When To Take an Unpaid Gig
You get a call. It’s a friend of yours, they are throwing a big party, and they want you to play for the guests. They don’t have a lot of money, though, so they can’t pay you. But you can pass out business cards and try to sell CDs. There will be lots of important people there and it’ll be great exposure they say.
You get another call. ![[Paper]tiger Jams {Explored}](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2462/3669552728_d325453747_m.jpg)
photo credit: Cameron CassanIt’s a local non-profit. They are throwing a fundraiser at a fancy venue and they want you to provide entertainment for a couple of hours. They can’t pay you, but you’d really be helping out the cause if you would do it.
A third call comes in. It’s a local venue. They are having an event next month and 5 bands are playing a 30 minute set each. They’d like to invite you to perform. It doesn’t pay, but everyone gets a free drink and you can set up a merch table in the corner.
So what do you do? Do you take these gigs? You know that you have to make a living, but you know you also have to get out there and play for people.
People Die of Exposure
In my experience, taking a gig for “exposure” has questionable value. What kind of exposure are you really getting? I mean…are you playing the Tonight Show? The local news? Or are you playing for a group of 20 people that are generally not your target audience?
There’s a big difference between general exposure and specific exposure, and I think that’s the thing to consider in these situations. People that call you and use this term often mean it in the general sense.
Definition of general exposure:
There will be a room full of people, and there will be you. You will play your music. It will travel through the air between you and the people, and the people will hear this music. In this way you will expose yourself to these people, and it’s conceivable that they will care one way or another.
But I’m telling you, this kind of general exposure is usually not valuable. If the situation is not targeted to the kind of audience that you are looking for, you’ll waste your time. Say you are a sci-fi string band and you get a call to play at a Star Trek convention – that is good exposure. But say the same band gets a call to play the Christmas party for a ladies luncheon group. Sure, it’s possible that someone at that luncheon will be a sci-fi fan and care, but the odds are not good.
Definition of specific exposure:
There will be a room full of people that love the kind of music you play. They will resemble your target audience in every way possible. You will play your music and they will listen to your music. It’s very likely that many of them will want to know more about you, sign up for your email list and maybe buy an album.
My point is that you should be very, very cautious anytime someone uses the term “exposure” in the sense that it is some kind of compensation. Oftentimes that is the sign of a pro bono gig that will waste your time. It’s your responsibility to make sure that the exposure they are peddling is relevant and valuable to you, in a specific way, before you take the gig.
Will You Enjoy It?
I’ll tell you a story. When I first came to New York I got a call from a celebrity. She’d been on TV, on Broadway – my mother was a big fan. Imagine my surprise. She asked me if I would play at a non-profit event at the Plaza Hotel. She couldn’t pay me, but there’d be a ton of rich people there (it’d be great “exposure”) and I’d get a free meal. And bonus – I could bring 2 guests to the dinner.
I played some cocktail jazz during the event, passed out a few business cards, chatted to some of the guests. At dinner I brought 2 friends for an incredible meal. We sat next to the celebrity and a city councilman. We all took gift bags full of perfume at the end of the night. I followed up with the celebrity and city councilman afterwards. I gave the perfume to my girlfriend.
Altogether it was a cool event. I’m glad I did it – but certainly not because of the “exposure”. I never got another call afterward from anyone involved. The truth is that is was a lot of fun. I was able to treat 2 friends to a fancy dinner, I played at a historic venue, I met a celebrity, and I gave my girlfriend a bag full of perfume.
I enjoyed it – and that’s a perfectly good reason to take a free gig. Being a musician can sometimes get you into the hippest situations.
Meeting New Colleagues
It would be great if you took a free gig and suddenly you had 100 new, dedicated fans who, from that day on, buy everything you ever create. Great plan, but let’s assume that won’t happen. Ah! – but what if something better happens?
In everyone’s career there are key people, friends, usually, that help further your success. I’m talking about colleagues and collaborators. You are both heading down the same road, but maybe there’s a time that they travel quicker toward success and they bring you along. And then at another time you are traveling faster down that road and you take them along.
These relationships are really important in a musician career – the best successes usually involve a team of people like this. Playing free gigs is sometimes a great way to meet these kinds of friends, colleagues and collaborators.
I’ll tell you another story. I volunteer regularly for a non-profit in New York that puts on big productions at least once a year. They contact musical theatre composers and lyricists and ask them to write new music for the events. I music direct the production, and we find great musicians to perform with us.
Throughout the process I meet and work with tons of new people. Some of them I really click with and we become fast friends. Months down the road maybe they are working on something else and they give me a call to music direct, or play piano, or whatever. And maybe this time it’s a real gig that pays.
That’s a best case scenario! I took a free gig, I met a ton of colleagues and we collaborated later on something else. I think the key here is that the free gig was a big production involving a lot of artists all working toward a common goal. Compared that to the Plaza Hotel gig where I was the only musician in the room and there weren’t any colleagues to connect with. Two gigs, I’m glad I took both, but for very different, specific, reasons.
What Is In It For You?
You can’t just play everywhere and anywhere for free. This is a career. People expect musicians to play for free much too often. There is value in what we do, and most of the time we should get paid for it. When someone approaches you with a free gig think specifically about what value the situation holds for you. They are getting something out of it – what about you?
Let’s take the 3 situations I opened with. I can’t give you definitive answers, but I can give you the questions you should consider.
Ok, first situation – someone calls for a private party and wants you to play for free. My first question would be: why can’t they pay? It’s a private party, not a fundraiser for a good cause. It’ll probably be a room full of 20-30 friends, drinking and having a good time and…uh…that’s called a gig. It’s supposed to pay money.
Sure you can sell CDs, but who’s going to buy a CD in that situation? It’s not a house concert, they aren’t specifically there for the music. Who knows if they’ll even like your music?
Personally, I wouldn’t take that gig.
Second – a non-profit calls for a fundraiser. First question: do you believe in the cause? You’ll be donating your time to the organization, and you should think of it just like you’re donating money. Forget the “exposure” you’ll get – the people that attend the event will be there for the cause/organization and it’s unlikely they’ll also spend a lot of energy on you too. So it really comes down to whether or not you want to donate to the cause.
The third call – a local venue wants you to play. This could be good. Do you know the other bands on the event? Are they a similar genre, or at least a similar target audience, to you? Are there musicians in the other bands that you’d like to meet? Do the other bands have a creative team (manager, publicist, etc.) that you would like to meet?
If this is a situation where you could meet colleagues and future collaborators – I say take it. If it sounds like the venue is just trying to fill a spot and there’s nothing in it for you – your instincts are probably right.
What If Someone Else Calls?
A 4th call comes in. It’s for a real gig with a band you regularly play with. Unfortunately it’s for the same night as the unpaid gig that you’ve already committed to. Now what?
If the unpaid gig has enough value to you that you committed in the first place, this shouldn’t matter. Nobody should ever cancel on a valuable gig – and if it wasn’t valuable, why’d you take it in the first place?
This is a problem that is so common that you should plan on it happening before you take any unpaid gig. Expect that someone will call you with something that does pay for the same night as the free gig and make your decision with that in mind.
Live Music Is a Valuable Thing
The truth is that live music is a valuable thing. These days people have constant access to music – but it’s not usually live music. There is an energy in live music that humans just can’t get enough of. People love live music so much that they will pay money just to be in a room where it is happening.
So when someone approaches you to give away this valuable thing for free, it’s fair that you should still expect something in return. Maybe the compensation is new fans, new experiences, or new colleagues.
On the other hand, if there is nothing in the situation for you, don’t take the gig. If you take an unpaid gig and it ends up being a dead end – no one bought a CD, no one seemed interested, there wasn’t any worthwhile networking, it didn’t manifest any future gigs – then maybe you took the wrong unpaid gig. Before you take an unpaid gig, ask yourself: what’s in it for me?
About the author
Great article, Dave – and it addresses an important question, which I think lots of musicians wonder about. There are far too many opportunistic people posting on craigslist and similar channels asking people to play unpaid. We’ve worked hard to learn a skill with countless hours of practice and possibly years of professional training. We should be mindful when considering unpaid gigs so we don’t devalue ourselves. A friend of mine once pointed out that simply to rent his band’s instruments and gear for the night would cost about $500!
5/31/2010
I wonder if that approach would work: “I’ll play for free, but it’ll cost you if you need me to provide my own gear.”
5/31/2010
You’re right David, with unpaid gigs you need to be selective.
It also depends on how established your career is. An unknown musician may need to play more free gigs in order to network and make connections in the scene, whereas an established musician can figure out how much they are worth and decide accordingly whether or not a free gig is worth it.
Personally, I like to establish if the unpaid gig has any payment opportunities. Things you mentioned like good exposure (with the proper audience), as well as connecting with people whom you deem important in the music scene, or getting on an opening bill with an established band.
Great article.
5/31/2010
Much agreed w/ you on this Dave…some great points…I actually mentioned something along these lines in a post I did a while back
( http://drummeretc.blogspot.com/2009/11/starving-artist-denial-syndromeor-sads.html )…I believe there’s 3 types of gigs a musician should be involved in as often as possible 1)Paid (my personal fav!) 2)Experience (sometimes paid, sometimes not) and 3) Charitable (unpaid)…We should always be striving to enlarge our business and professional reach, we should always be learning (even if we have to play for free…or heck, even pay our expenses just to have the experience…), and we should always be giving back to our community, and not necessarily expecting anything in return. This being said, your paid gigs should FAR outweigh your freebies if you’re playing on a professional level…and even at freebies, like you said, you should always be looking to expand your borders and gain something from it…
Very nice!
5/31/2010
“Exposure” = a term used by exploitative cheapskates to lure gullible musicians into playing for free.
Until more musicians stand their ground and demand compensation for their efforts, this noxious practice will continue.
I just turned down a free offer because I needed a couple of days off. My favorite was when a new project played a crappy venue for little or no money (% of food / drink sales + tips). Everybody knew there would probably be no $$$ involved, but wanted this new band to get to play live (exposure?). One of the players went out of pocket and paid a couple of hired guns to come in and perform. One of the paid hired guns asked me if I would play for free at an upcoming event!
5/31/2010
Fantastic article- as all of your articles are!
Here’s another consideration which was new to me. I moved to a small mountain town in Colorado after having lived in a large west coast metro area. There are a surprising amount of casual gigs here, although the money is tight. To my surprise, there’s an atmosphere of bartering alive and well. I’ve accompanied artists who are full time certified massage therapists and traded for treatments for me and/or my spouse, played for certified public accountants in return for tax preparation, traded for event planning for other projects of mine, and the list goes on. While sometimes there’s not money involved in a gig, it’s worth proposing a trade to the client if they offer something you could otherwise benefit from. At the very least, it puts their request in perspective- your job is music, there job is _______. What’s their time worth versus yours.
Thanks for this wonderful resource you offer! What can I do for you?
James
5/31/2010
@Greg and Cam – good point. Or maybe, “I’ll give you lessons at $100/hr and in 20 years you can play the free gig yourself.”
@Stephen – Nice post. I like the Shaw quote at the end.
@Mike – So true. I will say, though, that I think trying to mobilize all musicians to refuse free gigs would likely be a frustrating fight. There will always be someone who will play for free. I think the trick for a pro, full-time, trained musician might be to market our live music as a premium product. As in, “You can have the free crap that anybody can get, or you can pay a premium and get the good stuff from a pro.” Let them decide.
You also bring up a good point that I often think about. When I was getting hired for tours a lot I felt like that’s all the work I could get. When I was playing jazz it felt like that was the only gigs I got called for. Whatever kind of work your doing – including unpaid work – often leads to more of the same kind of work. So be careful what you get known for!
@James – I’m so glad you found our site, and I’m very grateful for all the insightful comments you add to the discussion. What can you do? Help us grow the community around this great resource. I’ll send you an email with more.
5/31/2010
When asked to play a free gig, the musician should also ask “who else is donating services – the caterer, the venue, the party planner? Even for a cause dear to the artist’s heart, struggling artists deserve to be paid when others are being paid – those dedicated to the cause can adjust their fee and those with already successful careers – those who don’t need “exposure” – can decide if they want to volunteer their time.
5/31/2010
i read your article david, and i really liked it. but i’m still having difficulty on the exposure. i cant find the right people to talk to and i feel like time’s going by real fast and i gotta have atleast a basic background on my music career. im a song writer and composer. i play the piano, drums, and bass. ive been playing these instruments sincce i was 5 years old. im now 17, and for a kid who cant read music but can play by hear (meaning i learn by hearing a song a couple times, then i’ll play it back for you), i’m pretty darn good. i’ve only performed in school events, and thats gotten me no where. my talent is going to waste and i personally think it would be a waste of my life doing something else other than music. i need to find exposure somehow. i hope you can help me furher.
thank you for your time in reading my post.
5/31/2010
Good article. This is something I grapple with all the time. However, I think it’s a case of a great point made in principle, but in reality it’s a long way from real experience. In Coventry, where I am currently based, paid gigs are not common. Where they are paid, it’s rare that you reach MU hourly rates. That might be just Coventry, which is not a high-income city, but I don’t think it is. I recently too a private party booking and have accepted £100 for 3 hours. Not allot, especially when it’s 1.5 hours drive away and I have to cover the fuel from the fee. BUT, even getting that was hard work. Where people do pay, my experience is that expect to pay an hourly rate not far what a regular employee might get – so maybe £10. This is my very real experience.
Open mics, folk clubs, acoustic nights of various kinds – well forget it. There is never any payment, and yet they are prevalent and have ever-growing numbers of people wanting to play. Venues and event organisers realised along time ago that you can get hundreds of musicians to play for nothing by running open mics. Sadly there are so many desperate singer-songwriters and wannabe folk heroes that they are right.
So great in principle, but quite some way from reality. ANY paid work is good, but increasingly more difficult to find
6/1/2010
@ Luis – 17 years old is young, you’ve got a lot of time ahead of you. Right now the kind of exposure you need is in front of other musicians, not audiences. Find established, professional bands or musicians that will let you play with them, sit in on a few songs at a gig or just a rehearsal. You’ll learn a lot, and all those musicians will get to know who you are and what you can do.
6/1/2010
@Luis – Cam’s right, you’ve got a lot of time. My advice is to learn how to read music better. You’ll make yourself a lot more marketable in the long run.
@Pete – Sounds like a tough scene. There’s a lot of talk lately about how music careers are increasingly being liberated from geographic constraints (in other words – the internet allows us to make a living anywhere). Personally, I think it’s all hype. I’m someone who really thinks that geography matters.
6/1/2010
“People Die of Exposure”-I’m going to use that line in Los Angeles, where it seems every other gig offer is one for “exposure”
Great article!
6/1/2010
thanks for the advice guys. im glad you said that i’m young. i thought i needed to know be at my best and performing by now. do you think i should atleast make a demo cd of some of my songs just in case of anything? and i’ll get on looking for bands this summer. thanks alot. much appreciated
6/1/2010
@Luis – All of the most successful, financially stable musicians I personally know are in their 40s and 50s. Youth + success is just nonsense they peddle on MTV. It’s a much longer road than it looks like from the beginning.
As far as a demo CD goes, sure, make one. Making music is about having something to say. When you’re full to the brim with stuff to say and you have to get it out – you’ll know. And it doesn’t have to happen with your 17 or 25 or 35. It comes when it comes. And when it comes – make a CD.
6/1/2010
GREAT post!
This is applicable to actors too, and I hope you don’t mind that I’m going to share it on my blog… all performing artists encounter this situation at one point or another, and we all struggle with whether we should do the gig or not… thanks for posting!
6/2/2010
“target audience” – a phrase more musical acts should be using, IMHO.
6/2/2010
Another great article David. I especially appreciate the paragraph at the end on the value of live music. Its hard sometimes to remember that when you feel like no one appreciates the music you’ve given your life to! Thanks for reminding us all!
6/4/2010
Love your column!
Here in Canada, the unpaid gigs are known as “benefits” – as in “everybody benefits except the band.”
6/6/2010
I think that if your playing for a benefit gig then everyone is donating equally. Too many times I’ve seen the sound guys getting paid and the food vendors getting paid and the security personnel getting paid but the musicians are expected to play for free. Nice article very poignant.
6/25/2010
For a hobbyist musician with a corporation linked Big Band it’s a little easier, although not much. We plan 2 or 3 free gigs a year in great venues with super audiences. The rest pay and the closer to the date they need us and finally get around to calling us, the more expensive it is. But the pro Big Bands around here are kinda closing shop lately. Kinda sad and on many levels.
Thank gawd I don’t have to make a living from the money we make. Someone said instruments and the accoutrement were expensive; as the band leader the publicity, sheet music, and time hit are the big cost factors.
7/6/2010
I think I’ll link this to anyone who tries to tell me how selfish I am again about charging to play.
I think as musicians, we’ve all come to experience this. Thanks for the great article.
7/16/2010
I was in Canada recently – well for a whole month, on vacation – in Vancouver and B.C. Anyway whilst there I met and talked to several musicians playing bars etc and all of them had their hat / case / jug out as they played. I asked them all if that was just for tips on top of being paid, and every one said … “being paid? That IS the pay”. It seems it’s just the same, if not worse, in B.C. as it is the UK. There are just so many musicians desperate to play and who are therefore willing to play for nothing that all the venues have got used to paying just that, absolutely nothing.
I think the internet / myspace / x-factor everyone wants to be a start but nobody wants to pay for any music culture has permeated everything and has had a very detrimental impact on live music, or least on anyone trying to make a living out of it.
7/16/2010
Great article Dave! excuse me, doctor-I need coronary bypass surgery. I can’t pay you, but I’ll tell all my friends about what a great guy you are. What? You went to school for 8 years to learn how to be a surgeon? Well, now you know how musician’s feel Bout that question……
7/17/2010
I’m definitely careful taking unpaid gigs with my group. .. you have to factor all things regarding what benefit it is to you into consideration. if i’m trying to work towards getting private function work, i want to be playing in public at spots that would attract that clientele (i.e wedding conferences, high end night clubs, etc). If someone wants me to play at a dingy bar, I’d probably refuse
-Nate
7/27/2010
I will preach about how music is about culture and community etc etc, but it still REALLY surprises me how many educated and talented musicians play for tips. at least give a cut of the bar!
but seriously, musicians are humans, with real professions, that need to eat, too.
and the more people play for free and play for tips, the more venues and employers come to expect it.
ain’t no carpenter coming to install my cabinets for tips!
7/29/2010
I’m at a stage in my career where I’m playing free gigs, but I’m selective. There’s a particular coffee shop I play at, just because I like to play there. On Wednesdays I play a free gig at a Cajun restaurant. It’s tips only, plus we get fed some incredible Cajun food. What I do for my Wednesday gig is invite a couple different musicians each time…often people I’ve never played with before. This has been a great way to network, and also to see if I like playing with them and vice versa. A jazz piano player I had just met invited me to sing with his trio (paid). A bass player who plays a steady, paid duo gig is farming his gig out to me when his duo is unable to play. This is all within the first month of playing my free Wednesday gig. I’m confident these little opportunities will add up over time as I continue to invite musicians to join me on my Wednesday night freebie.
8/2/2010
Great points. I especially like the scenarios. Thanks for ending it with the reinforcement that LIVE music is valuable. I like that distinction… I agree with some commenters that consumers see music as more and more a commodity available for free. So emphasizing the professional aspects, the quality of the musicians and songs, the sound system provided, the fan base and marketing, all of these things can set you apart when explaining to customers why live music will cost them something commensurate with its value, just like catering does!
8/16/2010
Great article, Dave, which of course means that I agree with everything you said. One thing I hadn’t thought of was what happens if you get a pay gig that conflicts with a free gig. Probably never thought of it because it doesn’t happen much around here. It did happen to a bass player we had committed to a pay gig, and he canceled on us because he got one that paid better. He’s a fine player, but I’ll never call him again. Can’t trust him.
8/27/2010
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