Function band ! Can you actually make a living ?

[Stub Mandrel]

I'm aware of a rock band, above average profile, lots of radio play, chart albums, support big names, play big festivals regularly, tour in their own name and can get a few thousand people in a venue. One of them also does ordinary pub gigs as a duo/band, another one has a day job to sustain his new family. I'm sure the others do as well. It's hard work.

[dmccombe7]

We only have to ask our very own @Bluewine about the pressures of playing full time. Its obviously not easy when you hear him talk about it.

I know he enjoys playing to be fair but you're basically living day to day.

Dave 

[Bluewine]

It depends, there are so many variables.  Your location, your age and what type of band your in and the market for live music.

 

I won't get into the weeds with

this . I'll tell you how it works in my neck of the woods. 

 

Even where I live where there is plenty of work for bands that know how to get it. You'd have to work your butt off playing 3- 4 times a week to make 12 grand a year.

 

Blue

Edited July 5, 2023 by Bluewine

[Bluewine]

11 hours ago, fiatcoupe432 said:

Thank you for your reply Joe 

Good question and to be honest either way. I guess the earning scenario is that a new band charges less while the established one will charge more right? 

A new band would be tough. Most new bands are not together long enough to even see their first gig. Just finding 4 guys to fully commit to a band where your all on the same page is a challenge in itself.

 

Getting into an established band with a years worth of solid bookings would be the safest bet. But finding that band and landing the gig would be tough.

 

Blue

[Bluewine]

39 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

We only have to ask our very own @Bluewine about the pressures of playing full time. Its obviously not easy when you hear him talk about it.

I know he enjoys playing to be fair but you're basically living day to day.

Dave 

It's tough , I'm retired with a pension.  However, I still need my band income as a supplement to make ends meet. 

 

Daryl

[spencer.b]

5 hours ago, Bassfinger said:

Ah, that what we get paid but we typically do 2 or three a month.

 

As stated, while we do pretty well for those gigs we do play I doubt there's the work out there to give us enough paid employment to make it viable as an occupation. Individual nights are OK, but it just doesn't scale up sufficiently.

 

To earn close to what I was in my proper job prior to retiring a couple of years ago I'd have to play 6 gigs a week at 400 a go right through the year and there just isn't the demand.  Even if there was I reckon being my own roadie six days a week would have a pretty short shelf life - two or three times a month is tiresome enough.

 

 

 

 

 

I get those sort of figures for some gigs, sometimes more but often less as well and I'm often out 6 times a week , I was just trying to make the point your figure of 60k-120k from getting by to comfortable when the median salary in the UK is just under 26k (  you've clearly stated you earned 5 times this) is unrealistic for a working musician and not relevant to the OP 

Edited July 5, 2023 by spencer.b

[Bassfinger]

Ueah, we do pub gigs a lot cheaper but we treat those as practice rather than gigs. If it weren't for that we wouldn't do the pubs at all.

 

Yeah, personally I'd want 10 or 12 large a month minimum if I were doing it for a living, and with share dividends and bonuses it still wouldn't get that close to what I was earning as European Director of Equipment for a very large petrochemical concern. Throw in my own private consultancy as well and it would be even further apart.

 

Fortunately I'm in the position that I play because I want to, and even if I were 3 decades younger I doubt I'd even consider trying to earn a living at playing, much less a decent living where you've gone well beyond being hand-to-mouth. Even if I did I'd be wanting to coin enough to pay roadies, driver etc, and being realistic that would never happen for me, so I take a few shekels from out wealthy equestrian customer base and that keeps me in Ernie Balls finest.

 

 

 

Edited July 5, 2023 by Bassfinger

[Downunderwonder]

I once made a very poor living playing. Gigs were well paid but just too few. It didn't take long to go back to 9 to 5.

 

So if I was you I'd work like hell at being saleable as weekend warrior and forget about ditching the regular career.

Edited July 5, 2023 by Downunderwonder
Syntax

[fiatcoupe432]

21 hours ago, Bassfinger said:

We go about 2 grand a gig for the 5 of us, so 400 snifters apiece. 

 

When we do gig we can get the top cash, but getting enough gigs to live on might be tricky, certainly round these parts.

 

You'd need 2 or 3 a week minimum at those rates to earn enough coin to live on, and 5 or 6 to be comfortable and I can't see there's enough demand for it.

Wow that is actually good but totally understand that it's not the easiest thing to do nowadays. I live in South Devon so loads of weddings around this side and I guess I could get couple of gig playing few hotels .

 

[fiatcoupe432]

So not many people do it as a living as I can see. 

My dream of becoming a full time musician is crushed by you basschatters 😅.

I understand the long hours and hard work which I don't mind( spent 15 years of my 40 in kitchens ).as for earnings I would need around 2k to 2.5k(roughly 30k a year)  a month  to be comfortable and as I can see its not the easiest. In tge past I used to be a signed musician and have never actually made alot of money from it but cost of living etc was different and had no family commitments, but I have managed to collect alot of stuff to actually open a music studio which is something I had in mind for a bit alongside playing live. Perhaps is time for me to find a different job and then build from thst by playing weekends etc. 

It's actually really sad that so many of us actually struggle to play bass for a living

 

[Steve Browning]

All this is why I find the 'are you a professional' argument so silly. I did music full time for a good while but it's not a sustainable living on its own, not if you want (for yourself, and even more for your dependants) any decent standard of living.

[spencer.b]

19 minutes ago, Steve Browning said:

All this is why I find the 'are you a professional' argument so silly. I did music full time for a good while but it's not a sustainable living on its own, not if you want (for yourself, and even more for your dependants) any decent standard of living.

I'm a professional musician, I have 2 sons and a mortgage, so you're saying I don't want a decent standard of living for my children? 

[tegs07]

1 hour ago, fiatcoupe432 said:

So not many people do it as a living as I can see. 

My dream of becoming a full time musician is crushed by you basschatters 😅.

I understand the long hours and hard work which I don't mind( spent 15 years of my 40 in kitchens ).as for earnings I would need around 2k to 2.5k(roughly 30k a year)  a month  to be comfortable and as I can see its not the easiest. In tge past I used to be a signed musician and have never actually made alot of money from it but cost of living etc was different and had no family commitments, but I have managed to collect alot of stuff to actually open a music studio which is something I had in mind for a bit alongside playing live. Perhaps is time for me to find a different job and then build from thst by playing weekends etc. 

It's actually really sad that so many of us actually struggle to play bass for a living

 

To be fair this is not an issue that just affects musicians. Several people I know run their own businesses and have to do other work in tandem to make ends meet. One guy I know opened a restaurant and after cooking from around 7 till 11ish in the evening goes off to do a night shift. He has been doing this for nearly two years to get the restaurant into profit.

I ran a small business for a few years and loved the work, but it was seasonal and when the family came along I just couldn’t expand it enough to make ends meet (not without big risk and investment anyway).

Running any small business is really tough in an expensive country like the UK. Ultimately a musician is another struggling self employed small business and sadly a lot of them fail each year. Getting past the first few years is the really difficult hurdle. The next comes a few years later after achieving some stability and trying to reach the next level.

 

 

Edited July 5, 2023 by tegs07

[dmccombe7]

34 minutes ago, fiatcoupe432 said:

My dream of becoming a full time musician is crushed by you basschatters 😅.

 

Don't think the intention is to crush your dream but trying to take away the rose-tinted glasses of being a full time bassist.

It can definitely be done but we are all just trying to show how difficult it can be.

Obviously some guys do it but they do appear to be few and far between.

@spencer.b has managed by sound of it. It would help to know his background and how he got to being full time and make it work .

I don't have the experience of being a full time bassist so i'm looking at it from a different angle. I lack that level of commitment. Its a hobby for me and i like it that way. I'm retired with a decent pension. I don't want to feel that i'm back working again.

Dave

[Steve Browning]

23 minutes ago, spencer.b said:

I'm a professional musician, I have 2 sons and a mortgage, so you're saying I don't want a decent standard of living for my children? 

 

CertaInly not! I take my hat off to you if you can make it work. I found I couldn't when my family came along.

[spencer.b]

2 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Don't think the intention is to crush your dream but trying to take away the rose-tinted glasses of being a full time bassist.

It can definitely be done but we are all just trying to show how difficult it can be.

Obviously some guys do it but they do appear to be few and far between.

@spencer.b has managed by sound of it. It would help to know his background and how he got to being full time and make it work .

I don't have the experience of being a full time bassist so i'm looking at it from a different angle. I lack that level of commitment. Its a hobby for me and i like it that way. I'm retired with a decent pension. I don't want to feel that i'm back working again.

Dave

Music was always my thing , played trumpet as a kid , did all the grades , youth big bands and orchestra then got into rock got a bass went to basstech then got into jazz git a double bass , did the post grad course at guildhall 2003,  been making a living playing since , tbf the first 5 years were pretty hand to mouth but I was young and had low outgoings and it's built up and up , this week I've got background jazz function in a  central London members club tonight, Thursday  a jazz gig in Annecy France , friday 606 jazz club in Chelsea on bass guitar , Saturday festival gig with an original band on bass guitar, Sunday jazz festival gig nr Naples

It's a fairly average summer week for me although I'd have a few weddings

I realize I'm lucky to have had that formal education and encouragement from my parents and it's been hard and tbh I don't think I could switch to it now with a mortgage and 2 kids but it works for me 

[Steve Browning]

You are to be congratulated. I do suspect you're an exception.

 

I'm dead jealous too!! 🙂

[Mickeyboro]

8 minutes ago, Steve Browning said:

You are to be congratulated. I do suspect you're an exception.

 

I'm dead jealous too!! 🙂

But, Steve, I look at some of the gigs you’ve done and they make me jealous. 

If people can play music they enjoy, that to me is living the dream. 
 

I agree though, hats off to Spencer!

Edited July 5, 2023 by Mickeyboro

[Bassfinger]

1 hour ago, fiatcoupe432 said:

Wow that is actually good but totally understand that it's not the easiest thing to do nowadays. I live in South Devon so loads of weddings around this side and I guess I could get couple of gig playing few hotels .

 

I'm 55 and we did a gig in a huge marquee a few weeks back and the combination of lugging gear miles from car to venue and back, and playing in awful heat left me feeling nacked for days. 

 

Even if I could get 6 gigs a week that laid on like that all year round it would probably kill me.

 

 

 

Edited July 5, 2023 by Bassfinger

[Steve Browning]

16 minutes ago, Mickeyboro said:

But, Steve, I look at some of the gigs you’ve done and they make me jealous. 

If people can play music they enjoy, that to me is living the dream. 
 

I agree though, hats off to Spencer!

 

I guess we've all had our moments. I have thought myself to have been incredibly fortunate over the years. I am very aware that the operative word is fortunate.

[dmccombe7]

26 minutes ago, spencer.b said:

Music was always my thing , played trumpet as a kid , did all the grades , youth big bands and orchestra then got into rock got a bass went to basstech then got into jazz git a double bass , did the post grad course at guildhall 2003,  been making a living playing since , tbf the first 5 years were pretty hand to mouth but I was young and had low outgoings and it's built up and up , this week I've got background jazz function in a  central London members club tonight, Thursday  a jazz gig in Annecy France , friday 606 jazz club in Chelsea on bass guitar , Saturday festival gig with an original band on bass guitar, Sunday jazz festival gig nr Naples

It's a fairly average summer week for me although I'd have a few weddings

I realize I'm lucky to have had that formal education and encouragement from my parents and it's been hard and tbh I don't think I could switch to it now with a mortgage and 2 kids but it works for me 

I can see how it all works for you now. Obviously been some hard work and hard times at the start but well done Spencer. Think you are one of the exceptions to the norm tho. 

Big difference between yourself and the OP is that you started from an early age and more or less grew with it whereas the OP (don't know his age) is making a step sideways into a difficult market to break through.

But as i said before it can be done.

Dave

[Beedster]

34 minutes ago, spencer.b said:

Music was always my thing , played trumpet as a kid , did all the grades , youth big bands and orchestra then got into rock got a bass went to basstech then got into jazz git a double bass , did the post grad course at guildhall 2003,  been making a living playing since , tbf the first 5 years were pretty hand to mouth but I was young and had low outgoings and it's built up and up , this week I've got background jazz function in a  central London members club tonight, Thursday  a jazz gig in Annecy France , friday 606 jazz club in Chelsea on bass guitar , Saturday festival gig with an original band on bass guitar, Sunday jazz festival gig nr Naples

It's a fairly average summer week for me although I'd have a few weddings

I realize I'm lucky to have had that formal education and encouragement from my parents and it's been hard and tbh I don't think I could switch to it now with a mortgage and 2 kids but it works for me 

 

Very well done mate 👍

[Crusoe]

13 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

I'm aware of a rock band, above average profile, lots of radio play, chart albums, support big names, play big festivals regularly, tour in their own name and can get a few thousand people in a venue. One of them also does ordinary pub gigs as a duo/band, another one has a day job to sustain his new family. I'm sure the others do as well. It's hard work.

I think I know the band you are talking about. I saw Slash playing in the Royal Oak last week and Axl is our local Amazon delivery driver. 😄

[BigRedX]

Not music, but I'm self employed and do well enough to make a living out of it.

 

However my business has been entirely built on two things:
1. I built up a reputation as being VERY GOOD at what I do while I was still working for my last company.

2. I became self employed because the company in question went into liquidation and I was able to pickup several well-paying clients a result which got me through the first few years.

 

Extrapolate that into the music business and that will give you a starting point. 

[Woodinblack]

2 hours ago, spencer.b said:

this week I've got background jazz function in a  central London members club tonight, Thursday  a jazz gig in Annecy France , friday 606 jazz club in Chelsea on bass guitar , Saturday festival gig with an original band on bass guitar, Sunday jazz festival gig nr Naples

 

 

Sounds like a very interesting life, and congrats to you for combining your love with your career, but to me it highlights how I couldn't do it, I am not a fan of travelling that much and staying in other places, especially when you have children and I would suspect there are quite a few in the same boat.