There's a phrase I hear a lot of. And, I've been hearing it long before the economy tanked. It goes something like this: "I love how you guys sound! I'm an organizer for (just fill in the blank here) and I would like to hire you to give a performance there. We don't have much money though."
Bingo! There it is! The "we don't have much money" statement.
Now, that is all well and good. People are always going to try and get your services for free or next to nothing. Also, there are certainly times when that statement may be legit. However, I recently heard this statement when I was a sideman for an artist, who I will not name. A woman came up saying that she was the event coordinator for a yacht club, that I will also not name, and she said the very same words that are in the first paragraph of this post.
OK, here's the thing. First of all, I grew up near this yacht club and have seen a number of the events that they have. They are pretty lavish. Secondly, I knew people, during different periods of time, that have worked there. Every last one of them, including someone who has worked there within the last 4 months, have each told me how much money flies around there...and not just from the clients. With all of that, and the fact that it is a YACHT club, I'm I expected to think that I (or I should say the artist that I was the sideman for) can't ask for at least my normal performance fee?
Yeah...I could swallow that one, just like I could a 10 pound horse pill!
Look...non-musicians...people who would hire a musician or a band for their services...do you expect to have a plumber, who charges say $300 for a job, come to your house and do the job, but accept that you will only pay them $50 because you like how they clear up your plumbing but you don't want to pay their rate? How about taking your car to the shop. A lot of shops charge about $90 per hour for labor. Do you realistically think that you're going to bring your car to a shop...any shop...and have them agree to only charge you $15 because you tell them that your car isn't running correctly, you like how they fix cars, but you don't have much money. What would happen is that shop would send you on your way and ask you not to come back.
Musicians...you cats that play instruments or sing for a living...WAKE UP! Has it ever occurred to you that people don't take yourself seriously because you don't take you seriously? Before you bristle your feathers over that, what I mean is that you don't present yourself in a business-like fashion. The truth of the matter is, one of the problems for us is that too many of us have too casual a manner about ourselves when we are conducting business. Some of us forget that the person on stage is the entertainer and the person that steps off that stage is a business person. We have to wear different hats and be able to switch them, at times, instantaneously.
If you're not going to get serious when you conduct your business, at least come up with a pricing plan to cover different situations, so that you're not stuck looking like a deer in headlights when someone asks you what you charge. All of the serious musicians I know, including myself, have a pricing "menu" for all sorts of different performance situations and configurations. Every now and then someone will come up to me and ask me what I charge for a situation I have not thought of. You know what I tell them? I say that I'll have to call them back because it is a situation I haven't done before and I need to sit down and consider a fair way to do it.
One more thing, musician type people. If someone offers you a price that is well below your normal asking price, or even ask that you perform for free, there is a magical word that you can use that will stop you from playing a 2 - 4 hour gig that you end up regreting, hauling all of your gear, and listening to unhappy bandmates who are underpaid. This incredible word is "No". You have to remember that the people hiring you have absolutely no clue that you've spent thousands and thousands of dollars on your gear, many hundreds or even thousands of hours practicing and honing your skill, sacrificed valuable time with family and friends, etc. But, YOU know and that is my point!
With all of that said, by no means does that mean I don't work with people regarding rates. But, I won't be giving the farm away. I have done this long enough now (I've been playing music in a public fashion for about 15 years and full-time for over 10 years now) that I know the minute someone says that it doesn't pay but it's good exposure, or that they don't have much money, that the gig will most likely not be worth my time. In my 15 total years of doing this thing called music, what I have learned is that those kinds of gigs almost always end up being much more stressful than most of the gigs I have that pay better. Every once in a while there are some "exposure gigs" that are good, but you have to really weigh those and give them a lot of consideration before you do them.
Well, I guess I've said what's on my mind. I'll tell you one thing, though. If a band is just playing terribly and stinking up the place, and they are not conducting themselves in a professional manner, those are the times that musicians shouldn't get paid!
written by Shenole Latimer
