came down to money we wouldn't do this. Some guys play hockey or tennis 2 or 3 times a week as their hobby. Or are hunters. Music is my hobby.

Caveat being - if you (meaning in general) are playing covers in bars, clubs where someone is making money, or weddings etc., then you should be paid.
 
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#96
Well, of course some people can make good money playing originals. Seems there were four lads from Liverpool a while back that did all right on that.

But it's kind of like going to work for a startup. You MIGHT turn out to be like the guy who was employee number 6 at Microsoft; or you might go from one to the next to the next always hoping for a payoff and never getting it; or something in between.

From my times in the bars, and it's been an awful long time, I don't really think audiences require every single song to be familiar. If you get them up on the floor with Old Faithful (those who've been round the block can put in a number of titles here) then move to something they've never heard that grooves, then finish up with another familiar, I think that'll work just fine.

If you eventually develop a specific following and repertoire for your own tunes, then THOSE can become the Old Faithfuls for people who come out to see you. I mean, Jumping Jack Flash was an original no one'd ever heard before, at one point, and now you'd surely expect to hear it if you paid for a Rolling Stones ticket, no?
 
#97
turf3 said:
Well, of course some people can make good money playing originals. Seems there were four lads from Liverpool a while back that did all right on that....
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Those four lads started out playing covers, and only really started writing songs seriously after they already had a record deal, which they got from playing covers and having a huge local followiing. And even then the record company wanted them to record songs written by others. The Rolling Stones started out as a cover band as well. So did most of the other bands from the British Invasion era. It's questionable whether any of those bands would have made it if they had tried playing only their originals in those clubs and bars in England when they were first starting out.
 
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#98
51PRI said:
Those four lads started out playing covers, and only really started writing songs seriously after they already had a record deal, which they got from playing covers and having a huge local followiing. And even then the record company wanted them to record songs written by others. The Rolling Stones started out as a cover band as well. So did most of the other bands from the British Invasion era. It's questionable whether any of those bands would have made it if they had tried playing only their originals in those clubs and bars in England when they were first starting out.
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Well, pretty much EVERY band and musician in popular music starts out playing covers!
 
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#99
I'm already ahead of the Beatles and Stones!! Awesome, lol. I've never played a cover song on stage ever.

When I was messing around on guitar I learned a few things...Tool-Vicarious, ELP-The Sage, Yes-The Ancient (the acoustic half)...all the easy dance-able stuff, haha.
 
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