When should you raise your band rates?

 When should you raise your band rates? 

Such an interesting question when it comes to our musical passion.   I mean it’s about art and our passion right?

For years, I could care less about the money I would make playing music.  Early on in my career, I was playing 4-6 nights a week traveling all over the country with a personal salary of $180 per week.

  I didn’t have a car, a house, or anything for that matter except my gear. Let me tell you though, I was having the time of my life.  As long as I could pay for food, guitar strings, and batteries for my wireless, I was good to go. 

Later on, in my career, money became more important.  Although, if I was independently wealthy I still wouldn’t care about what I was making from music. I just love to do it.  Since that’s not the case yet, here is how I learned to increase what I was making as a band and a musician.  

If you remember basic econ class from school, it comes down to simple supply and demand.  You must first make sure you have a band that is worth more than what you are currently earning.  By that, I mean is the quality as good as other bands making more.

These are good questions to ask one or two people in your life that will give honest answers to you.  That’s assuming they know what to look for. If you don’t have those people in your life, you can always test it.

The first way to test it is to just raise your price by $100.  See if you get any pushback from that. If you get a lot of pushback, then you may not be ready. Or...you may need to move beyond those places that are paying your current amount.  

Again, assuming your band has done the work to become worth more, holding out for better gigs that pay more is another way to do it.

  This can be difficult if you have a fear of missing out because you held out. So let me ask you this, how many gigs opportunities have come in over the course of a year that you couldn’t take because you filled your schedule up with gigs in bars for the year? 

If the number of those gigs you’ve had to turn down for that reason is growing then it’s time to start holding out for those better shows. You will have to be OK with being off for a night if you are going to do this.  

Make these moves with confidence and methodically.  Don’t rush it or jump up too high or too fast unless the demand is so great you are able to do that.  Get out of your comfort zone, push the envelope and see what happens.  

Want to know more on this subject, as well as, what it takes to get the quality of your band up and attract a better show?