I'm not sure this is the right section of the forum to post this, but it seemed sort of apropos.

I realize that a lot of you play recreationally, some others play in church groups so this question is for those of you who do play out on gigs with some frequency.

What's the going rate as a solo act, a duo or a band in your area? I realize there are different types of gigs, but what I'm thinking of mostly are one or two sets at your local bar, coffee house, folk club or other similar venue.

Part of the reason I'm asking is because I read an article in our local paper recently. I quote: ""The days of bands getting $800 a night are over," said Brickley. "Fortunately there are still musicians who do it for the love of doing it.""

I love playing......but I have over 45 years of experience playing, a significant capital investment in my equipment and strange as it may seem, from the comments made at our gigs, some ability.... is it wrong to think that we should be compensated fairly for it??

I play in a trio - 2 acoustics and an electric bass. Pete and I play guitar and sing. We supply the PA, 5 or 6 guitars and the yards of cables, etc. We play 8:30 to ~1:00 for $200. There is no better way to spend my Saturday night. If I was home I'd be sleeping by 11.

"There is no better way to spend my Saturday night. If I was home I'd be sleeping by 11."

love that quote because that is exactly how i feel! I will play friday and Sat. night this weekend with a buddy (2 acoustics/vocals)....7-11 and will take home $200 a piece for the weekend plus tips and i can't wait to plug up.

Duccy i think you make a valid and worthy point...i can't speak for anyone else but my experance has been if i started dividing the cost i have in music gear into what i get paid at gigs it would be a bit depressing if that is how i planned on paying for it.

another way that i look at it is....i would want/have the gear anyway and i'm just glad i can share it...honestly i'm proud to play Collings out and answer questions and let folks, that i trust!, give it a spin. Also to the person paying me - what i paid for my gear really isn't their concern.

great topic!
dale

This message has been edited. Last edited by: maplebaby,

Next upcoming gig is a trio with acoustic, vocals/acoustic, keys - we'll take home $100 apiece.

The electric gig isn't working out so well. We're vocals, two guitars, drums, bass, keys, percussion... last time, at a local bar, we ended up with pretty much a cab fare each. And that's after lots of rehearsal... each extra member seems to bend the time/rehearsal graph on a logarithmic curve, or something. Some members want to go for better-paid private parties and functions, but half the band doesn't want to do top 40, pop or corn, and I'm among them. Still, for the blast of cranking a 330 through a Pro Reverb, I'm in.

quote:

Originally posted by peghead:
Next upcoming gig is a trio with acoustic, vocals/acoustic, keys - we'll take home $100 apiece.

The electric gig isn't working out so well. We're vocals, two guitars, drums, bass, keys, percussion... last time, at a local bar, we ended up with pretty much a cab fare each. And that's after lots of rehearsal... each extra member seems to bend the time/rehearsal graph on a logarithmic curve, or something. Some members want to go for better-paid private parties and functions, but half the band doesn't want to do top 40, pop or corn, and I'm among them. Still, for the blast of cranking a 330 through a Pro Reverb, I'm in.

That's about the way it works for my band too.. Will & I played an acoustic duo gig, 2 hours on a Sunday night & made close to $100 each. We take the band out & if we have a really good night we may walk away with $50 or $60 each......playing 3 1 hour & 15 minute sets.....

It does give me a chance to crank on the LP Special through the handwired 18watt Marshall, that's a bit of aural heaven for me, so I can relate!!

An important factor is the area you're playing in. My brother lives in Santa Fe, and plays frequent gigs paying several hundred dollars a night for a small latin music acoustic trio. I consider him to be a bit of a hack compared to me. Not that I'm necessarily more talented, but I sure practice a lot.

I live in the San Francisco Bay area, where EVERY male between the age of 5 and 87 plays guitar. Local musicians around here include David Grisman, Carlos Santana, Tom Waits, members of the Grateful Dead, and who knows who all else. One of Peter Rowan's brother lives a few blocks from me. All the local venues have dozens of bands sending them demos every month. I only get gigs at places when I promise to wash dishes and do personal favors for the owners (ok, I'm exagerating a bit, but you get the point). That's just the way it is.

It cost me about $10 a night because I ate their Bar-B-Q. I had to quit.

The only tip I got was when some country club guy told me, "don't hit a 3-wood from a downhill lie".

For a bar gig around here (Western Mass), $75 per person is about average. I'm sure that really popular bands get more. I often play for $50. As I tell students, "Become a musician. You can make literally hundreds of dollars a year!"

quote:

Originally posted by El Jefe:
It cost me about $10 a night because I ate their Bar-B-Q. I had to quit.

The only tip I got was when some country club guy told me, "don't hit a 3-wood from a downhill lie".

Not too bad for that 15 minute set I suppose....the question is "How the heck did you get your hands clean enough to want to touch the D1A?"

Sonoma is the oddest town for music I've ever lived in. Big tourist flow, lots of folks with bucks (even now) coming for wine and great food. You'd think gigs would be there in droves. Nope. I'm lucky to get three or four gigs a month, and I play as much or more than anyone in town. There are great players here, and some good bands, but there are, maybe, a half dozen place in the whole freakin' town that have live music- and that's a couple nights a week. Some places pay in dinner plus tips. Whoopie. My regular gigs pay 30-50 for two hours or two and a half, and you get free dinner and drinks. I can't drink enough to get rich that way! On big nights, like New Year's Eve, we might get a hundred a head. Pitiful. I make, generously, 1500 or 2000 a year, and that's being in two bands and playing solo acoustic gigs too. Irony: my first gig, August '65, I'd been playing eight months and knew maybe ten chords and twenty songs, and our folk quartet made 100 a night- 25 each in '65 dollars (it'd be ten times that much now, minimum) and hot and cold running waitresses. I figgered this was gonna be easy. Wrong again. tom

College Station is a college town (~45,000 students) but the live music scene is pretty pathetic. That being said, my 16 year-old plays one night a month at a trendy little Mexican restaurant that has "Live Music Nights" on Wednesday - Saturday after the kitchen closes. He plays for 90 minutes starting at 11 p.m. (about half covers, half originals) and usually gets $70-$80 from the bar and another $20-$50 in tips.

The official rate is 20% of the bar tab, but I don't think they bother to actually calculate much of anything. When the bar is incredibly busy he'll get $100. If it's dead he'll still get $40 or so (plus tips). I think his worst night so far has been $50 and his best has been $225 (again, for a 90 minute set). We have to bring our own PA system, cables, etc. ... but however you slice it, it's significantly better than bagging groceries.

When I was his age I had a newspaper route and I never once got tips from sorority girls. It definitely could be a lot worse.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: mwilkins,

quote:

Originally posted by mwilkins:
College Station is a college town (~45,000 students) but the live music scene is pretty pathetic. That being said, my 16 year-old plays one night a month at a trendy little Mexican restaurant that has "Live Music Nights" on Wednesday - Saturday after the kitchen closes. He plays for 90 minutes starting at 11 p.m. (about half covers, half originals) and usually gets $70-$80 from the bar and another $20-$50 in tips.

The official rate is 20% of the bar tab, but I don't think they bother to actually calculate much of anything. When the bar is incredibly busy he'll get $100. If it's dead he'll still get $40 or so (plus tips). I think his worst night so far has been $50 and his best has been $225 (again, for a 90 minute set). We have to bring our own PA system, cables, etc. ... but however you slice it, it's significantly better than bagging groceries.

When I was his age I had a newspaper route and I never once got tips from sorority girls. It definitely could be a lot worse.

We have one happy hour venue in town that does a similar pay out scheme. It's the only one I've played at recently that seems economically feasible. We even made decent money playing as the full band for 2 50-55 minute sets. The thing that continually amazes me is playing a gig with "house sound" where you end up paying the sound guy (who often times seems to be reading the weekend edition of the New York Times) roughly 4 or 5 times more than any of the members of the band. Sorry if this seems like grousing, I enjoy getting out & playing, but sometimes it seems like it makes more sense to just sit in the rehearsal space & play around with recording instead of dealing with all the silly stuff of lining up gigs, logistics of getting there, listening to the drummer grumble about what he could have made playing a pick-up blooze gig, etc....... *sigh*