Why Musicians Shouldn't Work for Peanuts

This how you handle a bar owner. You tell him/her your going to have a big party and hire them to bring all their alcohol and you can tell them to bring their friends as well and you can only pay them $50. Why not? That is what they are doing to a Musician!

A club should be known for having great bands no matter who's playing..so people will never have to guess "I wonder if the band is good" because that club only hires "good" bands.

I also have a few rules myself. My band is not a juke box! I laugh at any club that ask me to play 4 hrs of music for what they want to pay. My times are 10:30 to 1:30 with 2- 20 minute breaks. I do request free draft beer for the band and usually get it. I prefer clubs that do not charge a cover because it seems people shy away from this, usually that cover money is spent at the bar anyways. As a new band to the club I have a set rate for the first 4 shows and then depending on the crowds my rate changes.

My band is not a joke, I carry a 20k PA around for small bars and because the PA sounds amazing it makes us sound that much more amazing. My band is focused on running songs together and flashy musical endings to songs. We try to play professional as possible. So when the club owner tells us we were great and the people loved us, this is when I tell him that's why we cost $700 - $1000 a gig.
 
The restaurant/bar where my band has a monthly gig does absolutely nothing to promote bands that they hire. They don't even have a sign outside that lists who the bands are and when they are playing. A couple weeks before each gig, we print up posters and tape them up on the walls inside the restaurant to let people know when we'll be playing. We also announce the gigs on our website.

Our guitarist gets real stressed about how many people we can bring to the resaurant when we play. We generally bring 20-40 people, and most of them are my friends and family, because I live locally. The people other bandmembers bring out are hit or miss.

You would think an establishment that is willing to pay several hundred dollars to a band would invest in at least a sign to announce the entertainment. They also don't have a website or a Facebook page. While I agree the band should do what it can to bring out patrons, it is also the establishment's duty to help do the same thing.
 
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