[Dixielandjazz] Fwd: Economics of OKOM

[Stephen G Barbone]

> On Mar 12, 2009, at 1:59 PM, Ron L wrote: about the $25 per hour fee  
> for a gig.
>
>> Could that possibly be a per musician wage?   It is addressed to
>> entertainers and some work alone.
>>

Steve Answered:
> Could be Ron, but $25 per hour per musician is still too low, IMO.
>
> Here was his response to me today:
>
> "Unfortunately, we can only pay up to $50 per hour- let me know if  
> you're still interested. Thanks! "
>
> I responded that if that was "per musician", we could do 3 hours in  
> the afternoon, for $900, but not after 6 PM on a Saturday Night.


Well, he came up up to $50 an hour however his response to my "if it  
was per musician we could do it in the afternoon" above was:

"Sorry, it's per group."

That would of course mean that my 6 piece band would earn $25 a man  
for 3 hours. I don't have the balls to ask my band mates to do that.  
That's more than it would cost us to get there. I replied that we were  
in the music business and not willing to pay in order to play.

It's not like they can't afford it. This program gets the downtown  
restaurants involved and generates lots of food and wine sales through  
the day from lunch through dinner. Unfortunately the city books the  
music and I suspect they make a profit on it by re-selling it to the  
venues.

Damn, I sure hope that West Coast /NYC mentality of screw the  
musicians, they'll play for nothing anyway, doesn't make any more  
progress among bookers and musicians here. <grin>

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband