[Dixielandjazz] Pay Scales/The Devil Is In the Details

[Gluetje1 at aol.com]

I appreciate the details Tom, Steve, Elizer are providing and hope the  
discussion keeps going.  But some things I can't sort through.  If you  know you 
are selling a Chevrolet and not a Cadillac, you price it less.   How then do you 
avoid underbidding the price of the Cadillac?  I suppose  I'm really asking 
for ethics we'd like to see prevail among booking  agents.  Do you say to the 
buyer, "I'm selling a Chevy.  If you want a  Cadillac, call X?"  Steve talks 
below about increasing fees yearly,  building demand, (business plan stuff); 
about not charging so little that it  screws up the market in your area.  Seems a 
challenge that may take some  psychic skills to discern.  How do businesses 
(bands) start, build, grow,  and not have a cost that is less that the giants, 
use pricing as a way  to get their product to market, etc. 
Ginny
 
In a message dated 4/6/2007 9:51:43 A.M. Central Daylight Time,  
barbonestreet at earthlink.net writes:

Dave  Washburn in Dallas asked about pay scales, what should a band charge,
and  for finite numbers instead of "more than the average band at a  Festival
gets."

Its kind of like asking what should a new car cost?  Any where from $9,999
for a KIA to $1,300,000 for a Bugatti. Depends upon  who the buyer is as well
as how well the car meets the buyer's needs, real  or psychic.

Its also a tough question Dave, because contractual  obligations should be
held in confidence. Regarding the band fee, it was  based upon the average
OKOM Festival Band getting $40 or $50 a man per one  hour set, playing from 8
to 10 sets at a 3 day OKOM festival.

For a  six piece band that's between $1920 and $3000. Thus you can
approximate  "more than that" for the hour and a half gig I mentioned.

Relative to  my own situation, For a local gig, 3 hours or less, I charge
anywhere from  a minimum of $750 to a maximum (so far) of $7500. Depends upon
the venue,  the occasion, the clients, etc. We do not leave the barn for less
than $750  except to do some charity gigs in December, "Real Charity" in
Hospital  Wards, Hospice locations etc., where there is neither
entertainment, nor an  entertainment budget. And in that case, I use some of
my leader fees  collected over the year to pay the sidemen.

I add time/mileage charges  if the gig is more than 50 miles from home. If it
involves an overnight, I  add 1st class accommodations and meals.

Wiggins was right on about why  we hate to quote actuals. Basically because
we then get undercut by  competing bands. I wish I had a dollar for every
time a competing band in  my area heard about a gig of ours, and underbid us
saying; "We play the  same music as Barbone Street and cost less." Two things
then happen.  

1) The lesser band gets the gig and screws it up so badly that we get  it
back the following year.

2) The lesser band gets the  gig, screws it up and sours the client on
"Dixieland" forever  and the gig gravitates to another music genre, while
those  band members complain that the market for OKOM sucks.

Point being, in  any market, that first the band must satisfy the audience.
Then it should  set a goal of increasing its rates yearly. It will only work
that way if  the band is in demand. That takes a while, or may never happen
if the band  is no good, or does not market and perform for the audience, or
the band  doesn't have a good agent.

So what should a band charge? Damn if I know  without the specifics of the
band persona. A couple of general  guidelines?

1) Not less than union scale.

2) Not so little that  is screws up the market for live music in your area.
This one  is really the key. Including ALL forms of live music, not just
OKOM. That means talk music market with the local pros.

Take Elazar's  gig at $25 a man. He got it from busking. It probably doesn't
hurt the  music market. There may not be a union visible there. OK, he
created that  gig and under the above scenario, he is right to do the gig
because he is  building the reputation of his band and its music. Lots of us
got started  that way.

The trick is to market successfully from there . . . by  building audience
and appearance fees at similar rates. Like by this time  next year, he should
at least have doubled, if not quadrupled both his  audience and his fee.

If he is then still working/busking for $25, he  isn't doing it right.

Cheers,
Steve








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