When I first moved here, I spent the first six months ,looking , sending out video demos with web page links for more demos. I got two jobs one was assisted living that I played twice and they stop hire outside entertainers and used freebies only.( budget cuts. The other was a American legion which I had to cancel due to upcoming surgeries. The assisted living paid 50.00 for 1 hr. American legion paid 75.00 for 3 hours. So I decided to not pursue the music up here. To me it's not worth the hassle . I'm ok playing a 40 minute set once a year here in my retirement community when needed. I've been following Gary ( travelin easy) diamond on this forum , I highly respected his knowledge and attitude toward facing not playing anymore. He has made my transition to my next stage ok. Thanks Gary. Hope you're doing better.

1. 'Playing out' was never the 'end all' for me in music, nor did I ever desire to try to make a living through music. For one thing, given the level and quality of talent out there during my 'playing out' years, I never deluded myself into thinking I was good enough to make a living this way.

2. Age and health considerations. There comes a time when the hassle of preparation, set lists of tunes you don't want to play :), setup/teardown of equipment/equip. insurance/chasing bookings/night driving. Without the incentive of having to do it to feed the family, it's hard to dredge up the desire to play out. This is magnified if it involves other people (band members).

chas

Great for you, Al ... enjoy every moment of it while you can ... As the song says "You're gonna miss this", and I greatly miss the days of playing with the band in NY ...

Actually there are more venues where I live hiring single and duos now than there were even a few years ago. Karaoke seems to be finally dying a much-deserved slow death.
There are only a couple of arranger players around here, so most of these jobs are now being done by guitarist/vocalists playing and singing with pre-recorded tracks. The most successful of them make their own background tracks. And these guys are very good, I must add.
In addition there are a few piano players still finding work at some of the high-end dinner clubs.
Also, we have five casinos within a couple of miles of each other. Each of them has entertainment every night, and often two separate bands on the weekends. Most are local, but some famous or used-to-be-famous acts as well.
I disagree with my good friend Gary about the nursing homes paying more. TOP dollar in these parts for a NH is 100. for an hour. Most won't pay that and there are lots of people doing it free "to help the old people". Their hearts are in the right place, but it's the big companies they are helping.
Anyway, that's an hour of playing. It also takes time to drive there, unload, set up, pack up again, drive home. You must allow time after arrival just in case something doesn't work as it is supposed to. Realistically it takes several hours depending on how far it is. Traffic here is MUCH busier during the day than it is at night. And, these days, most of the NHs are owned by huge companies that make you submit an invoice then wait a minimum of 30 days to get paid. You have to spend time very day keeping up with submitting and processing invoices and following up on slow payments. Plus, you must carefully keep up with every imaginable expense because that 100 bucks doesn't go far after taxes. Correct me if I'm wrong Gary.
I know one fairly successful arranger player who makes more in tips than the nursing homes pay. And, I don't mind playing three or four hours; in fact I love to play and sing; that's why I do it!
If you go to all the trouble of transporting gear, setting up, etc., you may as well play a while, right?!
I'm fortunate enough to be able to leave everything set up nearly all the time and not have to move unless I take an outside job, which I rarely do these days.
I have every day free to fish or play golf, all day. I don't care to go out at night much, unless I'm getting paid!
These days, I only choose to work two or three nights a week, so if I want to take a trip or short vacation, I can do that.
There are two sides to every story. Sometimes more, and I must admit it is extremely gratifying to play for the folks at the nursing homes.
There's an entire different story I could tell about when my friend and I worked nursing homes all over this state and parts of two others. Won't go into it here, but I've explained it in the past. It was very lucrative.

Don, it's not the taxes that'll get ya - but instead, piss-poor bookkeeping.

Lets say, you get $125 for a one-hour NH job. Some places paid more, but an average of $125 was what I charged for jobs within 30 minutes drive time from home. I calculated my overhead for this job at about $20, so therefore, I had a gross profit of $105 - not bad for an hour job.

Now, there's a big difference between gross profit and net profit, the later being how much you were able to stick in your wallet. From the gross profit, I had to look at all those other little expenses that most folks don't think about. Things such as computer ink for printing advertising brochures, postage for mail-outs, business card printing, tax preparation programs, liability insurance, and of course, spares that sit idle in their boxes just in case something breaks down. This is just a partial list.

Direct expenses include the cost of transportation including gas, tolls, tires, batteries and auto maintenance. Then,you have the cost of your basic setup, keyboard, stands, amps, PC, mics, etc... Obviously, the longer you keep your basic setup, the more you get to keep. Fran and I agree on this, he kept that G70 until it grew moss on the north side of the board, while I kept that 3000 until it took on an alien life form, When I gave it to my son, there was not a scratch on it, and I sold the spare to Ed-K. The spare had only been used once and both 3000s were purchased on the same day.

Now, if you are a diligent, meticulous bookkeeper, keep track of every expenditure, and follow the tax codes carefully, utilizing each and every legal write-off, you will likely get to keep about $90 of that $125 you made. However, I highly recommend taking at least 10 percent of that $90 and investing it into an IRA or other retirement account. You should do this for one reason and one reason only - You eventually will get old and not be able to generate income from playing music. I should know! Those 3 retirement accounts I created more than 20 years ago sure make life a lot easier.

Gary

Dining room gig-$150-200.00. 15 Minute sound score (Takes three hours to write and record)...$1500.00. Larger productions pay more.

Of course, the engineer in the studio doesn't have the B**BS the bartender in the bar/restaurant has.

But each year those B**BS make less and less difference.


OH Well,

R.

Health and age considerations and very few venues in this small area.

I played two to three good paying, $125 to $250 jobs a week until age 80. Turned to N.H. until I turned 82. Started playing NH free. After three weeks I received $40 for one hour. After three months it was $85, one hour. I started with eight people, when I left there were about 125 people.

At 85 I was down to one job a week, I was getting tired, the excitement in my music was diminishing. I knew it was time.

The ending is a happy one, I play my Sx900 everyday – the love of music is still here. AND, my wifes keeps applauding. (smile)

John C.