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Local Live Music Is Dead

#201
I saw the writing on the wall for live music about five years ago.

I was lucky enough to start playing bass around 2001 and fall into a house gig that was five nights a week. That gig lasted for five years, and I learned a lot of lessons from those gigs and got to play with with some really amazing players. Hell, the piano player I used to play with moved to LA and now plays with Christian McBride!

Anyway, this band would play jazz Tuesday through Thursday, then add singers and horns and do covers on the weekend nights.

I remember talking to some of the other guys towards the end of our residency remarking that we were watching the 'death of live music'.

Anyway, I continued plugging away at just playing for a living, but the working stiffs time was coming to a close. Once I started having kids, it was over fast!

If I had remained single, I could probably earn enough playing to live in a crappy apartment and barely get by. Screw that.

I ended up taking a gig playing bass with the US military. Playing bass for Uncle Sam is making me far more money and the benefits are far better than I ever had before. If you are young enough and want to play full time, this may be the only option left to make a real living playing music.

I think with the way people get their entertainment nowadays, playing live music for a living is going to go the way of the dodo.
 
#202
Will Kelly said:
I think with the way people get their entertainment nowadays, playing live music for a living is going to go the way of the dodo.
Click to expand...

Listen to this Guy, especially you guys coming up on 30 years of age and your torn with decisions on which musical direction you will take and what you want out of music and what you will consede.
 
#203
Will Kelly said:
Playing bass for Uncle Sam is making me far more money and the benefits are far better than I ever had before. If you are young enough and want to play full time, this may be the only option left to make a real living playing music.
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Not only that, your pay is going to UP, not down. And in 20 years, you can be like me and get paid without getting out of bed. Can't beat it with a stick.
 
#205
Live music isn't dead but it is hurting.

Just saw a band at the Motorcycle show this weekend, Colin Dussaults blues project. You can't replace that with an mp3 player. Are they likely to be selling out Madison Square Garden...no, but they were so entertaining. Actually it was a small version of his full band with Colin singing and playing harp, a guy on acoustic guitar, and a guy on bass.

There are a few other bands in the area that are playing, Christine Jackson, Mary Bridget Davies, Micheal Bay and the Bad Boys of Blues...

Cleveland is a small market. These guys manage to gig out all the time.

It is hard to get gigs though and even harder to make a buck at it. Honestly I have a day job. I play for personal fulfillment...and more music stuff. I have friends who play or starve. I feel for them. They are very hard working people too.
 
#207
I tell ya, this has been a bit of a depressing thread. I have been out of gigging for the past 10 years, so I have been out of the loop as to what is going on out there. I just recently joined a new band, but this thread has made lower my expectations, so I suppose that is a good thing as now I won't expect things to be the way they were back in the day.

I will say that reading through this has made me grateful that I was at the height of my gigging days from the early 80s to the early 90s. I had the time of my life. I would hate to be a young musician now and wanting to play live and realizing that there just isn't much of a market for it.
 
#208
Ash Jazz said:
Live music isn't dead but it is hurting.

Just saw a band at the Motorcycle show this weekend, Colin Dussaults blues project. You can't replace that with an mp3 player. Are they likely to be selling out Madison Square Garden...no, but they were so entertaining. Actually it was a small version of his full band with Colin singing and playing harp, a guy on acoustic guitar, and a guy on bass.

There are a few other bands in the area that are playing, Christine Jackson, Mary Bridget Davies, Micheal Bay and the Bad Boys of Blues...

Cleveland is a small market. These guys manage to gig out all the time.

It is hard to get gigs though and even harder to make a buck at it. Honestly I have a day job. I play for personal fulfillment...and more music stuff. I have friends who play or starve. I feel for them. They are very hard working people too.
Click to expand...

Colin is called the hardest working band in the blues if I am right...great band. He has been doing this for a long time to get all getting all those gigs.
Bands today have an issue getting a rep and gigs. My band plays Cleveland also, in our 4th year but its tough and the money is bad.
 
#209
bluewine said:
Listen to this Guy, especially you guys coming up on 30 years of age and your torn with decisions on which musical direction you will take and what you want out of music and what you will consede.
Click to expand...

I play because I want to, money or no money, so there is nothing to be torn about-the end of live music will only be there if musicians stop performing. Great musicians didn't get paid per gig for centuries and they still played. Guess we were all lucky for a while, if we did. In the end musicians are responsible for live music dying out, not audiences.

Personally I am looking forward to a world in which music will be made for music's sake, instead of everybody bending over backwards to imaginary ideas what 'the market' wants.
 
#210
theretheyare said:
I play because I want to, money or no money, so there is nothing to be torn about-the end of live music will only be there if musicians stop performing. Great musicians didn't get paid per gig for centuries and they still played. Guess we were all lucky for a while, if we did. In the end musicians are responsible for live music dying out, not audiences.

Personally I am looking forward to a world in which music will be made for music's sake, instead of everybody bending over backwards to imaginary ideas what 'the market' wants.
Click to expand...

Yessssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
#211
theretheyare said:
I play because I want to, money or no money, so there is nothing to be torn about-the end of live music will only be there if musicians stop performing. Great musicians didn't get paid per gig for centuries and they still played. Guess we were all lucky for a while, if we did. In the end musicians are responsible for live music dying out, not audiences.

Personally I am looking forward to a world in which music will be made for music's sake, instead of everybody bending over backwards to imaginary ideas what 'the market' wants.
Click to expand...

Sounds good and this is the way I feel but there are so many with stars and $ signs in their eyes. I was talking to a guy who answered our drummer ad this week and it was all sounding good until I told him we (band) dont make allot of money:rolleyes:
 
#212
theretheyare said:
I play because I want to, money or no money, so there is nothing to be torn about-the end of live music will only be there if musicians stop performing. Great musicians didn't get paid per gig for centuries and they still played. Guess we were all lucky for a while, if we did. In the end musicians are responsible for live music dying out, not audiences.

Personally I am looking forward to a world in which music will be made for music's sake, instead of everybody bending over backwards to imaginary ideas what 'the market' wants.
Click to expand...

There have been a few articles written in the last few years about this point, and it makes a bit of sense. The idea of 'professional musician' is a relatively new one. Music was more of a communal/amateur deal for much of recorded history (at least according to a few articles I read), and there is an indication that for most who are interested in making music, 'local music' is rapidly heading back to this sort of model. Music is made by your neighbors and friends as part of a 'tribal' experience, versus some sort of professional endeavor.
 
#213
KJung said:
There have been a few articles written in the last few years about this point, and it makes a bit of sense. The idea of 'professional musician' is a relatively new one. Music was more of a communal/amateur deal for much of recorded history (at least according to a few articles I read), and there is an indication that for most who are interested in making music, 'local music' is rapidly heading back to this sort of model. Music is made by your neighbors and friends as part of a 'tribal' experience, versus some sort of professional endeavor.
Click to expand...

Absolutely-I wish for everyone to get paid, but if we don't, it's not the end of music. These things develop as they do, and we can't stop that. The pendulum will swing back again, too, at some point. If there is one thing I learned as an ethnomusicologist, it is that musics don't die-they disappear from the radar from a while only to come back out of nowhere with a vengeance.
 
#214
theretheyare said:
Absolutely-I wish for everyone to get paid, but if we don't, it's not the end of music. These things develop as they do, and we can't stop that. The pendulum will swing back again, too, at some point. If there is one thing I learned as an ethnomusicologist, it is that musics don't die-they disappear from the radar from a while only to come back out of nowhere with a vengeance.
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+1

Also, to make clear, most of us are not in any way talking about 'the death of music' on this thread. Specifically, we are talking about 'the death of local live music as defined by the 50's through 70's era 'bass, guitar, keys, drums' sort of presentation vehicle. Not many gigs out there for that format anymore. Yes, a few blues gigs, the 'garage band/hobbiest' classic rock thing, and a limited number of casuals (which are now mostly taken care of by the DJ thing), etc.
 
#215
bassbully said:
Colin is called the hardest working band in the blues if I am right...great band. He has been doing this for a long time to get all getting all those gigs.
Bands today have an issue getting a rep and gigs. My band plays Cleveland also, in our 4th year but its tough and the money is bad.
Click to expand...


They (he) is known as the hardest working and I believe it. Not only do they play everywhere but they break out tunes one after another after another. He rarely pauses.

His library of tunes is vast and he does old delta blues to more modern tunes and every thing in between.
 
#217
theretheyare said:
I play because I want to, money or no money, so there is nothing to be torn about-the end of live music will only be there if musicians stop performing. Great musicians didn't get paid per gig for centuries and they still played. Guess we were all lucky for a while, if we did. In the end musicians are responsible for live music dying out, not audiences.

Personally I am looking forward to a world in which music will be made for music's sake, instead of everybody bending over backwards to imaginary ideas what 'the market' wants.
Click to expand...

I felt the same way when I was younger.

Thing is, we are all different with different levels of tolerance for different things.

Playing for free opens the door to being taken advantage of, which I have a low tolerance for.

I have to much time, money and other resources invested in this craft to give it away.
 
#218
bluewine said:
I felt the same way when I was younger.

Thing is, we are all different with different levels of tolerance for different things.

Playing for free opens the door to being taken advantage of, which I have a low tolerance for.

I have to much time, money and other resources invested in this craft to give it away.
Click to expand...

But you need to define what constitutes taking advantage.

Is a bar taking advantage of someone by getting them to play for free, or providing a service?

Is a musician taking advantage of a bar getting them to pay the musician, effectively subsidising their hobby and not necessarily making a profit in the process?

I have faith in supply and demand. I decide what I want to do then I negotiate the best deal I can get in prevailing conditions. If necessary, I might change what I do to get into something with more demand, which is what I think you also did when going from originals to covers.

But I don't think there is any natural or moral law that says art should be profitable, nor do I think the profit motive necessarily or consistently leads to better art. In fact quite the opposite when I look at a lot of what charts.
 
#220
300 years ago:

Musicians were either hired by rich patrons or kings. Composers the same. Local people learned to play and entertain with their instruments small groups.

50 years from now:

Full-time musicians are sponsored by government or the private sector(sponsorship or otherwise via unemployment benefits.) Amateurs learn to play using various computer-driven instruments and entertain local small groups.
 

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