Re: Why SHOULDN'T musicians be paid?

["L.A. Angulo" <labaloops@yahoo.com>]

people dont want to pay musicians because they think
we are just playing all the time;-)
Luis






--- Travis Hartnett <travishartnett@gmail.com> wrote:

> I'm not sure that anyone here is begrudging you the
> *desire* to devote all
> your time to music, just perhaps the money to do so.
>  People don't get paid
> to do something for a living because they chose to
> do something, they earn a
> living doing something that brings in enough money
> to live on.  If you want
> to be admired by some (but not all) people ("Oh how
> noble--look how devoted
> he is to his art, he's a...MUSICIAN!!!"), be a
> musician.  If you want a
> decent chance of getting people to pay you a working
> wage for something you
> do 8+ hours a day, consider doing something really
> useful--like plumbing.
> 
> Musicians frequently compare themselves to plumbers,
> carpenters or janitors,
> saying "You wouldn't expect these people to work for
> nothing--why expect
> musicians to do so?"  And the answer is that no-one
> would fix your plumbing
> unless you paid them a good deal of money.  It's not
> terribly pleasant
> work.  Indeed, your chance of making a living at a
> given occupation
> increases greatly if it's unpleasant or very
> difficult.  And while being a
> musician requires skill, study, discipline and so
> on, people can obtain
> music easily and cheaply without ever dealing with a
> musician, thanks to a
> century's worth of recordings.  And even if
> musicians were paid in a manner
> similar to tradesmen (plumbers, etc.), you'd have a
> tough time finding eight
> hours of musical work each day to bill for.   A
> plumber works for two hours,
> he bills for your two hours, plus materials, plus
> perhaps a fixed service
> call charge.  If gigs worked like that, you'd get
> paid for an hour's set,
> plus (let's say) a fixed "gig charge", and so you
> might gross a hundred
> bucks for the evening.  Not much to live on.  And
> realistically, getting
> paid $60/hour (roughly what a plumber charges in my
> neck of the woods) to
> play music is a rarity for most of us.
> 
> TH
> 
> lker <looppool@cruzio.com> wrote:
> 
> >
> > Again:    I can't fathom why people on this , of
> all lists, would begrudge
> > me the desire to devote all of my time to music
> that a professional
> > musical life affords me?
> >
> 


www.myspace.com/luisangulocom


      
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