Seems like musicians are among the lowest-paid workers there are. The time we put into rehearsal...
...entirely unpaid.
The time we put into...
- Loading our gear into the truck
- Unloading the gear from the truck
- Setting the gear up on stage
- Knocking down the gear after the gig & loading back into the truck
- Unloading from the truck and putting the gear back into the studio after the gig (at 3:00AM)...
...entirely unpaid
The time we put in working on our 'promo'...
- Marketing
- Sales Calls
- Follow-up
- Negotiating
...entirely unpaid
A lot of the places to play around here expect musicians to play for FREE. Even the 'paying' gigs won't fill the gas tanks of a 6-piece band (or even a 4-piece, some of them!). Maybe it gets better after the 3rd platinum CD. (Hey, wait a minute - I'm not trying to be nationally famous - I just wanna play out).
I'm told it's even worse in some cities where the 'pay to play' schemes are outrageous.
OK, it's true, we all have day jobs. We're not full-time pros. We love playing music so much we'd all do it for free anyway. Hell, we DO play for free - jamming in each other's living rooms, sitting in, doing 'charity' gigs, just playing music every chance we get.
But is that any reason to put us over a barrel? The bar/restaurant manager who expects to get quality LIVE entertainment from talented flesh-and-blood musicians for less than minimum wage; man, that's mighty low.
(And don't even get me started on DJ's and Karaoke!)
OK, sorry to go all negative on you - I really do love doing this - I think you almost couldn't STOP me from it. I just think people deserve to be treated with respect, and many of us (musicians) are not.
