“A performer’s reputation is enhanced by or diminished with each musical interaction.”
–The Musician’s Way, p. 306
I suspect that almost every skilled musician has been asked to perform free of charge, often by people and organizations that can afford to pay.
If you normally earn fees to perform, here are strategies to help you handle such requests productively.
5 Ways to Handle Requests to Perform for Free
1. Set Standards
A basic standard that I use is this: If event staff will be paid, the musicians should be paid.
For example, if, at a fundraising event, the piano tuner and caterer earn professional fees, so too should the musicians.
“If event staff will be paid, the musicians should be paid.”
2. Convert from Free to Paid
Sometimes people seeking live music lack experience and don’t understand what’s appropriate. In such cases, we might describe the comprehensive musical services that we provide as well as the rates commonly charged by professionals.
We can also explain that we performers invest heavily in our training and equipment, and that we incur financial, time, and opportunity costs to perform – costs such as for transportation and from tying up dates when we could be hired to perform elsewhere. Occasionally, we might help cash-poor organizations access grants and corporate sponsors to cover our fees.
3. Dispel Myths about “Exposure”
It’s often worth donating or even paying to get specific exposure, such as to perform a showcase at a booking conference. But general exposure at a gig seldom generates any return on our investment.
For more thoughts about that, see David J. Hahn’s article, “When to Take an Unpaid Gig.”
“General exposure at a gig seldom generates any return on our investment.”
4. Trade for Valuable PR and Advertising
Although general performance exposure may be worthless, if an organization’s event will generate abundant media exposure, we might execute a contract stating that, in lieu of a fee, the organization will credit us or our groups in all of their ads, printed materials, and notices.
5. Be Courteous and Professional
To underpin our reputations in our communities, we should be unfailingly courteous with anyone who
seeks a performance.
Ideally, whether we opt to perform or not, we should pique the interest of those who contact us and entice them to become our followers and fans.
* * *
In sum, if we earn income from making music, then we might periodically donate performances to causes and people that we care about.
But if we give away too much, especially in contexts in which other professionals are compensated, then we inadvertently teach our communities that live music isn’t worth paying for.
Related posts
Boost Income and Impact with Local Sponsorships
Partnering with Non-Profits
Preparing for Portfolio Careers
Resources for Grantseekers
© 2015 Gerald Klickstein
Photo © bikeriderlondon, licensed from Shutterstock.com
I’m going to print this out and put it outside my office door so that my music students can see it. What I especially like about this post is that it depersonalizes the issue. It’s not about feeling slighted and it’s not about being a martyr. It’s just about affirming the value of the services musicians provide in professional contexts. Thanks for sharing.
I have a friend that was a NYC freelance musician, and when he would get calls asking him to play for free, he would diplomatically say, “I’m unfortunately not available on those dates. However, I can recommend some highly-qualified Juilliard students…”
Thanks, Michael and Linda, for the feedback and valuable examples! Such contributions greatly add to the post and provide lasting benefit to the community of MusiciansWay readers.
I’m glad you specifically cited the example of a fundraiser. At universities, it isn’t unusual for a department or program that is hosting a fundraiser to ask the Music Department if students will be available to perform at the event. Often, the person asking doesn’t realize it’s unfair that the event staff are paid, but they assume student musicians should want to play for free “for the experience.” They aren’t thinking about the rehearsal and planning that the musicians put into being ready to provide music for an event. Instead, I suspect that what commonly happens is that they are flashing back to remembering their pre-college music lessons, and assuming that what they’re asking college music majors to provide is like Grandma asking a kid at a family gathering “Won’t you play something for us honey? We’d like to hear what you’ve learned.” Their frame of reference is elementary-level music students, beginners, but they’re asking for advance-level music students to provide a service for their event.
Your point about the importance of being polite is well taken. What to us, as professional musicians, seems to be a ridiculous request may not be meant that way at all. We have to realize that there’s a need for consciousness-raising on our part, because what is involved in professional music-making is poorly understood by the general public.
I agree, the equivalence with the other vendors is an important point to make. And the suggestion of bartering for publicity is a great idea. If it’s a high profile event, that does provide a measurable professional boost.
Good thoughts. In my experience, no matter how good they pitch it, if you play for free you end getting treated poorly because our society doesn’t attribute value to things that are free. Case in point, I was asked to play for free at a fundraiser and the lure was a gourmet meal that we would get – after we performed, they said, “You’ll have to wait until much later because we have to take care of our paying guests.” We never got the full meal. On the other hand, when you are getting paid very well, you get treated well because people want to make sure that they get value for their dollar.
My band started playing at a venue for free, but eventually I told them that “since my musicians aren’t getting paid, you run the risk that they will have to cancel out if they get a paying gig, so you will need to start paying us if you want to lock us into the date.” That turned into a four year regular gig.
I do like the idea of equivalence with other vendors – if the caterer or other people are getting paid, then musicians get paid too. It is hard to argue that point (not that it ever stops people from asking musicians to play for free). At the end of the day, you still have the power to turn it down.