Money or love?

Money or Love?

  • Money

    Votes: 22 12.7%

  • Love

    Votes: 113 65.3%

  • Love of money

    Votes: 10 5.8%

  • Carrots

    Votes: 28 16.2%
  • Total voters
    173
#62
The other thought I've had is, short of moonlighting as a coder, I could switch to a more remunerative genre of music, such as covers or weddings. But that's not always a panacea. There are already lots of people who want to break into the wedding biz, and the requirements for gear and travel / loading time are intense.

Jazz gigs pay OK, especially since the setup and tear-down are virtually zero, and the equipment needs are minimal. I've turned a profit from playing, every year for the past 25.
 
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#63
fdeck said:
The other thought I've had is, short of moonlighting as a coder, I could switch to a more remunerative genre of music, such as covers or weddings. But that's not always a panacea. There are already lots of people who want to break into the wedding biz, and the requirements for gear and travel / loading time are intense.

Jazz gigs pay OK, especially since the setup and tear-down are virtually zero, and the equipment needs are minimal. I've turned a profit from playing, every year for the past 25.
Click to expand...
At some point, those wedding deals turn into just as much of a drag and annoyance as a 9-5 with less hassle. You can definitely make a living full-time on the private gig circuit like that if you slot into the right deal. We have an agency here that does just that - they put together purpose-designed commercial groups based on genre for certain functions. You're a live jukebox. Good money if you like that sort of thing.

Jazz casual gigs pay the same now as they did 20/30/40 years ago. Not sure how one turns a profit making $100-125 a musician unless you're playing twice a day 7 days a week. That kind of gig availability didn't exist even before we got decimated by Helene.
 
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#67
If you are prepping numbers for a fair few hrs for that 40 song set that pays you $300, how have you priced it?

If the songs are reusable then you can spread the cost or prep over other gigs, but if you book horns, they'll give you a price for that night..and saturday is their expensive night...and also price in writing in charts, if they dont have them.

So your total time in hours spent, including prep becomes your hourly rate for what that gig pays.
So that $300 is $30 per hr for 10hrs work including prep, travel, set up and down and playing.
You'd be doing great if you only committed 10hrs the majority of the time.
 
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#70
Thanks for all the comments, been a great read!

Agree that money might not be the motivation for most of us, but paid gigs are a way top play, and commercial performance should pay a fee.

Short of hitting the big time, online must be the main earning area now, so many people connect with music over the internet. Not the same as being there of course.

For me it's all love. I cant live without music. Always looking for a chance to play with others. Speaking of which... having a jam now :)
 
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#73
I don't do it for the money, but without the money I wouldn't do it!


Even so, it was appropriate to vote "Love". I'm a busy semi-pro weekend warrior, but the money from 50-70 bar gigs per year doesn't amount to much when time and expenses are considered, even though it's $100 minimum. To put it another way: if the money were more important, I would get a part time "real job" and definitely not play music.

But the money still matters. I only gig for free under special circumstances. And hell, because time is money, I won't even join a band that rehearses regularly. I'm an old experienced phart mostly in the classic rock cover band world. After all these years I prefer to play with similarly-experienced bandmates who know most of these standards already, and can thoroughly learn others via homework alone. Again, my context is mainly bar gigs. For higher-tier, higher-dollar gigs, I recognize that rehearsal can be crucial (but I'm aware of bands in that tier who never or rarely rehearse).
 
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#75
Ive been in a bands that have different views on this. My first cover band almost 20 years ago would almost shame you if were "too concerned" about money. As a business owner, the pay part of playing out takes on a different importance. So, even though I dont do it strictly for the money, we are hired by people whose only concern IS the money. Sure, venues might "like" live bands but they want to make as much as they can and would stop booking if they were losing money. You have to balance your love for playing/playing out with being hired to generate income for the venue. Others may have a different opinion.
 
#76
No, we want our rate and choose the material we want to play...but you live or die on this making sense and profit for the booker.
We don't play the same set...probably only one number is a standard and despite my misgivings over the set list at the start of the project, even I'm surprised how well it works.
But....we also try hard to match our expectations with the bookers.
You need a few rules whatever you do.
1) if you play chilled songs, make sure you can play them.
2) It you want people to listen, give them something they can listen and relate to
3) If you want them to dance, make sure it has a good dancey groove even if it isn't an out and out dance track.

So, thats going to be worth a decent fee, imv
 
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#77
Personally I gave up on making it years ago. I gave up on supplementing income with it years ago. I don't get beer money out of it either. Do I like getting paid? Yes. Do I care about getting paid? No. Years ago when I was trying to fund being on the road, a van, and an album yeah I cared a lot about the money. My band at the time argued about the money. I got so burnt out I started a whole second project that refused to take money. That was an incredible breath of fresh air.

When the financial aspect was gone all the negatives basically disappeared outside of being sore from carrying stuff. Now, I know there's fellas on here who need a particular dollar amount to get out of the house. I understand that at a certain point you probably want to get paid for the trouble of lugging crap out to a bar, carrying it in, dealing with drunks, and sitting in a dive you might not want to still be at for a few hours. I'm not there yet so not having money be a primary component lets me focus on playing music for me.

Other than when I'm playing a video game at home it's one of the few completely and totally selfish self centered things I do and I'm not sorry about it either.
 
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#78
The money has always been important but I never intended it to be a major part of our household income.

It has to at least cover expenses (for me mostly travel…mileage, tolls and parking) and it’s how I pay for new gear and repairs when needed. Over the last ten years the actual profit I had on my Schedule C ranged from a single $700 loss to just under $4K profit, most years in the $1-2K range.

Playing the music makes up for it.
 
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