PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic Gig Prices

Depends.

I've been a pro musician most of my life. I did have two day gigs, two tries at being 'normal' while still gigging on the weekends. Neither one lasted more than a few years, and I found that normal is terribly overrated.

And I do have the BiaB sideline thing. I wrote my first styles for myself and my friends encouraged me to sell them. I get to keep some of the money I make with BiaB but the shopping cart, credit card authorization company, credit card merchant's account, web host, insurance company, tax collector, and sub-contractors, etc. make over half of what I take in. I do make enough though to keep me home during the slow season. Before this I used to do cruise ship gigs in the summer when the tourists are not in Florida.

OK, so I would have made more money if I had used my electronics schooling as an electronics engineer. That's a fact. And one of my day gigs, the one that lasted 5 years was as a Cable TV field engineer. Good pay, lousy job, high pressure and a company that went out of their way to make things more difficult.

However, doing music and nothing but music I bought and paid off a house one lot away from the east coast of the mainland of Florida (to the east a 2 mile wide lagoon and then a thin barrier island), I owned a 23' sailboat, I've bought new cars but instead of BMWs, they have been Minivans (got to haul the gear), and I've taken yearly vacations to Asia, Europe, Africa, North America, Central America and 49 out of 50 US States.

I'm not rich by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm comfortable and not in debt. I am frugal, I don't buy things that aren't important or necessary, and I spend my money wisely.

Most importantly of all, I'm living my life on my own terms, I make my own decisions and either win or learn by them, and I'm not a wage-slave to some faceless corporation.

Playing music is a business, and has to be treated as such. Most small businesses fail, that goes for music businesses as well. I know a mom & pop lunch restaurant that has been here for over 30 years, and I've seen scores of others come and go in that time. It's the same with other small businesses. And in today's corporate dominated world, it's even harder for a small business to make it.

Like any business, you have to be better than the competition, target your local market, and be price competitive.

Being better means having a good product, practicing, having the talent to pull it off, dressing appropriately, and conducting yourself professionally.

Targeting your market means playing the music that is in demand, and being versatile enough to play more than one genre. If I wanted to play nothing but jazz around here, it wouldn't work, but there are plenty of opportunities for baby-boomer music because of the huge retirement community. Baby-boomer it is, with enough Caribbean, newer tunes, and others to appeal to more than just the grey hairs.

Price competitive is important. If you are truly better than your competition, you will build up a clientele that appreciates the difference and will pay you more than the rest, but until you get to that point, you can't charge more than the others that you compete with. Don't underbid either as that will attract clients that won't ever pay more.

Of course promotion is important, word of mouth is slow, and if you aren't a promoter, an agency is worth their percentage. Find opportunities and fill them.

After saying all that, I must add that it's much harder today to make a living playing music than it was when I was younger. I feel sorry for young musicians in that way. There are many fewer venues for live music, especially for youth music.

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