Covers or originals - where's the money?

Bob-Dubery

I'm a good way in Roger Lucey's autobiog. He really saw the not so glamorous side of the life of a working muso, at one stage having to resort to busking in London tube stations.

He sang his own material, and didn't make much money. Being new to the busking scene he decided to spend some time watching other buskers to see who was making money and how. He heard of a bloke doing reasonably well doing Dylan covers. When Lucey went to see him he wasn't even doing Dylan covers plural. He was doing "Blowing In The Wind", and getting plenty of coins coming his way. In fact he didn't even sing the whole song.

A whole verse?

No.

Buskers got 30 minutes playing time before having to give their spot over to another busker. This bloke just sang, over and over, for 30 minutes
"How many roads must a man walk down
Before you can call him a man?
How many roads must a man walk down
Before you can call him a man?
How many roads must a man walk down...."

etc etc etc.

DaFiz

I dunno how much munny there will be in busking, but here they'll "move you on" if you try busking outside the local mall or bus shelter.
It'll probably be more readily acceptable for a 'foreign refugee' to set up a fake cigarette selling stall, than me trying to busk with my hat on the ground. :-[

vic

DaFiz wrote: I dunno how much munny there will be in busking, but here they'll "move you on" if you try busking outside the local mall or bus shelter.
It'll probably be more readily acceptable for a 'foreign refugee' to set up a fake cigarette selling stall, than me trying to busk with my hat on the ground. :-[

LOL !

I think one must have a license from your local authority to busk.
Years ago we would go serenading at the girls' residences singing the popular songs of the day...and would sometimes get showered with all kinds of things....including homemade cookies ! ?

bassman

Paid of my mortgage in 12 months, never made so much money with music, great fun, lots of girls MANY re-bookings, travel and best of times with the band,......so...................................................how did I do It ??? A wedding band man, yeah so you think it's degrading, well you REALLY have to be versatile, Rock, Jazz, Blues, Swing, Ballads, Country, Traditional. How can we be misicians if we ONLY play "Fusion Jazz", Well it's like a classical violinist that will only play Beethoven and nothing else....simple......He/she will never get work. Keep on Rockin

singemonkey

Herman Pretorius wrote: Paid of my mortgage in 12 months, never made so much money with music, great fun, lots of girls MANY re-bookings, travel and best of times with the band,......so...................................................how did I do It ??? A wedding band man, yeah so you think it's degrading, well you REALLY have to be versatile, Rock, Jazz, Blues, Swing, Ballads, Country, Traditional. How can we be misicians if we ONLY play "Fusion Jazz", Well it's like a classical violinist that will only play Beethoven and nothing else....simple......He/she will never get work. Keep on Rockin

Excellent point. You have to be damn good though to reap those rewards. Because as you say, so much range is required, presumably a lot of word of mouth advertising so keeping everyone happy must require a lot.

It would be great if you said some more about this. Especially for the 16-18 year olds who are keen to make their livings out of music in SA.

sharonzaz

things changed, its not as easy to make a decent living anymore.
when i came to SA about 20 years ago, the scene was empty.
most muso's were average or less. there were a handful of decent bands out there, and we were making most of the money.

today most muso's out there are great. lots of competition, but also fewer, way fewer venues for bands all together.
first thing out the window in a recession is entertainment, sadly.

prices keep dropping cos there are many hungry dudes willing to
play for close to nothing and the bar for payment got so low most
of us need to do 2 or more gigs a day just to make it worth while.

the afrikaans market almost single handedly is responsible for getting most venues to not hire bands, but these one man, cant sing or play, but ill do it anyway cos i workout in a gym and mumble in afrikaans and thats good enough for most ppl out there.
dont get me wrong, there are a few (or more) really good afrikaans muso's.
a handful or so.
those keep a live band and keep the industry a little alive.

original bands are doing great, and some of them are really shooting up high, and there are more and more musicians realising that writing and performing your own stuff can help you get up there with the rest.
that is the only chance for muso's to really hit it.
we need more support from the industry and the ppl to get more bands going that route.