Am I the only one ?

[Ricky 4000]

I've always fancied busking. If you're really good, obviously totally dependant on factors of footfall, location, weather, time of day / night - I reckon a good solo or duo can gross £3 a minute (£180 per hour), and that's with a setup no more sophisticated than the 'big issue' lady...

If you're a band, with some trustworthy mates as bucket persons, playing off a flatbed truck in a pub carpark or near a campus, burger van etc - £300+ an hour?

Elvis Costello in disguise, with just an acoustic, a fishing stool and an upturned hat would gross £300 per hour, easy, I reckon.

[Skinnyman]

2 hours ago, Ricky 4000 said:

I've always fancied busking. If you're really good, obviously totally dependant on factors of footfall, location, weather, time of day / night - I reckon a good solo or duo can gross £3 a minute (£180 per hour), and that's with a setup no more sophisticated than the 'big issue' lady...

If you're a band, with some trustworthy mates as bucket persons, playing off a flatbed truck in a pub carpark or near a campus, burger van etc - £300+ an hour?

Elvis Costello in disguise, with just an acoustic, a fishing stool and an upturned hat would gross £300 per hour, easy, I reckon.

I reckon I might get a few quid to sod off and play somewhere else......

[lownote]

Our music local is in the middle of nowhere in East Anglia and attracts top regional bands to play every second Sunday evening. The pub pays £250 and bands travel from Norwich or even as far as London (100 miles away). How that makes sense I don't know but they keep coming, and most of these bands are more or less pro. Neither does it make sense from the pub's point of view.  My missis and I have often been 1/5 of the audience.  And because of drinking and driving the average gross take on each punter must be quite low.  And that's gross take, not the profit the pub makes on each pint. Yet the publican insists she makes a viable profit off the music. How that makes sense I don't know.    If someone with inside knowledge of the economics of this could spill the beans I'd love to know.  

[Monkey Steve]

On 04/08/2019 at 08:32, lownote12 said:

Our music local is in the middle of nowhere in East Anglia and attracts top regional bands to play every second Sunday evening. The pub pays £250 and bands travel from Norwich or even as far as London (100 miles away). How that makes sense I don't know but they keep coming, and most of these bands are more or less pro. Neither does it make sense from the pub's point of view.  My missis and I have often been 1/5 of the audience.  And because of drinking and driving the average gross take on each punter must be quite low.  And that's gross take, not the profit the pub makes on each pint. Yet the publican insists she makes a viable profit off the music. How that makes sense I don't know.    If someone with inside knowledge of the economics of this could spill the beans I'd love to know.  

all depends on how you measure the "profit" but this is quite illuminating:

https://beerandpub.com/briefings/running-a-pub-2017-cost-guide-for-tenants/

Lots of different scenarios and different types of pub, but the basic maths is that the mark up on what the pub sells (booze and food) is around 50%, but the costs of running the pub, paying the staff and the electricity bills, etc, have to come out of that, so it's actually a pretty slim margin.

I'd suggest that the landlady's thinking about the "profit" from putting on a band will be the full (50%ish) margin on any extra beer and food sales above what they would normally expect to sell on that night, because they pub would have to cover it's fixed costs anyway.  So in this case, they'd need to generate about an extra £500 gross to cover what they are paying to the band: an extra 20 punters averaging a spend of £25 each would do it.  However, what it wouldn't account for is whether the pub would otherwise be making a loss on the night (which they might measure across the week rather than on each night)

It stuck me that the bands are on a Sunday night, which is often pretty quiet, so any bump in sales could be pretty noticeable

 

Edited August 5, 2019 by Monkey Steve

[TimR]

It surprises me how much a group of 4 drinkers can spend in an evening. I’d guess a bottle of red wine would be less than £4 to the pub and would sell at about £24 - based on £8 for a large glass! 

There was a group of lads doing Ouzo shots last weekend when I went to my local to watch a band. They must have done 3-4 shots each. I’d guess that alone would have been £20 a round after the beer that they’d drunk. That was a Friday night.

Makes my £8 for a couple of pints and bag of crisps sound miserly. Guess as musicians playing, and possibly only visiting pubs when playing, we don’t appreciate the volumes of alcohol being consumed by non players. 

[EliasMooseblaster]

1 hour ago, TimR said:

Guess as musicians playing, and possibly only visiting pubs when playing, we don’t appreciate the volumes of alcohol being consumed by non players. 

Very true. Though there is also the mutual enemy of both the publican and the performer: the freeloader who comes in to listen to the music without buying a drink, or nursing a small lemonade all night.

I realise some people might have good reasons for doing this (loneliness and being genuinely strapped for cash spring to mind), but I've heard of groups of people having the brass neck to occupy a table in my local for a couple of hours and neither making a purchase from the bar nor dropping a coin into the jug that goes round for the musicians. One of the regulars told me that he'd had a quiet word with a small group who tried to get away with this one night, who took great offence at the notion that this pub, known for its regular music, could only continue to support itself and let people watch the bands for free if they took enough behind the bar.

 

[dave_bass5]

On 01/08/2019 at 09:39, neilray said:

People . Just read an ad on gumtree via basschat . Band looking for a bassist to gig every Wednesday night . Three x 45 minute sets .either a three or four piece band . The pay was £120 - divided amongst all the band members . So you travel to this cocktail bar , paying your tube/ train fare , play three sets , then travel home again . You will get 30 or 40 quid for your trouble . By the time you’ve paid travel costs , you won’t have enough money to buy a set of strings . Especially if you use a five string . Before you respond , yes I know all gigs are good experience - but why should the venue be allowed to obtain your services for the same money that a plumber makes in half an hour ? I’m sorry people but this stinks . Am I the only person thinking like this ? 

What if you live local?

 

[chris_b]

On 01/08/2019 at 09:39, neilray said:

. . . . Am I the only person thinking like this ? 

No.

The only reason I'd do a gig like this is if the band is full of top players and there is a chance of other gigs leading from it. Other than that I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole.