Musicians vs. Live Music Venues

Hey Everyone

I must apologise for being so scarce. Ive just hit a bit of a bad space and am slowly crawly out of it again. I just want to tell you guys a short story about my feelings on the topic of Live Music Venues that don't pay hard working musicians.

I just want to start off by saying, that I speak on behalf of all musicians, whether they do their own songs or whether your in a cover band or a solo act.

I fully get that the Live Music Venues that cater for original bands, well most of them anyway, supply sound and engineers and have costs to cover and I have the world of respect for most of them. BUT my issue comes in with Live Music Venues that don't want to pay for the guys that have been performing cover shows and working dam hard to make a living. I spoke to a fellow musician not too long ago and I was blown away by the price this Live Music Venue was paying musicians, R600 to play for 4 hours. If that's not exploitation that what is and what freaked me out is that musicians are falling for it cos they need the cash. I mean, if mine workers can kill people for a cash increase, then surely we can stand up say SCREW YOU!!! to those type of venue owners. Can you imagine what these venues that advertise and are known for live music would do with no musicians and to top it off, there's nothing violent about standing up as a musician and saying "pay for the quality I deliver or SCREW YOU!!!" (Although in some cases the venue owner could give you a fat smack for saying SCREW YOU!!!) but still... he'll still be sitting with no live music... I mean if every musician thought that way, then maybe venue owners would start thinking.

I mean I have some close friends that own venues that pay amazing cos they know that if you want quality Live Music then you must pay for it. I know as I have seen it for myself that on some bad evenings depending on the size of the venue that they'd still make enough to pay a musician more than R600 and no one plays 4 hours any more guys come on now...

Look I also fully understand where some Live Music Venue owners come from when they book an artist as they're promised so many people or a certain quality and the opposite is delivered. Then hold an audition evening where a certain amount of musicians come and sing 3 songs and then you can choose the best that will suite your venue. But dont have an audition and tell the musicians to do 2 sets (for an audition) and then refuse them a gig afterwords. If the situation arises and they auditioned for 2 sets (which adds up to more than 1h30min) then the least you can do is pay them rather than have let them come out to give you a free show. And if they were really bad then cut your loses but please stop using singers and musicians for your own personal gain and think you guys are going to get away with it forever.

The thing I love the most about our industry is that it's so small. STOP IT GUYS!!! Musicians will always be musicians as its in our DNA but Live Music Venues that make use of Musicians at no pay or minimal just cos they can, those come and go...

I hope I didn't make too many people upset by my blog but I just had to vent and who else can I vent with if not my awesome fans, friends and family. I heard recently that I'm known for pulling good people in and kicking them to the curb at random so I want to end this blog off just to let y'all know that I love y'all very much and respect and appreciate everyone's support over the years. 

Have an amazing week further and feel free to comment as much as you like... If you don't agree with what I have to say I fully understand but comment anyway.

Cheers for now....