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.