Musicians Getting Screwed Episode #5267
I've been a performing musician since the 80s. I've played to thousands of people, and no people, at places you've heard of, and others you hopefully never will.
It's a given that, if one is a musician, that one gets screwed. It's almost a cliche that it's always musicians vs. bar owners.
There are many ways that a simple gigging band gets the shaft from a club or bar. Let's look at a few.
1. Not paying/shortchanging the band. This can be anything from "we didn't do that well at the bar tonight" to "your following showed, but they didn't drink", so they plead poverty and ask to pay you less than the agreed-upon amount, which is rarely contractual and usually a gentleman's agreement. Once, a bar owner left before paying my friend, so he tracked him down and pounded on his door until he paid him.
2. Not publicizing the appearance. Something I will never understand. A simple share or post on social media that costs nothing...and clubs rarely do it. Everybody wins, but the venue rarely plays ball.
3. Purposeful Double Booking. This is really diabolical. A club knowingly books TWO bands, claims an "oops" and cancels one...all to get the following of two bands to show up. This resulted in bands taking to social media to "blacklist" places that pulled that shit.
Now, the band I played with today got a slightly different version of this, and it's older than "oops! we double booked you!" We arrived, ready to play outside on the patio. It was a gorgeous day, but we noticed a party setup, with all tables decorated. Get this--they booked a party that ran into our scheduled time. We had nowhere to set up.
We grabbed the manager, who offered us a place to play inside, but then the lightbulb went off--he was trying to get us to play at the party without paying us the much more lucrative party rate. We spoke to the owner who said, "I'm the owner and I don't have to defend my decision". So we left.
This was a tough one, as I lack a day gig, but I'm sick and tired of being shortchanged and nickel-and-dimed by these idiots, so I definitely backed the band in the decision to walk. It was worth it.
We're not taking this one to social media, but we are going to tell our fellow musicians about it.
It's a given that, if one is a musician, that one gets screwed. It's almost a cliche that it's always musicians vs. bar owners.
There are many ways that a simple gigging band gets the shaft from a club or bar. Let's look at a few.
1. Not paying/shortchanging the band. This can be anything from "we didn't do that well at the bar tonight" to "your following showed, but they didn't drink", so they plead poverty and ask to pay you less than the agreed-upon amount, which is rarely contractual and usually a gentleman's agreement. Once, a bar owner left before paying my friend, so he tracked him down and pounded on his door until he paid him.
2. Not publicizing the appearance. Something I will never understand. A simple share or post on social media that costs nothing...and clubs rarely do it. Everybody wins, but the venue rarely plays ball.
3. Purposeful Double Booking. This is really diabolical. A club knowingly books TWO bands, claims an "oops" and cancels one...all to get the following of two bands to show up. This resulted in bands taking to social media to "blacklist" places that pulled that shit.
Now, the band I played with today got a slightly different version of this, and it's older than "oops! we double booked you!" We arrived, ready to play outside on the patio. It was a gorgeous day, but we noticed a party setup, with all tables decorated. Get this--they booked a party that ran into our scheduled time. We had nowhere to set up.
We grabbed the manager, who offered us a place to play inside, but then the lightbulb went off--he was trying to get us to play at the party without paying us the much more lucrative party rate. We spoke to the owner who said, "I'm the owner and I don't have to defend my decision". So we left.
This was a tough one, as I lack a day gig, but I'm sick and tired of being shortchanged and nickel-and-dimed by these idiots, so I definitely backed the band in the decision to walk. It was worth it.
We're not taking this one to social media, but we are going to tell our fellow musicians about it.
