www.myspace.com/thegreenmonkeyexperience

We host a jam night at a local pub on a Wednesday night, we don't get money for it or a per diem for the instruments wear and tear, but I've resolved that its good exposure, we get to play in front of people and make contacts..

But.

I am worried that its the musical equivalent of making license plates, that we should be gigging and arranging the material we have and putting it out there, its not a real worry at this stage but I don't want to sound mealy-mouthed but we're doing this for free, essentially and that concerns me if its going to run on past a certain point. I love playing, for its own reward, but its not all I want from it, and the best parts of the night are when we get up as a band. Am I being selfish or should I talk to the rest of the band about where we're going with this and try to talk about getting some forward momentum?

Unless it is a BONA FIDE CHARITY EVENT it is ALWAYS a bad idea to play for free...ALWAYS. You are lowering the bar for other musicians in your area and you are tacitly saying that the music you make has no value; if it had value, you wouldn't be giving it away for free. If you aren't good enough to get paid to play gigs, you are not good enough to play gigs. I'm sorry this sounds so harsh, but it's the plain truth.

Yeah, you should get some kind of green....

thanks, its not harsh, its the truth and I needed to hear it from someone. Again, thanks

Unless it is a BONA FIDE CHARITY EVENT it is ALWAYS a bad idea to play for free...ALWAYS. You are lowering the bar for other musicians in your area and you are tacitly saying that the music you make has no value; if it had value, you wouldn't be giving it away for free. If you aren't good enough to get paid to play gigs, you are not good enough to play gigs. I'm sorry this sounds so harsh, but it's the plain truth. +1

Unless it is a BONA FIDE CHARITY EVENT it is ALWAYS a bad idea to play for free...ALWAYS. You are lowering the bar for other musicians in your area and you are tacitly saying that the music you make has no value; if it had value, you wouldn't be giving it away for free. If you aren't good enough to get paid to play gigs, you are not good enough to play gigs. I'm sorry this sounds so harsh, but it's the plain truth.

+1000

talked with the band, all agreed that this isn't a good position to be in, so are going in and asking for money over the weekend.

talked with the band, all agreed that this isn't a good position to be in, so are going in and asking for money over the weekend.

Be prepared to look for other (much better) gigs....

It's going to be really tough getting them to pay you after you've been doing the gig for free. +1 to being prepared to look for a different gig.

Do you have any other gigs?
You can look at as a "dress" rehearsal.
If you have no other paid gigs, then it kinda seems that is the level of your band.
Have any contacts made at the pub panned out into any paying gig?
If not, it's really a social thing with your band as the center of attention.

Maybe visit a bunch of other clubs in the area to see what's happening.
Also, for weekends at the pub, are the bands being paid? Why aren't you playing weekends? Instead of just asking for money for hosting the jam night, you could ask to be paid for playing weekends since you've been paying your dues every Wed.

Unless it is a BONA FIDE CHARITY EVENT it is ALWAYS a bad idea to play for free...ALWAYS.


If the nights have been going well, the venue will probably not have a problem coming up with a little something to make it worth your time, but don't expect much. Treat the opening set you get to do as a rehearsal to tighten your stuff, record it for demos if the place has decent sound. Other than that, it is never a good idea to do any regular gig for free.