playing a low comp gig for the love of it need not gut the financial motive in professional musicianship.
I agree. I do lots of gigs for things other than money. The farmers' market is not good money, but being part of that healthy movement is important to me, and I enjoy having a four-hour block of time in which I can do anything I want.
For these reasons, I took on the booking responsibility for Onola. The band agreed to a minimum income standard to which we would all make ourselves available as a top priority. Anything beneath this standard required me to get buy in from band members before committing. But, if the gig met or beat the standard, I was free to book and presume flexible availability of all band members. With this agreement in place, we began saying no to gigs that were beneath the standard. Where labor of love factors prevailed, we had a process by which to make exceptions.. and we certainly did so when it was good for the art, the band, or the community--but we I did not allow this to replace the standard valuation for our band.
I'm in a band now with a guy who is much more hard-nosed about money than I am. We have been good for each other's attitudes: we have said no to some gigs I might otherwise have done, and I have gotten him to say yes to a few gigs that had other than financial merit.
With this approach, our band compensation increased to >$100 per man /gig on average in less than 3 months. In addition to this, our band leader began earning a band leaders cut above and beyond the base line comp for the band members. And, we were able to shave ten percent off of every gig for the band fund which facilitated future bookings and promotions of a similar caliber.
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