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Play New Year's Eve for regular Bar Pay, or No?
- Thread starter 51PRI
- Start date
Absolutely not. I’ve played at a place that I play weekly for time and a half on New Years even but only because we were done at 930 and I could go home and not have to deal with any silliness. New Years needs to be 4x and up
Double... preferably triple.
To every sucker who wants to play "for the love of music", there's a bar owner who'll hire you because he loves money. The bar owner isn't running a bar because he loves people to taste how great his beer is - he's running a business and making money. When you play there you're making money for him, and deserve a share. If he's making more money on NYE, and you're earning it for him you deserve a cut.
I'll play for free to help a friend out, but if you want me to play so YOU can make money, then you pay me a fair rate.
To every sucker who wants to play "for the love of music", there's a bar owner who'll hire you because he loves money. The bar owner isn't running a bar because he loves people to taste how great his beer is - he's running a business and making money. When you play there you're making money for him, and deserve a share. If he's making more money on NYE, and you're earning it for him you deserve a cut.
I'll play for free to help a friend out, but if you want me to play so YOU can make money, then you pay me a fair rate.
Nobody's playing for free, just not higher rate because the bar apparently can't afford it.
The band knows the bar and the owner and I have to assume they're not idiots who would be taken advantage of.
So far, it's never been an issue. I work for bandleaders. I've played NYE every year for the past 24, except for gigs that were cancelled due to the pandemic. For several years, I've played at a retirement home near me, 5:30 to 8:30, and on a number of occasions, have played a second gig after that, often a house party. Who knows how things will shake out, post-COVID.
But in the final analysis, I don't have a minimum for NYE or any other gig. It all depends on the particulars. Who, where, what, when? What's the going rate? What's the chance that a better gig will come along later? Those things can be sometimes hard to guess, but over the long haul I've learned that working for less than what the good players are getting paid, results in gigs that I end up regretting or just not needing.
From what I've seen, I can always get bar-gig pay for NYE if I want to go out, just by waiting until the day before and taking a last minute call because the other bassists have declined it. I don't book cheap gigs early.
But in the final analysis, I don't have a minimum for NYE or any other gig. It all depends on the particulars. Who, where, what, when? What's the going rate? What's the chance that a better gig will come along later? Those things can be sometimes hard to guess, but over the long haul I've learned that working for less than what the good players are getting paid, results in gigs that I end up regretting or just not needing.
From what I've seen, I can always get bar-gig pay for NYE if I want to go out, just by waiting until the day before and taking a last minute call because the other bassists have declined it. I don't book cheap gigs early.
I never said or implied they should make room for me. If you go back to the post I was initially referencing, my comment was towards the concept that this is a tough crowd here, that somehow money equated to a love of playing. Many of us can do both, make a living and love what we're doing. It had nothing to do with thinking hobbyists should get out of the way.
And yes...I am playing better gigs, along with everything else. Nothing to rethink about my efforts, very happy with where I am, thank you.
This: In the live music bidenss, NYE is "Christmastime," payday-wise. It's the highest paying date on the calendar. Every working musician should be making at least 3X what they'd make on a "normal" night.
Your band is ignit to be accepting a deal like this, is doing all working musicians in your market a disservice (by undercutting market rate pay.).
Totally agree. If they can’t afford to compensate me for not spending the New Year celebrations with my nearest and dearest then I’d spend the night with my family celebrating - no hesitation. They’re going to make plenty of money from the night so why not make it worthwhile for the entertainment too.
Don't kid yourself. There's certainly plenty of bands playing for "exposure" and in many cases, pay to play.
Then start a thread about it...
that's not (what's supposed to be) the topic of this thread.
I said the same thing...I don't need to, you're the one that said it. Just rebutting what you said
I was responding to someone else who was bringing up the topic of "playing for the love of music".
noting that in the OP's post, nobody is asking them to play for free.
To the OP. No,
NYE is kind of difficult to price as to what its worth, but generally just too much bother.
My price is about $300 but I am just as happy not to bother for less.
Everyone milks it, including venue staff but regular money just isn't making any sense.
NYE is kind of difficult to price as to what its worth, but generally just too much bother.
My price is about $300 but I am just as happy not to bother for less.
Everyone milks it, including venue staff but regular money just isn't making any sense.
While true, the reason is worth noting: NYE is "Christmastime" for venues. The places where I played NYE gigs often made it a special, such as: You pay to get in, and then get a fancy meal, drinks, entertainment, the works. They would also hire extra wait staff.
There are also some civic events such as non-alcoholic NYE gatherings, that hire bands. And retirement homes.
Keeping up NYE musician pay is going to be like any other night -- are the people going out, do they want live music, are the venues staying in business? My sense is that the NYE business is in decline, like gigging in general. Of course it's hard to guess whether that's true or not, but I think it is if you look over the span of decades. And once bands have been hired for the "big" gigs, what's left is pretty much the same as any other night: A bar gig is a bar gig, and the same number of bands are competing for those gigs, with the same consequences.
What this probably means is that NYE actually represents two markets, with two different pay rates.
drumvsbass
Commercial User
- Aug 20, 2011
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- I work for Long and McQuade Musical Instruments Canada in Sales.
For all of us not playing on NYE, if we go out that night do we tip our servers at 3x-4x standard rate? If not why not? If we deserve that much then doesn't everyone else who works that night?
If you're going out NYE, frank, you're gonna being paying more for everything, as fdeck mentioned. If your tip is gonna be a percentage of your check, you're gonna being tipping a lot more, right? No mystery.
So a Ribeye that's normally $38.95 is going to be $116.85? With tip based on that?
A Bud Light is going to be $13.50?
Never been to a nice place on New Year's Eve? Dang, a Bud Light and a hot dog is almost twenty bucks at a ballgame these days.
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