Let’s do a breakdown of how much it costs me to even get my band to show up and take the gig professionally.
$300 – 3 rehearsals of 4 hours each. We usually do this much rehearsal because we want to be perfect and have at least 2 hours worth of material. This is just for the rehearsal room.
$100 per rehearsal per band member. Honestly, you can’t expect them to show up to a rehearsal if you don’t cover their travel. That’s $400 excluding me.
$250 per band member MINIMUM. So that’s $250 x 4 excluding me because I have lead guitar, keyboard, bass, and drums.
$200 for travel. Fuel, tolls, and driver. We don’t drive cause we often get offered a drink or two at every venue we perform at. We don’t take risks with DUI cause we all have a lot to lose if we get busted.
$250-500 for lodging. Cause the party is OUT OF STATE.
So give or take, it’ll be up to around $2,400 minimum to even make this happen.
And he wanted me to do it for free.
Our company is worth nearly $90 million dollars.
And that’s why my answer was “absolutely the fuck not”. And his response was “oh, so your band must suck”.
No, you just suck as a person.
—
For those who are interested in how much we generally charge for events… for comparison purposes, we charge well over $5,000 for a private family event like a birthday or a sweet 16. Corporate events, we go as high as $20,000 cause it’s more formal and we go out of our way to make it exceptional.
If you want a live band, it’s expensive. If you are on a budget, hire a DJ. Don’t be like my boss.