[Dixielandjazz] Hobby bands strike again

[tcashwigg at aol.com]

Hey folks:    All of you who really consider yourselves "Professional" 
Musicians should make a copy of this article and mail it to everybody   
whenever you get an offer to Play for Free or next to it, simply send 
the person this article:   If they don't hire you so be it nothing 
lost, if they read it and understand it and decide top pay you 
reasonable fees wonderful we accomplished our mission, to get back some 
respect and professionalism in this business.    Now this does not even 
take into account a few expenses that musicians have in major markets 
like N.Y. and San Francisco.   If you have to travel over a bridge to 
the gig it will cost you $4.00 or more,  and if you have to park your 
car it can costs you up to $30.00 to do so.   Or you can park on the 
street and and take the chance of being vandalized and or having it 
stolen or towed away and a fine of $100.00 + the tow truck charges.

Wake up one and all.

Tom Wiggins
And yes I have the encouragement and permission to spread this letter 
and reprint it and post it everywhere from the author.  He was actually 
honored that I did post it here a couple weeks ago and wrote to thank 
me.





  An award winning article (reprinted in the International Musician)  
worth reading:

 If I Could Play an Instrument by Brein Matson, Honolulu, HI

  "If I could play an instrument … I'd love to play for a couple of 
hours  for $50. Heck, I'd even do it for free, I'd just be so happy to 
be playing  music. You're so lucky!"

  Sound familiar? It's the voice of the uninitiated non-musician, the 
fan,  the admirer, the "Regular Josephine," the "Regular Joe." They're 
right. We  are lucky that we play music, but it's bad luck that most 
people look at  our profession in that way.

  We are professionals. We chose music as a career, we work hard at it, 
and  we want to make a decent living at it.

  Here's another familiar sound: "It's just not in the budget. Look, you 
  love to play, why don't you just do it for that amount? It's better 
than  nothing…" Or these: "Take it or leave it;" "It's great exposure."

  Sound painfully familiar? It's the voice of the purchaser. The club  
owner, the restaurateur, the agent, the promoter. The sad thing is that 
  the purchaser is in the music business to make money, but somehow, 
they  don't want to pay the people who make the music that makes the 
money.

  This article is addressed to the "Regular Joes," the "Regular  
Josephines," and the purchasers. It's also to us, the professionals. We 
  need to think about this, and remind ourselves of how specialized what 
we  do is, and set the bar a little higher in order to survive 
and--dare I say  this?--prosper. Let's go with the $50 gig. Most of us 
won't take them, and  people are surprised when we don't. But let's use 
that figure
and do a  little math to illustrate why we're not happy to play a 
couple of hours  for 50 bucks.

  "Two hour gig, $50 each, cash. What's wrong with that? That's $25 an  
hour." Hmmm-m-m-m. Let's say the gig is from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m., and 
let's not take into consideration practicing or warming up.

  Start with the drive to the gig. What? Everyone has to drive to work!  
True, so we won't count the drive. Keep in mind that most people drive 
the  distance, and then walk in to work five minutes early, grab a cup 
of  coffee, and start working. We have to pack up the car with 
equipment (half  an hour) and drive to the site. Unload the car, load 
the equipment onto  the stage (half hour), go park the car (15 
minutes), come back and set up  (1 hour).

  Let's say that you timed it so you had 15 minutes before the gig 
starts.  That's two and a half hours. Add the gig, and you've got four 
and a half  hours.

  Now pack up. If you're lucky, and nobody wants to talk to you after 
the  gig, you can tear down in one hour, go get your car, load your 
equipment  (another half hour), and drive home.

  Nobody counts the drive home, but when you get home, you unpack your 
car,  and load your stuff into the house, another half-hour,
 easy.

  That's six hours work, for $50 cash. More like $8.33 an hour, not $25 
an  hour.

  Let's look at making a living with that same amount. To make $1500 a  
month, you would have to do one $50 gig a day, every day of the month. 
If  you did that every day, every month of the year, no vacation, no 
holidays,  you would make about $18,000 per year, and that's before 
taxes.

  Paying federal and state income tax, general excise tax, and full 
social  security tax (no employer contributions), knocks it down to 
about $11,880.  By the way, you're not eligible for unemployment or 
workers' comp, but  that's okay, it's not really work, right?

  Let's double that to $36,000 gross, which is $23,760 after taxes. For  
that, you would need to do two of those gigs a day. Two gigs taking up 
6  hours each is 12 hours a day, every day of the year.

  It's a simplistic formula, but it makes a point. The point is, that's 
why  we're not "happy to play for a couple of hours for $50," even 
though we  are lucky to be able to play music.

  The next time someone says something like the opening line of this  
article to you, turn it around. Say: "If I could be a dentist, I'd love 
to  do it for $8.33 an hour. I'd just be so happy to be able to 
practice  dentistry. You're so lucky!" I'm sure the reply would be: 
"What do you  mean, lucky? I studied for years, and I still study. I 
worked long, hard  hours to perfect my craft, and still do.

  My equipment cost me an arm and a leg, and it's very specialized work. 
 I'm a professional!" Just smile and say, "Me, too."


*************************************************************************
******************************

True story -

A number of years ago a new festival was started in my area called the 
Red
River Revel, started by the Junior League which is basically a bunch of
soccer moms. I was working for the local AF of M president at the time, 
at
his place of business. The group asked for the Union to waive its ban
against  gratis performances by Union members because, after all, it 
was a
new festival trying to get off the ground, it was good "exposure" for 
the
musicians, etc., etc. Against his better judgement, the prez relented 
and
OK'd gratis performances.

You know what happened - after the festival, the Junior League had a
members-only closing night party - and hired a show band from Dallas for
thousands of dollars!

That's the last time any local bands worked for free.


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