Off and on there is debate on whether or not you should play free gigs or not. I think this question can be easily answered just based on the convenience factor.<\/p>\n
The convenience factor is simply this: If the gig for whatever it may be is something local to you<\/strong> (meaning no extensive travel required) and is a place where the owner welcomes you\/your band<\/strong>, and the place draws a relatively decent crowd<\/strong> on certain nights of the week, that’s convenient. And by “relatively decent crowd,” that’s anywhere from 30 to 50 people or more.<\/p>\n What’s the secret to getting paid for a free gig? <\/p>\n A tip jar.<\/p>\n And no, I’m not kidding.<\/p>\n There are bands who play free gigs, put out a tip jar (usually a pitcher with a big “TIPS” sticker\/sign\/whatever on it), and can take in $500 or more<\/em> for a single gig – all in tips.<\/p>\n Again, no, I’m not kidding.<\/p>\n There are bands who actively play free gigs at local bars, break out the tip jar and walk away after playing for a few hours with a pretty good wad of cash. <\/p>\n You won’t. Musicians putting out the tip jar is something that’s been going on for many centuries, and nobody will get offended by you putting the jar out there. You’ve seen other bands doing the tip jar thing, and so should you.<\/p>\n You do, however, have to periodically remind people that the tip jar is there. After every 3rd song or so, you can simply say, “If you like what you hear, we appreciate tips; the tip jar is right here.” And for every single time someone drops cash in the jar, mention it<\/em> with a “thank you” and be sure to show appreciation.<\/p>\n Consider this: <\/p>\n Have you ever refused<\/em> a gig because the owner of the place won’t pay enough or outright won’t pay you at all?<\/p>\n Well, now you have an alternative way of getting paid for those gigs. You want to be paid for your performance, right? Right. You want to increase exposure for the band, right? Right. <\/p>\n So play the free gigs and break out the tip jar. Even if you only walk away with the cash that only covers the gas it took to get there, you didn’t lose anything<\/em>. Breaking even is not a negative, and there’s the very likely possibility you may gain new fans<\/em> by playing those free gigs, so you actually make a gain instead of a loss.<\/p>\n If your band is good and the people are enjoying themselves, the jar will get filled up.<\/p>\n I’m not saying the tip jar will work for everyone, but if you haven’t<\/em> tried it yet, you should. Get the jar ready, play free gigs and who knows? They may pay you better than the paid gigs.<\/p>\n Does your band use a tip jar, and did it work?<\/strong> Post a comment or two with your experiences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Off and on there is debate on whether or not you should play free gigs or not. I think this question can be easily answered just based on the convenience factor. The convenience factor is simply this: If the gig for whatever it may be is something local to you (meaning no extensive travel required) … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":3732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3730"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}“I don’t want to beg for money or tick anyone off”<\/h3>\n
“Still sounds like begging to me…”<\/h3>\n
“We tried the tip jar before and it didn’t work”<\/h3>\n