Pay was bad 30 years ago and it's beyond bad now.

Just MHO, it's due to gazillions of players like all of us here being lured into gigging for fun, exposure and of course, chicks. I'm sure this was true in the 20's but now we have (pick a number) untold thousands of kids getting music degrees either performing degrees or production degrees or both.

Here is LA we have an NPR station called KKJZ that's all jazz during the week but they have a great blues show on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Part of that show is called the Indie Hour where the DJ showcases one or two bands. These recordings are absolutely first class and so is the playing. My only problem with it is there is no original sound. It's all guitar based and everybody sounds exactly like (name your favorite blues/rock guy) from Clapton to SRV to Alvin Lee to BB King you name it. They have all the licks and character of the sound absolutely perfect. And they're all technical monsters. I listen to this show every week and over the years I've heard probably several hundred of these bands and they're all killers. Back in the day any one of these players would have had a shot at making it IF they were the first ones to create that sound and those licks.

The problem is they're not the first ones. They're like all the rest of us growing up listening to the original artists so we all sound just like them. that's true for me on keys and it's true for all you guitar pickers. That's ok for cover band gigs, but that's it.

Multiply this by 99 thousand/million/GAZILLION cover band players all over the world and that's the reason nobody is making any money.

It's supply and demand. A person would have problems getting five plumbers to drive 200 miles but there's no problem at all getting oh lets say 20 decent bands to do it. And, I would be willing to bet there are more than 20 good bands within 200 miles in a rural area, it's probably 100 or so. Here in SoCal I would not be surprised if that number is more like 10,000. I'm not kidding, I mean 10,000. 200 miles encompases LA, Riverside, Orange, San Diego, San Bernadino, etc. Probably 20 million people or so and I swear sometimes I think half of them are musicians.

Bob

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