Originally Posted by niteshift
Hey December,

I'll only ask you one question.

Have you ever been a paid professional musician ?

I have. And a lot of the other guys here also.

By saying "paid professional", I mean that I was never "famous" but made my living from music.

My wife and I were talking one day, about the changes in the music industry, and I wanted to give some perspective to a yoounger musician. It worked out that I was paid 2.5x the average wage ( plus expenses ) to do what I did. Plus free meals, beer, travel and accomadation.

A few gigs on national television ( live, and they scared the crap out of me ) , booked 5 nights a week, and some studio work.

If you got some royalties out of your music, then that was a bonus.

Now ? There is no work and I know very few musicians who can make a decent living. I'm certainly not in the main game, like many others.

Would any of us give our music away for free ? No. No professional muscian either now or then, would not do so. It's simply beneath them.

I'll simply ask again, have you ever been a professional musician ?


cheers, niteshift


yes, Ive played gigs in various clubs from decent to dives. I played in a wedding band for a while that never made enough, I do know that the standard fare for a gig was 100 bucks.

A friend talked me in to filling in for a friend couple months ago, I didnt want to do it cause I wasnt up on my sinatra repetorie but I did it for a friend,

I got paid 100 bucks.

LOL, the one thing that never changes is for most run of the mill gigs you will make 100 bucks.

I havent gigged where I was doing my own music though.

And I disagree, we've had plenty of covers cds for sale, and never sold many at all. And this is when cds were in vogue.

There was no such thing as "aww we're going to support these guys"

Hell no, they thought like most people think. Ill never listen to this so why would I buy it, im already buying food and beer!

Dont try to tell me the wonderous happy life of gigging. The best gigs Ive had is when We managed to jam pack the place with people we know. Usually when we had a new place and wanted to make it look like we had a big following.

Some venues that sell alot of beer you do better, but these are highly competetive.

Mostly, u make 100 bucks, i bet the calculator would land somewhere around that.

And lucky to sell one cd a gig.

No, we wouldnt have given a cd free then, because we were too concerned about the right now, not thinking that a cd circulating around could garner more interest, including more venue owners.

But being a musician and being an artist are different things. You dont get many gigs doing originals, not paying ones, so the music has to do it.

If your music is online, people feel somehow they can get it free.

Last edited by December Rock Star; 11/15/12 03:45 PM.