6 ms·
I've gigged as a pianist and it's really not worth it, financially speaking - I only do it for the fun/joy of making music. Have you considered the cost of gear
by WhompingWindows 8y ago
I've gigged as a pianist and it's really not worth it, financially speaking - I only do it for the fun/joy of making music. Have you considered the cost of gear, the rehearsals, transit, tear down/setup, down-time without music, and dealing with shitty clients who expect more than the verbal agreement? When you deal with all of that, the money is not good, it's just about bringing joy with my piano music, having an audience that is often very complimentary and provides meaning to the 1000's of practice hours I have put in.
Financially, I make the same in a single 8 h day of coding that I do in my average "2 h" gigs, which really take 5 hours or so all inclusive, and which only occur 5-10 times per year. If I quit my full time position and tried to get more gigs, I'd get maybe 2 or 3 times more, and my income would go down about by 50k or around 75%.
- mr_tristan 8y agoLemme clarify that "pays well" meant "pays well in comparison to their other gigs". Which is still pretty bad, in comparison to doing pretty much anything else. Just a sad fact that almost all musicians make absolutely nothing. Given that music is already the #2 cost for weddings, I'm not sure how you "disrupt that" other than not hiring musicians.
- dagw 8y agoI'm not sure how you "disrupt that" other than not hiring musicians. I haven't been to a lot of weddings, but non of the weddings I've been to the past few years had a band. So maybe that's already happening.
- dagw 8y agoMost professional musicians aren't comparing wedding gigs to high paying programming jobs. They're comparing wedding gigs to other gigs, and there weddings seem to be the best paying gigs around.