Fill In Gig: Charge More or Equal Cut?

[TrevorOfDoom]

Once you agree to something, you're stuck there.
Next time they ask, though, you can try to renegotiate.

As others have said, it also depends on how big the pie is.
If equal share means $200 a man, then I'm all right with equal share.
If equal share is $40 a man for a 3 hour set, then I likely won't even consider taking the gig. But more importantly, I'd negotiate for a set rate instead.

If I'm subbing for a band, then I am not a "band member". I'm a sub, and I don't have to be bound by "band member" practices.

I did a gig a few months back where everyone, including the BL, walked with $80, except I walked with $150. Because that's how much my time was worth to do the gig, and my talents were worth the cost to the band. The BL was happy to have me, has invited me to do more sub gigs with him.
I'm not ever trying to screw anybody, or give another player the shaft, but you gotta have standards.
Most BL's in my area know that they'll have to go out of pocket on a gig every once in a while to keep good players in the band. It's one of the hazards of being the BL.
But it's offset by the gigs where we all get paid well, or the solo gigs the BL can do to restock their bank account.

Moral of the story: ask what you think you're worth. Actually, scratch that. Ask for slightly higher than you think you're worth.
You'd be surprised how often it works out.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

I usually know what the gig entails by who is calling me.

If I've never heard of them, I'll ask them what material they are doing. If it's a professional party or variety band, they usually have a book.

If they want me to learn 3 or 4 sets of original or obscure tunes that aren't charted out, then I'll let them know how much homework that involves.

Yeah, that sounds reasonable. I did a sub gig for a friend last year and it was 50-60 songs (with some more possibles) that I never played. But, necessity being the mother of invention, I can get a reasonable chart thrown together in minutes now and at least fake my way through a song. I now have charts on my iPad for about 1500 reasonably popular 70's-2000's songs so I can now do a sub gig without a ton of prep work. I probably should put together some jazz charts now that I think about it. I read well, so even if it's all originals and they can supply charts, I'm cool. But if I have to transcribe charts for obscure chord progressions for one night, probably not worth the effort only to throw those charts away. Exceptions always exist as the situation warrants.

 

[getrhythm]

When I fill in, I ask what the gig pays. I don't ask what anybody else is making. I weigh what effort I'll have to put into it (learning new unfamiliar material, distance to job, duration of gig) and if it's not worth it, I'll say so. I do think that as a fill-in, I'm saving their bacon and am worth a premium if it came down to that. But I'm not a greedy, hard ass. We know that a lot of these jobs don't pay that great.

 

[tradernick]

I did a gig a few months back where everyone, including the BL, walked with $80, except I walked with $150. Because that's how much my time was worth to do the gig, and my talents were worth the cost to the band. The BL was happy to have me, has invited me to do more sub gigs with him.

I think this is great. You know your worth and you said 'this is what I need to do this gig' and they said okay. It took me too long to figure out that it's all right for me to bill properly for my services and that if you're good at what you do, 97% of the time you are going to have no problem and you will get just as much word of mouth because there are so many people out there who provide mediocre service for money.

Having just bought a house for the first time and having dealt with RE agents, mortgage brokers, insurance brokers, financial planners, bank employees, rental agents, contractors, lawyers and the list goes on, I've realized that the term 'professional' in the sense that it's used to describe people like this is overused. Badly.

 

[buldog5151bass]

Tell him you’ll play the gig but they can keep the money. The knowledge of learning and playing songs you didn’t know before AND makin music with other people who wanna play music is you your true reward.

RIIGGGHHHHTTTTT.

 

[Paulabass]

Tell him you’ll play the gig but they can keep the money. The knowledge of learning and playing songs you didn’t know before AND makin music with other people who wanna play music is you your true reward.

Playing free cheapens the entire industry. We're gettin' hosed already, don't make it worse.

 

[DWBass]

I do sub gigs but only with bands where I know the music (R&B, Funk, Pop) pretty much. No way am I learning 50 rock or blues tunes that I am unfamiliar with for 'equal pay'. That's a whole lot of cramming that I'm not willing to do. I value my time. I've done the equal pay thing for my friends. I have a fee (depends on how much I need to learn and travel) for anyone else and that's if I decide to take the gig.

 

[Element Zero]

Sorry. I should’ve laid the sarcasm on heavier.

 

[buldog5151bass]

Sorry. I should’ve laid the sarcasm on heavier.

You'd be surprised - people have made similar comments here seriously...