deefstes wrote:
Arno (and Keira), how do you price yourselves for such gigs? Do you charge by the hour (in which case having to arrive at 11:00 even if you'll only be playing from 18:00 or later shouldn't be a problem) or do you have a set "package" fee for the day?
Oh, and can I put in a request for Gangnam Style please? ?
Musicians generally don't like to talk about what they charge, unless you're booking them, but I've never had a problem with telling people what I earn and what they going rates are. So here goes.
For the 2-piece (Myself and Leon (live drums)), which is the band mostly booked for weddings, we start negotiating at R8000 for the gig/day. We "assume" we will be required to be at the venue from anything between 1100/1300 and finish at 2400. We rarely get that without a fight though and normally settle on roundabout R7000. If the venue is less than 50km travel we might go down a little more.
If they are prepared to book a DJ as well, who will handle all the speeches and Background music, we will do it for R5000, nothing less. At least that means we don't have to hang around and wait the whole day.
On a Saturday night, we normally have pub/club gigs ranging between R3000-R4000 for the night. Sometimes afternoon gigs as well, so if you add it up, you can make the same money, by doing 2 "regular gigs" on a Saturday and spend less time being at it. Also, at regular gigs we tend to sell between 5-10 of our albums every time which adds some extra cash in our pockets. We don't sell CD's at weddings, 'cos it's not quite appropriate. One more thing. At the regular pub/club gigs, you build up a following and a fan base, which is not the case at weddings where they don't really gives a rat's arse about who the band is and how good they are...
No "Gangnam Style" boet, but I can play you the wedding march. Happy? ?
