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Play New Year's Eve for regular Bar Pay, or No?
- Thread starter 51PRI
- Start date
My NYE gig pays $100.00 per man this year. It's from 2pm to 3:30pm at a retirement home 20 minutes from my house. We are gonna pop champagne and sing Auld Lang Syne at like 3:15, then, I'll be home that night.
The answer for the OP is no, not for regular pay.
The answer for the OP is no, not for regular pay.
OP does this often. I guess some people get bored and need online conversation. Here I am so who am I to judge
Typically New Years Eve is when the establishment makes a killing because the places are usually packed and some/most charge a cover charge. Why let the owner make the money that night you you get usual chicken feed pay??? I would not do the gig. Either band and establishment profit together or they can find other "suckers" to play.
Thanks, that's useful information. Gonna put him in the ignore list.
There is a HUGE difference between playing at a reduced rate for a friend at his place on a Friday night and playing on New Years Eve for NYE prices. Done the playing at reduced rates for a friend plenty of times, usually making it a Friday night gig so we can make real money on Saturday night. NEVER played at reduced rates for New Year's Eve.
Playing at a reduced rate for any venue that is going to be absolutely packed with hard-drinking and money-spending party-goers while you are keeping everyone dancing and thirsty is just stupid. New Year's Eve is the absolute busiest and most profitable evening that venue will have all year long. Typically they sell tickets to attend the celebration. And they want you to play for a reduced rate??? If you're not there playing the music to keep the party-goers entertained and dancing, the party will move somewhere they can find that music, dancing and drinks. Even if he can't pay regular Saturday night rates on a Saturday night, he can easily afford NYE prices on New Year's Eve. If he doesn't want to pay that, he's just being a greedy cheap-skate. If he can get you to come play at those low rates this year, I guarantee he will do the same next year and every year. You will never get NYE prices because playing NYE for him will become a tradition and he will never "be able to afford it". For him, that's eating his cake and still having it too.
If he ends up hiring a cheaper band for NYE, it will come back to bite him in the "bum" next year as ticket sales plummet and people go elsewhere to spend their money because the music wasn't very good. It's really a short-sighted approach and a major business failing. One of the main tenants of running a business is never do something that helps your business in the short term that will hurt your business in the long term. It's a great way to go out of business.
I didn't have it answered. When I started the thread the BL had just texted about the gigs, and nobody else in the band had expressed their opinions, and I had not formed mine. Plus, I thought it was a good topic for conversation here, and I think I was correct in that.
So, the gamble with drunks on the highway is made more tolerable with more $$$?
I think the argument would be that if the venue is lowballing bands and therefore can't book, a band that decides to take the gig could potentially be contributing to the depression of band rates across the whole scene. In other words, don't scab.
At the risk of reinvigorating a thread that seems to be winding down, I'm curious how up-to-date these claims of double/triple/quadruple paying NYE gigs are.
Back in the day, NYE was definitely a double-or-more paying gig, but in my area (from what I've experience and gathered from others) that hasn't been the case for a long time. There are few venues that offer live music on NYE. Heck, there are relatively few that offer live music on ANY night, for that matter.
I have tried to get a few venues interested in making NYE an event, and have not found a lot of interest. People I know are not interested in spending NYE at a bar. They go to house parties, or stay home and watch Netflix and go to bed at 11:30.
Has anybody here actually played a NYE gig for more than normal weekend pay in the last 5 years?
Back in the day, NYE was definitely a double-or-more paying gig, but in my area (from what I've experience and gathered from others) that hasn't been the case for a long time. There are few venues that offer live music on NYE. Heck, there are relatively few that offer live music on ANY night, for that matter.
I have tried to get a few venues interested in making NYE an event, and have not found a lot of interest. People I know are not interested in spending NYE at a bar. They go to house parties, or stay home and watch Netflix and go to bed at 11:30.
Has anybody here actually played a NYE gig for more than normal weekend pay in the last 5 years?
Only if the bar owner is going to promote NYE evening with something special and offer the band a regular booking, starting now with a minimum. Folks are not going out like they used to so building up a regular crowd is going to take some promotion and commitment from the owner, staff, band and vendors.
This is something I am negotiating with several local places that say they want to try to get a regular crowd, but ain't willing to do the deed.
This is something I am negotiating with several local places that say they want to try to get a regular crowd, but ain't willing to do the deed.
More money means a nice room for the wife and I so I don't *have* to deal with drunks on the highway.
Where's the love? RIGHT HERE, that's where.
I'm personally a No for this same reason, and also for the same reason that you don't play a wedding for less than Wedding Pay[TM]: because it's actually high pressure: if you ruin New Years they'll remember.
Pre Covid, most every gig I played was $80 - $100 for 3 hours, roughly, and then tips on top. When I played a NYE gig at the same place pay was $200 -$250 plus tips. So generally, double. I have not played a NYE gig since before Covid so i don't know anymore.
devnulljp
Supporting Member
'Cause I wonder why musicians are constantly undervalued"Hello? Is it me you're looking for?"
And I wonder what you do
When asked to play for tips
Or worse, exposure bucks
Tell me how to get a decent paying gig
For I haven't got a clue
But let me start by saying
I wouldn't play a goddamn NYE gig for cheap no way no sir no how
