But from the small cafes to the Metro and Double Door, one thing will always be true: Venues are in it for the money. They are businesses. That’s what they do. Undoubtedly, there are places with people who run them who genuinely care about the music and the musicians, and who will treat you fair and treat you well. But the chances that you’ll run into a straight ahead business mindset are far greater.
The key to playing the bars and scene in Chicago is to make your expectations realistic. Any venue in the city is just that. A space. But it’s a space that is just as easy to use to your advantage as it is for them to use you.
Playing The Elbo Room on a Tuesday night at 11pm is not going to make you a star. It probably won’t even make you $50. But if you know that before you play, and you go in wanting to play a show and rock out anyway, you’re going to have a good time.
I’ve played the Elbo Room and The Wise Fool’s and Lilly’s and a host of other bars to audiences of 75+ and audiences of less than ten. And I’ve never had a bad experience, because I knew what I was getting myself into.
I wish I could make music for a living, and I admire anyone who can. But we’re not going to make money from these bars and clubs. And badmouthing them isn’t going to change much of anything – because we’ve been doing it for at least ten years. I wonder how many fewer posts there would be on this board if we all just realized that smaller clubs and bars in this city are pretty much just here to give us experience rather than money?
On any given night, I’ve likely made more money through merchandise and CD sales than through collecting a door cover that might or might not be accurate or even available, depending on how many people said they were there to see me.
So use these venues to your advantage. Have a great live rehearsal. Make a handful of new fans. Sell a t-shirt. Flirt with the bartenders. Just don’t expect that you’ll get paid what you think you’re worth. Because we never do“.
(Jeff Brown, www.myspace.com/jeffbrownrocks, www.reverbnation.com/jbxl3)
I agree with this post about playing in clubs. Basically most bands/musicians aren’t gonna make a ton of cash playing local bars and clubs and yes, you will probably make more selling merch than what the venue will pay you. It’s unfortunate that a lot of bands are in the business to make cash rather than the love of music and to use it as a vehicle to reach out to people. Usually, it seems people start out singing about positive stuff like love, truth and life, then as they progress they move away from these topics and start to get negative and seek to make as much money as possible and become successful and famous. I think it’s time for the music to get back to the basics and send a message that is positive and encouraging, you probably won’t make more money but it will be more appealing instead of people up on stage complaining and crying about all their problems. My advice: use music for good and do it as a passion because you love playing and if you’re at that point it won’t matter how much cash you walk away with at the end of the night because you are doing what you love and it feels right. my opinion only-
Would like an artist interview on Young Co –
[…] What bands should know about playing in clubs Dealing with club owners: your best bet is to put a cd together with about 3-4 of your best songs, go and talk directly to the bar owner…don’t bull shit them at all…remember, they deal with musicians all the time. Don’t be cocky, but be confident, this will help you get your foot in the door, also, if you can play the same place twice, there will surely be people who remember you and word gets out“. Gunner – http://www.myspace.com/guitargunn Club owners are always looking for someone to bring in a crowd, they sell more drinks, that’s thier bread & butter. I only take the door. They can keep all alcohol sales. They like to hear that. A simple contract always gets signed, 3-4 things on it only, you get the door, they keep all bar money, your sales are yours, ect. Some don’t want to sign a contract. You play at your own risk without it“. Cowboy Elvis – http://www.myspace.com/cowboyelvis Although I’ve tried for a long time to get gigs in clubs, it’s been very difficult. Maybe because we are mostly a duo and clubs like dance bands. But we’ve tried restaurants too. Seems that restaurants have a rotation of bands that play regularly. It’s hard to break into that rotation. We haven’t yet succeeded. We have to leave press kits and cd’s but can never seem to catch the owner in order to actually book a gig. They will not call you ever. They have their choice of bands – they’re not looking for more or for anything particularly special. Some clubs have acoustic nights – most of these evenings are open mic evenings. We are tired of open mics. It’s great for the venue – free music! But lousy for musicians trying to make a living. Some clubs require you to secure them an audience of anywhere from 30-100 people before they will “hire” you. It’s quite a scam – after you secure them their business, they will pay you only a percentage of the door! Sometimes this is split with other bands who’ve had to do the same thing. What a scam! We’ve tried to find managers and booking agents. We’ve gotten as far as sending our press kit and then never hearing from these guys again. Our problem is that we don’t play covers – we do originals. We are far from mainstream even in our originals so it’s hard to find a club or venue that will hire us. We’re “not what they’re looking for”. If we were a cover band playing rock and blues we’d probably be working regularly. Payment is hard to come by – because of all of the above. But we’ve managed to be sure to be paid for most gigs – even if it’s minimal. Here’s a good story for you… After playing the local Pumpkin Festival for a few years for free, my partner and I decided to ask to be paid. After all, the sound man is paid and so are the staff. Why not the musicians whom, without them, the festival would be basically nothing? We approached the organizing committee and asked for payment. They responded that it was not their policy to pay musicians and if we wanted to be paid we should look elsewhere!“. Rahel – http://www.rahelmusic.com […]
It’s amazing
Small Bars and clubs can and will pay you enough to make a living. I’m a solo act working for around $300 a night in the Toronto area, from what I’ve heard Chicago is an EASIER market than the one I’m currently working in.
Let’s do some math, if you’re playing a club with 75 people in it the owner will probably bring in between $1100 and $2600 depending on how the people are entertained.
Joe Customer #34 might come and have one drink then bail if the artist on stage sucks or doesn’t connect with him. However, if Joe Customer comes and really loves the artist on stage he’ll often stay for 3 or more drinks. As the entertainer you can have a direct impact on sales throughout the night.
NO, you didn’t bring Joe Customer #34 out, but you made money for the club.
When I play for $300 dollars (sometimes more) I make sure to let the club owner know that I guarantee 0 people will come into his club because I’m there. yes, 0, ZERO. I will make him money on the evening though, because of my ability to entertain and keep people in their seats and send them on their way at the end of the evening with a handshake or a hug and good memories that will bring them back to the club. This is what entertainment is all about. Entertainment is worth $$$ to club owners and they WILL pay for it. Music (in general) without entertainment is worth almost nothing.
Who is worth more?
Musician A: who absolutely rocks on the guitar, plays and sings each song flawlessly but stares at his instrument the whole time he’s on stage, doesn’t make any attempt to connect with the audience and sits with his friends during breaks. OR
Musician B: who maybe doesn’t play everthing perfectly, but does a good job and interacts with the audience while he’s one stage, takes their requests, thanks them for coming, learns their names, shakes their hands, meets them during breaks and makes them part of the show.
People don’t really care about how good you are until you show them that you give a crap that they are there, that’s entertainment.
Entertainers are always in demand, entertainers can become great artists who are given the opportunity to say something artistically.
You can absolutely make money playing music for a living, I’m talking full-time professional money (like $70,000 a year). I know because I’m doing it. You need to master the entertainment and business side of things. You also need to stop working for “the door” or a “percentage of sales” this is self-defeating.
Professional artists always have and always will work for a guaranteed flat rate with a written contract. I’m not sure what the standard rate in Chicago is, but I would suspect it would be somewhere around $100-$150 per person, so if EVERY person in the band isn’t getting that you turn the gig down or play it with less people.
A lot of the reason these clubs won’t pay any professional money is because they think there are a “TON of people” who will come and play for free, but what they don’t realize is that there are a ton of people, but they’re all Musician A’s, not really worth any money anyways. You should learn how to be Musician B (Aka the entertainer).