I keep seeing things along these lines:
Please support all musicians. There is life out there ...
Posted by Finnian McGurk on Friday, February 12, 2016
I decide to write a post with some thoughts that may seem harsh at first but are actually meant to be helpful. I want people who want to make a living at music and who are good enough to to be able to do so. My response is below:
That may well be true. But I doubt this will be an effective campaign. A couple of points...
I am not a betting man but I would wager that where I live, musicians playing music locally make more per hour in their musical endeavours that athletes playing sports locally make.
If you want to be professional about it, you need to take the needs of the businesses in the chain into account. You really need to show the person you are trying to get the money from why it is good for "them" to give you the money your are looking for. They can already make a pretty good guess as to why it would be good for "you" for them to give you the money you are looking for.
If you want to be professional about it, you need to figure out how you can be "better" (especially money wise) than the folks willing to play for free.
Stop thinking this is unique to musicians. See the athletes mentioned above. I have been in the computer/it field for most of my working life. Take a guess how often someone calls some non-professional friend or relative instead of a pro when they need help with a computer that is giving them trouble. It is a fact of life.
Are you asking for a handout? A tip? Pay? Something else?
