[Dixielandjazz] Playing on the streets

[tcashwigg at aol.com]

That's not what I said at all Bert:


What I said was, that if the Union had done this kind of marketing and 
promotion for its members years ago many of it's members would still be 
working today and or know how to go get a gig in the first place.   
When was the last time you had a UNION REP do anything for you that 
made you any money ?   Just who are they Representing  you to?   They 
lost 90% of their influence decades ago in most markets.   I can recall 
watching the Union shut down music in clubs as fast as musicians could 
get one opened, and then watched for years as the Local in San 
Francisco had a 96% unemployment rate of it's membership.

Did it stop live music, no but it shifted the market far from anything 
close to union representation, and much of it for the better for really 
GOOD acts who demanded and made far more than Union Scale anyway as 
they made a name and reputation for themselves as Better Bands and 
professional entertainers and musicians.     Entertainers make a good 
living in this business, and  many musicians simply starve to death 
sitting around wishing they could be paid what Entertainers make and 
yes even mediocre Entertainers at that.

The Local here used to send us out to "AUDITION" for gigs  for Free 
usually to non union clubs in the hopes that we would score a gig there 
and pay them work dues on it and allow them to say they created another 
UNION GIG.

I clearly stated that you should negotiate with the Mall manager to try 
and get a Paid gig first, but if that does not work at first do not be 
afraid to take a shot at promoting yourself and playing there and 
selling Cds and showing them that indeed it is a good idea for 
everybody's business.    In fact if an act did that a couple of times 
and proved they were good and would attract business to the mall, the 
act could then ask for a reasonable fee for coming back and if the Mall 
did not agree they could go to a competing Mall and start it again.    
If any band does not have a following or any name value at all then 
they are not going to  be able to prove to anybody that they are worth 
much.

Having some talent and being able to play an instrument does not 
entitle anybody to make a living with it.   You would think that most 
musos who have been sitting around waiting for that to happen for the 
past forty odd years would have figured it out by now.   Competition is 
tough boys and girls, you gotta go promote yourself shamelessly and 
expose your self to audiences in large enough numbers to create more 
interest in your band which should be a BUSINESS.    An individual 
musician on the other hand who is not a business person or running a 
band as a Business is technically on the same par as a guy walking into 
McDonalds looking for gig as a Burger Flipper.   Or a Waitress looking 
for a job in a Bar.   Ya gotta decide if you are going to be a Business 
or a hired hand.


There are still 365 days in a year and every day that you don't have a 
gig is a day you have no income as a musician, therefore what I am 
advocating is that on those days that you don't have a solid gig, get 
off you butts and go make one if you really want one.

Cheers,

Tom Wiggins

-----Original Message-----
From: clarberth73 <clarberth73 at sympatico.ca>
To: dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
Sent: Sun, 9 Apr 2006 10:19:43 -0400
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Playing on the streets

    > afraid of the flak from the Union can simply respectfully request 
that
> the Union Get you a Better GIG and Pay you. The Union should be doing
>  the same thing, and would be stronger and a lot more useful if they
>had
> thought of these things many years ago to actually HELP their
> membership GET & KEEP jobs.

Let me see if I've got this straight. You're saying that I go to the 
mall
folks and tell them I'll play for free and then when a union rep shows 
up I
tell him/her to respectfully go to the mall people (or better venues) 
and
tell them the union can get them the same band (that's willing to play 
for
free) at cost to them? But it's the union's fault?

Please do explain.

Bert


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