Hmm why, back in 1997 and few years then when i came to USA we used to go to a wedding,
5-6-7 piece live band, the rate was up to 3-4000$ per wedding (yeah i know, thats how Eastern
European, Turkish and M.E. weddings are done) and it was quite alright. On top of 3-4000$ we
used to get another 5-6000$ tip per wedding. Then suddenly one or 2 guys showed up with
arranger at smaller parties asking for 400-500$ a night...and people that were about to have a
wedding started being interested in the Arranger people and 1 or 2 got them to play. We lost
few weddings and started scratching our heads till ... we heard that one of our own band member
played a wedding without us, on an arranger...that was it...done. Now, in NYC itself there is over
200 Arranger players for the same type of music, each being its own band. You can probably get
a gig once in 2 years...thats why i stopped pla�ing live, not worth it...and the newest thing is,
half of the Arranger players now are DJs ONLY and now DJs are taking over everything.