I am a gigging musician. In fact, I would say I am a professional gigging musician. I claim this because performing music is the main way that I make money, and I find it very offensive when someone (anyone) asks me to do a performance in exchange for ’exposure’. [Insert angry exclamation(!!!)]
When hiring a musician (or band), you are not just paying for them to perform. You are paying for the time they put into practicing, the time it takes to get to the venue, to set-up, to perform, to pack away, the cost of transport, the cost of the instruments… There is so much that goes on behind the scenes and it is extremely ignorant to assume that a musician (or any kind of performer) should just turn up and play for free!
Organisers/venues have now taken it upon themselves to give away something they believe a musician values more than (literally) losing money, ‘exposure’. Sure, any kind of business or professional enterprise requires exposure so that people know the ‘product’ is there. But if someone is approaching a band to perform for their event, surely the band already has the basic exposure it needs.
It should be up to the performers whether they believe a gig is worth doing for no more than the exposure (though expenses should not be forgotten), not up to the organisers who claim that their event will suddenly bring the performers new fans and new gigs. This for the most part is simply not true!
If you hired a caterer for an event, would you ask them to do it for exposure? “You never know, someone out there may want a caterer for an event in the next couple of weeks…” How ridiculous! The same attitude should apply for musicians.
Unless you personally feel an ‘exposure’ gig will give you new contacts and an increased fan base, or if you are playing in aid of a charity, there are three key reasons why all you hard-working dedicated musicians out there should never do gigs for free:
1) You will lose money, or, at the very least, your time (which has value) will be taken up.
2) It degrades the profession and the contributes to the ongoing disrespect shown to performing musicians.
3) It hurts the music economy. (If one band does a gig for free, future bands will be expected to do the same until getting any money for performing becomes very hard for anyone)
So this is my simple message to gig venues and organisers: Respect us musicians as professionals! And to all my fellow musicians: respect yourselves enough to demand what you deserve!