I like the one that goes like this. A guy calls the local musicians union and says his daughter is getting married and he is interested in hiring a 6 piece band. He wants to know what he might be asked to pay. The guy at the local tells him that 6 pieces on a Saturday night would run around $2,000. The guy says what? $2,000 for music? the guy at the local says I'll tell you what. Call the plumbers union and ask what it would cost to get 6 plumbers to work for 6 hours on a Saturday night and we'll do it for half.

Joe

I have a good friend who for years, when anyone questioned his price by saying "$XXX for 4 hours?!?", he would answer, "Oh no, you are also paying for PART of the hours I spend every day practicing and learning new songs ..."


PS ... Donny, where did you find that?

FaceBook

Life was so much easier when Appels & Blackberries were just FRUITS!

It happens in other fields. If anyone asks me to explain my hourly rate for photography, research, copy, graphics, etc, I tell them, "if you have to ask, you can't afford me".

Russ

When i bring my car to the garage overhere in Holland they charge $120 an hour for repairtime. When i hire an ict specialist for my company he charges $250 an hour.

Price is dictated by the market however, if one single good ICT specialst starts charging $120 an hour, all the other ICT specialists will feel the hurt and they have to drop your prices.

So if in your area a morron is gigging for $100 a gig, people will think youre way to expensive when you charge $300 a gig.

The big thing here at the Shore is "Open Mic" nights. Everyones having one and recently there was a spot in the local paper listing them. One place here in town has had one for a long time on Fri. nights. Another place says it gives them a chance to hear new talent, some of whom may get a gig. So how do you go in and ask for any price when they're getting music for free?
Whats your take, is it just a free entertainment for the venue or does it help musicians. My personal opinion is its a free night for the bars. I think if they hired someone to play the night and then a portion of it went to open mic time OK, but all night?
Another issue is the blur of prices for a bar gig, private party, and Banquet/Wedding. It seems the bar price, which is the lowest is what everyone expects to pay. Its hard to keep up the pay standards.

Bill just a glorified suedo KARAOKE style attempt to keep their businesses alive anyway they can to get people in the seats and rip them off with high priced drinks and shots, & bad food,etc,...nothing more. Quality music players are slowly out the door as no owner cares and why should they as they are mostly just getting by. On top of that Open mic doesn't cost an owner much to have ....the drunks stay and drink, the wannabe "open micers" play and bring in a few friends and they drink waiting to hear their buddies destroy song after song and the cycles rotates all night as everyone after a few hours is drunk and howling wildly for who ever is screaming out of key on that stage or playing what ever...this ain't no Jazz club crowd. It's sad to watch. serious musicians need to look outside the box for gigs that they can be appreciated and ultimately make some money also. Sell tickets or charge a nice cover at the door and then watch how many people show up to hear OPEN MIC.

You hit it Donny. I refuse to go any place that has Karaoke. I went to hear one open mic night and it was like a bad flashback of 60's folk music. Its amazing what people will accept.

Your old enough to remember the original Karaoke guy from your area, Al Rondo. Used to do his amazing thing at PJ Ruggles. He would play "live" behind anyone for any song. He packed the place with wannabes but his playing the rest of the night made it worthwhile, and he got paid very very well. I know we talked about him before and he's still playing at Brennans.

I know Al Rondo very well....he played many rooms that myself played years ago also...although he was blind he would astonish people with his keyboard talents, We used to go see him perform at Savannahs in Spring Lake,I last saw him at the White Sands in Point Pleasant Beach, even tough he couldn't see me he would always say hello, I'd give him a kiss on his Bald head..lol...
FYI I was down your way on the shore last night doing a gig at
Four Seasons country club a real nice place.

"So if in your area a moron is gigging for $100 a gig, people will think youre way to expensive when you charge $300 a gig."

Bachus,

I totally agree with your last comment... As long as there is some Moron doing the same gig for $100 that is what really kills it for being able to get compensated for today's reality of pricing. $$$

Just like any market, "supply & demand" as long as some idiot is causing the fee structure to crash, then it becomes challenging to justify what the year 2013 reasonable compensation should be.

In my area: Southeast Florida, I blame the guys that work the same circuit as me, that are still charging what the fee structure was 28 years ago, for the realistic reason why my fees seem so "out of line" compared to what they are still working for which is only $50 per hour!!!

The person doing the hiring at the Venue constantly gives me the rebuttal that: "The other guys are doing the gig for $150!"


Ron, in Port Saint Lucie, Florida [Southeast Florida]

Obviously a player needs to be worth the money you ask for, ....you have to back up your playing and singing WAY above all the rest when you ask for more money and be ready to prove it to your perspective clients making them "look to hire you" what do YOU do in your act that is better then the competition?, are you putting in the hours to make clients know who you are? what you do? how good you can entertainer their people at a gig? make countless phone calls, sending out flyers, advertising in news papers, visiting clients locations, auditions, using agents, etc,. if your not ready to go "FULL BORE" to get work anywhere your music will be appropriate then you have given up and will languish with the other $50.00 gig players,who are a dime a dozen,...but, if you want to soar above them in this business you gotta care about what your doing big time and make it happen at all costs doing the legwork, homework every day. It can be done, you get the one shot if your music is subpar or just average your just another player in the mix, if the crowd leaves and you can create a "WOW" factor after a gig you will leave them WANTING MORE & MORE and that is the KEY!!! I cannot stress this enough!!...EVERY GIG!!!!......or you can sit home and make squat.
but,how much does somebody want it only you can chose your destiny?....

I like to be competitive, but I still need to charge what I'm worth ... which is usually at least a LITTLE more than the pack. I expect to loose a few jobs a year to price - that's fine by me. Better that, than being unhappy at work. I need to make a living, but I also need to be taken seriously. If a potential client tells me that "so and so" charges less then I do, I always reply ... then get THEM. I charge more, because I am worth more.
BTW - I loose very few offers, and most times, it's not due to money - it's style, preference, or personal reasons.

I'm starting to think it's a lost cause. All this, just to keep your head above water for many. With all this happening, when does one get time to get his oil changed or his teeth cleaned or have a cup of coffee with his wife?

I think I'm going to change careers to a more admirable one like driving a taxi in NYC. The sad truth is, for many musicians (except maybe Don M.....you'll have to cut him down with an ax!) the glory days of big money are over

Mark

When you think about it, there is no alternative to 6 plumbers. If the job is big enough for 6 plumbers, then that’s what you need. Unfortunately, there many alternatives to 6 musicians. That’s the rub.

I don't know where to start! Try laying brick. Everybody even you high priced entertainers think that the price is too high.
Pull an 8 to 10 thousand gross weight trailer to haul around loaded with scaffold, brick saw planks etc. A 1000 lb mixer to haul. Tons of sand and sacks of cement. A ForkLift, 2000 dollar bricksaw. A $30 trowel and $35 brick hammer, push 600 to 1400 brick a day in the wall and troweling all the cement necessary to lay the brick. Have to fight a contractor or owner to get paid, have to fire and hire men etc. They won't pay any where near $50 an hour for a bricklayer and a hod carrier, and this is not even half the story. Count your blessings you bunch of sissy cry babies. LOL! Oh the job covered with plastic and a propane heater running all winter if you're lucky enough to have a winter job and 98 to 105 degrees all summer. There ain't probably a guy on this forum could cut this gig. Ha ha! I look back and wonder how in the hell did I do this crap. I must really be stupid.