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it reminds me of the guy that was recently interested
in using music from one of my CDs for his upcoming
claimed worlwide film.He stopped calling as soon as i
told him i wouldn´t mind him using my music but would
at least have to give copyright credit...
keep on rockin in the free world
Luis
--- Rick Walker <looppool@cruzio.com> wrote:
> Chris Sewell wrote:
> " Never play for free."
>
> Per Boysen wrote:
> "I'm with Chris. Playing for free only hurts good
> music in the long
> run. Why shouldn't a good musician's work be valued
> just as highly as
> a good carpenter's work?"
>
> *******************
> I've been a professional musician for thirty years
> now. I haven't had a
> single 'day' job
> in all that time (I've lived off of quesadillas and
> top ramen and I've made
> a lot of money
> doing studio work, touring, gigging, teaching,
> producing, publishing, etc.,
> etc.)
>
> There are genres of music that still make it
> possible for one to make a
> living as a professional musician.
> In Northern California, where I live, even tried
> and true avenues of
> musical commerce (weddings, private parties,
> rich hotels, conventions) have dwindled at an
> astonishing and depressing
> rate in the past five years
> and radically in the last three years.
>
> In the town where I live, Santa Cruz, there are
> NO gigs that one can take
> to make a living.
> typical rock clubs and blues bars which paid $300 to
> a four piece outfit in
> 1967 now
> pay nothing or a handful of dollars from the 'door'
> at gigs. Jazz gigs
> that used to pay a measly
> $50 a person have dropped to $20 a person and , just
> recently, that has
> proved unviable for the
> club owners so non-weekend gigs pay a meal and tips.
>
> Time's are really dire financially here. People
> won't even make any kind
> of substantial donations
> at gigs where there isn't an official cover charge.
>
> When the amazing Norwegian avante garde guitarist
> Tellef Ogrim came here I
> had to tell him
> that I couldn't get him a paying gig at all. We
> played for free at a
> small music store here
> to a dozen people. I felt ashamed but this is
> the world we live in now
> and from everything I can
> tell it's going to get worse before it gets better.
>
> *********************
> A lot of these changes coincided with my realization
> around the turn of the
> millineum in my own life that
> having been a professional musician all of my adult
> life (and militantly not
> even leaving my door
> for less than a $200 gig even if it was next door as
> a point of professional
> pride) that I had
> eschewed many, many really creative avenues for
> making music.
>
> I realized that I had become a musician because of
> the way it made me feel;
> because it was like magic to me; because it was
> an exciting world of mysterious creativity and that
> , over time, I had been
> involved, less and less with the source of
> creativity.
>
> I also began to truly hate the business of music (at
> least as it is
> practised in California). None of the people I
> knew who were on
> major or major independent music labels ever made
> any money. Producers,
> Record Store clerks, Bouncers, Lawyers, A&R people,
> Engineers...............everyone got paid before the
> musician
> did..............and yet all of their jobs resulted
> from the creativity of
> musicians.
>
> I resolved that for the rest of my life that I would
> attempt to be a pure
> artist..............truly (but NOT naively) creating
> new music
> for the sake of it.................not necessarily
> for money.
>
> I got a computer and a printer and started to
> produce my own music,
> manufacture it and even do the artwork and website
> myself.
>
> Initially, I was astonished that I made as much
> money as when I was playing
> the kinds of weddings and corporate gigs that seemed
> so soul-killing (only to me...........I have no
> problem with anyone making
> their living in this manner...........it's just not
> good for me too
> much anymore).
>
> In the last 3 years however, people have started to
> not buy CDs at gigs
> anymore. My CD income dwindled from $7,000
> in 2001 to a depressing couple of hundred dollars a
> year last year.
>
> All studio work completely ceased about four or five
> years ago. Most of
> the successful artists I backed in the 80's and 90's
> on tour are now doing solo tours (or at the most
> duet tours with musicians
> in the countries they travel to) and many of them
> have left the road and/or the music business
> entirely. Some of these were
> really successful financially in the 90's
>
> However, I pulled back and relied more on teaching
> which , though it has
> noticeable declined in this economy (which seems to
> be
> sinking rather rapidly where we live--California,
> the world's 10th largest
> economy if it were a country, is now officially
> considered to
> be in a deep recession) .
>
> And an amazing thing happened. My music
> progressed more rapidly than
> ever...........my output as an artist rose
> heavily. Opportunity's to do lots of things
> including travelling and being
> in magazines' radically expanded and
> I have to say that I"m the happiest I"ve ever been
> in my life.
>
> ******
> I"m not saying this should be everyone's path, but
> when there are no
> paying gigs, Per and Chris, do we stop being
> artists?
> Do we stop playing to the people?
>
> I say, get paid and get paid handsomely!!!!
>
> My father , an accomplished and respected physician
> once told me that I knew
> more about my subject (music) than he did about his,
> (medicine)
> (one of the great compliments of my life because I
> had tremendous respect
> for him) so I do believe we live
> in a screwy world where we seem to be valued less
> than a Doctor or a
> Carpenter for our work.
>
> But what is, IS!!!!!
>
> Thankfully, Scandinavia seems way better
> (especially Sweden from what I can
> tell) in supporting their artistry than the US
> (whose combined arts budget
> was less than
> the combined arts budget of the city of Berlin ten
> years ago). And I"m
> thankful and grateful, that I'm going to actually
> get support to play there.
>
> Here in California, however, I've had to go to
> private companies and
> individuals' to get funding to bring people to the
> Y2K Festivals
> because the festival just make enough money to pay
> anyone really.
>
> So, I say, take this thread on a case by case
> basis.
>
> Jazz musicians playing for free aren't taking away
> paid gigs because there
> AREN'T any paid gigs anymore.
> If they don't play for free, there will be no Jazz
> in our area except for
> people who travel from other places who are famous
> to play KUUMBWA.
>
=== message truncated ===
www.myspace.com/luisangulocom
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