| Re: Music is not Work
As a professional musician, I agree with Wilmer. Making music is work. If you're a professional, then you perform that work at a much higher level than an amateur. Loving the work has absolutely nothing to do with whether it's defined as work or not. Musicians provide a service, and those that perform at a high enough level are free to charge more for their services. It's like any labor trade (in fact, that's what we are...a trade...if you've never looked it up, that's how we're classified on our taxes). I love making music, but that doesn't mean that every job I perform is one I love. I've played many gigs where I did not like the music. But it's a job, it's work, and I when I make music, I expect to be compensated for it. B15M made some good points also about what the market will bear.
It boils down to this. If someone wants to put on a musical performance, they need to find musicians. The very best musicians know that they are the best, and therefore their art is made at a premium. The person doing the hiring has a budget and therefore can afford to spend X amount and get X quality of music. If you don't' have any money to spend, then you're not going to get a very high quality product.
I've turned down plenty of gigs that don't pay enough. It's not because I'm arrogant or stuck-up, or unwilling to play for free, but it's because I know what the market is, and I know where my place is in the market.
The funny thing about making music is, that anybody can do it. But it's the quality of music making that matters. Musical Hobbyists see music making as something fun to do, and for them it's an escape from their everyday world (heck, even their "job"). But, for professional musicians, we approach making music totally differently. The main distinction between a musical hobbyist and a music professional is simply the quality of music making. And this is more often than not, directly related to how much time, energy and resources a person has spent on perfecting their craft.
Look, Patric, you can think that music isn't a job...but making music is just like any other trade. Do you think hobbyist wood workers look down upon the master wood workers and tell them that what they do isn't a "real job" because they should be doing wood working, "because they love it"? What about someone who fixes cars on the weekends for fun, do they go up to a car mechanic and tell them that what they do isn't a "real job"? Nobody does those things, because it's understood that the master tradesmen are "professionals" who do their work at a much higher level than amateur hobbyists. The same is true in music. |