How Much Money Guitarists Actually Make Might Surprise You 

When I started playing live 30 years ago the average was around $100 each per show for cover bands. $0 for many original band shows. Today it's pretty much the same. So happy RU-vid happened!

In the school I learned music, some teachers were top players in my country, touring with the big names and reaching international gigs and sessions, and I was struck when I asked one of them, why are you teaching and not just resting or studying and waiting for the next gig?... He didn't stutter at all and told me "How the hell am I supposed to pay the rent?"

I’m a pretty well known Flamenco player and was able to earn just enough to get by for 25 years up until the pandemic. Mainly private lessons and local gigs. In the last year I came to the conclusion that I needed to get a job which was very difficult after not working a regular job for 25 years. I got a job at the Fender factory sanding bodies until I was laid off then went to work for Tesla delivering cars for few months and went back to Fender because it was more fun and have just got a new job with a more High End SoCal guitar maker. I make about as much as I ever made just doing music without all of the extra work that goes along with it. Bottom line - making money with just your guitar will take way more than 40 hours per week of work. I’m enjoying the free time having a full time job affords me without having to hustle up work. I do miss the freedom of not being tied to one place but there is the trade off. Best of luck to all you players and dreamers out there.

Working guitarist and musician from Salt Lake City, Utah here. I can confirm these numbers are fairly accurate ranges from my personal experiences as well. I haven’t worked in all of these capacities but even the ones that I haven’t seem to match numbers I’ve heard from those who have. Good video!

I make my living as a session musician in Wellington, New Zealand. I’ve worked hard and played with many greats and enjoyed a great lifestyle. The prices you’ve mentioned are inline with what I and those I know earn here. Seems these prices are universal… pretty much. I’ve never done it for the money, but money is essential obviously and I do draw a hard line (I’m lucky to be established and can do so). Very interesting to watch this, thanks for making it.

The biggest lesson I got from my guitar teacher was although he graduated Berklee, had played bass for Barney Kessel for several years, gigged, did studio dates, and taught jazz at a private high school, he still taught us teens to make ends meet for his tiny house, wife, and two kids.

As a bare bones busker in NYC in the early 00s, I made an average of $15-20/hr with the average during rush hour being $30-40/hr.

I’m going to respect my busking past a whole lot more now. I always wrote it off as the summer I ran away from software engineering, but as I was able to make a living at it that summer and come back to the US with more than I left with, I did pretty ok.

The impact artists, be they writers, musicians, actors, etc. have on our lives is indeed underrated.

The American Life did a great story on the pit musicians for Phantom of the Opera about the drama of playing the same show 8 times a week for over 20 years. It was absolutely fascinating. it was called "Music of the Night after Night after Night" In line with busking, a good panhandler with a good spot can make surprising money. I remember reading an autobiography by an NYC cop who found out that his informant could pull in something like $60/hr panhandling outside of the Holland tunnel (however said informant remained homeless due to a penchant for putting that money right back in his veins).

You overlooked high school guitar teacher. I did this for 30 years…it was a nice consistent income. Now I’m retired and have moved my focus towards writing/recording/releasing my own music. So far, I’m doing quite well on Spotify ! :)

My bass teacher has managed to carve out a consistent living wage with gigging and teaching. He has a gig at least 3 nights a week, more during the summer. He is in a band and when the full band isn't available they work as a trio. He is home 3-4 days a week and anywhere on the east coast the rest of the time. Works for him especially since his wife also works. He previously painted before they got consistent gigs. He gets health care through his wife's job. He has also been playing gigs for 20 years. You can make a living but it's not easy.

I worked on tour as a guitar tech and became friendly with Dave Mustaines tech at the time(his name is Willy G, great dude). He told me he made $1000/week yr round, which sounds nice but he said he was always on call(like every interview DM did, he had to be there for). It kinda made me rethink if that was the job I wanted for the rest of my life.

When I played on broadway in Nashville a few years back, the band was paid $200 for 4 hours. However, that was a major exception because we weren't local and the manager took pity on us for not knowing how to mine for tips as we were from out of state doing showcases for A&R reps.

Long time lurker here! Really loving the new direction with the more spontaneous, short form stuff. It feels like you're falling back in love with the whole process after a long lull. Keen for more ;)

Thank you for the transparency and honesty with this. This is very refreshing from the musician side of RU-vid that seems pretty tight lipped on how everything works. Big fan keep doing what you’re doing!

This was a great and informative video Sammy G! Keep up the great work of spreading musical knowledge ❤

Super cool idea for a video! Every musician I know that is excellent and also easy to get along with + has performance chops, makes at least a solid living doing music.

I spent a couple years teaching & playing in cover and original acts. It was ok, but the worst part was that music became more about money than inspiration. I became a lawyer instead… but still play, write, record & perform regularly. It’s a essentially a cathartic, creative and self actualization outlet.

I play weddings through a booking agent. One or two each weekend. Pay: Ceremony: $150 Cocktail hour: $150, Reception: $500. Most gigs are just reception. Around half of the gigs there is a tip of $50 or $100. I can leave a gig making $900. When I started doing this in 1999 the pay was $50 for cer, $50 cocktails and $200 for reception.

Awesome video I really wanted to know this particular question. Thanks Sammy G

As a beginner musician starting to choose a direction, an easily digestible resource like this is invaluable for goal setting… thanks for the great content! Knowledge is power!

I play Bass and Sing in a Kiss tribute band in San Diego, a good gig is $600 for the whole band for 3 hours of music, that's with the full costumes, makeup, stage show, etc... We usually end up with about $400 plus tips. Between load in,sound check, makeup,playing 2 sets and striking everything it works out to about $17 an hour.

I'm making $1900/mo on a grad student stipend and I care a lot more about music than I do about engineering. This video has got me questioning some life decisions...

$1000 a day busking locations are competitive and you have or be a great front person/guitarist. Great stuff Samurai!

Fascinating, I was always curious about this, and I suppose now I'm glad I stayed with my information technology career instead of my music--which would never be more than mediocre in any case

An interesting person to talk to might be Matt Chamberlain. Drummer rather than guitarist, but he's done everything from being a member of a top 40 group, being a session player for some of the highest paid musicians to some small venue independents, and being part of numerous original groups from pop to jazz to avant garde. All live and in studio. He's literally done everything. Also, incredibly nice dude :)

Very informative video. I'm at OC California and it's really accurate about the wages here. Thanks!!!

Really interesting, fun to compare side by side. When I gigged the money was all in the merch

What an amazing and useful video. The information shared I’m sure would be very helpful for someone starting out who wants to find their way into a diverse toolbox of ways to make cash as a musician

I used to have a blast busking in downtown Tucson, AZ. Didn’t make a whole lot of money but I was out there a lot. Over the course of 3 or 4 months (Weekend nights only) I took home about 600 bucks.

This vid was fantastic.. so helpful. Thank you sir!

thank you for doing what you love and passionate about. keep on going.

Very interesting video… i’d love to see more content like this, the real stories of being a guitar player. My friend went to Berkeley and everyone’s dream job (30 years ago) was to go on tour with a mayor artist, think graduating finance and getting a consulting job type of situation

My guess is If you take the average amount of money all pro and semi-pro guitarists make from gigs, and subtract from that the average amount of money they spend on related expenses (gear purchases, costumes, travel to/from the gig and rehearsals including mileage, gas and tolls, food and drinks) the resulting number will be negative.

Thanks for the great advice, Rock on Samurai!

Love it, great video as always!

Thanks for your honesty. You busked in Brisbane! That is where I'm from. Would be interest to hear you travel and guitar stories while in Australia.

I have played on Lower Broadway in Nashville and a lot of my friends still do on the regular. Can confirm that most places are tips only now.

Thanks for sharing man love the content as always!

Might be important to mention the low end for busking - getting your money and/or gear taken by the cops. Back when I was busking I didn't know anyone who made $1000 in a day, but I knew quite a few that got roughed up by police

Samurai. Thank you for sharing!

I don't leave the house for less than $250. You'd be surprised how often low paying gigs tend to lead to more low paying gigs.

Thank you for such an informative video! I was surprised that rates in my part of the world is pretty much in the same ballpark

Great video. Very helpful.

Great vid!! 🤘🎸🤘

Honesty is golden. Thank you sammi

Awesome information

I loved this video. An eye-opener for me.

I live in Germany. For me as a singing guitarist it is around 800€/month with teaching and around 250€ per gig on average. I play a little more than 100 gigs per year. It is hard work and I wish I had more free time for friends or family. After tax and insurance I have ca 1400€/month. Once I talked to a major artist (pop singer Chris Roberts) and he charged over 15k € for 45 minutes of playback performance. Roy Black got 25k for 1,5h. All of them wanted to be rock musicians - but it does not pay well. A singer tried to hire me for a cruise ship for 75€ per day over three month. A professional wedding plattform with musicians all over Germany tried to hire me for 150€ for 6h of playing, and I have to bring a pa and be the dj after the band. I absolutely don't understand musicians who do this.

Great video. Would love to see more levels of social media (right now you are over 1m subs on youtube... I imagine you are doing much better than the 50k subscriber count).

Some good friends of mine made it as a well known indie touring act, and they got endorsed by Guitar Center. They were able to purchase gear at cost, which helped them out a fair bit when something would go wrong on tour (and their tours were rowdy AF)

13:42 now THAT was a Canadian tone of voice...great vid.

My son used to busk playing drums ( a small kit) at a local mall for 2 hours he would often bring home $200 sometimes more and he was 14/15 at the time Busking around Christmas time was the best Covid killed that for him . I have noticed some buskers now have QR codes you can pay And have a cd 💿 to sell for $10

That was so interesting I had a sudden urge to buy you a cup of coffee, or possibly green tea. I'll let you choose

fascinating video, thank you

Some of the numbers you said shocked me. Especially when you said less than $100 (plus tips) for more than a couple hours. I manage a night club in Tucson, AZ and am in charge of booking musicians and djs. I generally pay $100/hour per person. I usually book for three hours. A couple of my bands that I book give me a discount rate of $75 per hour per person. My DJ's get paid 400-500 for a 4 hour set. And Ive never said a word about tips in booking my bands. They shouldn't have to put out a jar to actually make any money.

Thank you for the video, Samurai! 🔥🔥

Reasonably accurate, from my xp as a session, touring and local guitarist

Some 15-20 years ago when I lived near Austin.....I remember many locals saying they were expected to play free and on the really busy days like the festival weeks they're expected to pay to play . for "exposure"

This was a good reality check for me; nice to know that theres ways to make ends meet in this kind of career!

i started busking 3.5 years ago when i was still in high school, now i’m about to turn 20 and make my living busking. i live an hour north of san diego so i’ll make anywhere from $40-70/hr depending on when and where i play

I’ve found that busking in somewhere like a Christmas market playing festive songs is a great place for busking. People are already in a spending mood and a couple of quid to a busker seems like an easy spend.

Well done 👍🏿

Very interesting video!

the most ive made from playing guitar was 500 for a high school musical. If youre a guitarist that is good at reading chord charts, this is a really good thing to look into.

When I was busking in downtown Berkeley in California I was making if It was busy up to 50 dollars an hour if it was slow around 15 but I was also just playing an acoustic and trying to sing over traffic and pedestrians

Really interesting love the show

I appreciate the transparency, and while I will never be good enough to make a living from playing guitar, it does shine a new light on this field

Well explained!

I work for a band that had some hits in the 80s and 90s, that now play the nostalgia festivals in the UK. the hired hands get £400 a day, they get paid this for travel days too.

Thanks for making this video. I’m a music student at University of Tampa studying classical guitar and it’s my dream to be a professional musician, and I’ve found this kind of information to be the most useful. Thank you!

hello great video!!

When I was doing the wedding corporate thing out of Denver, there was always a bonus for mountain driving for anywhere outside a certain distance. Those long days of often sketchy mountain driving into and out of Aspen could pay but dang…that run back could be scary as hell. Sometimes they would put you up or you could get a room but if you made it back alive to 5280, that hotel money was a bonus. Hard grind but it was so fun playing with ace players and making it fresh(ish) every night.

I busked in London for a while, I played with a fellow whose mother had taken thalidomide, he had a shrivelled arm, he was able to play violin rather well. We played Stephanie grapelli/django rheinhardt stuff. It was winter just before Xmas. We would typically make 400 pounds for a 2 hour set. Xmas eve we made 800. good times.

You can have your cake and eat it too. As a recent retiree, my advice for most people is to pursue a career and develop a plan of life goals while following musical interests in your spare time. This way you'll earn and save money to accomplish those goals and be better positioned to afford the "candy store" instruments and gear later on. The key to this is grand plan is to manage diet and exercise throughout life. If that's done, you'll be rewarded with a reserve of energy to pursue creativity, intellectual interests and spiritual growth at the time when you'll benefit from it the most. In short, stay practical and objective while pursuing your dreams.........said the old man.

A professional entertainer friend of mine gave me some very pertinent advice as semi-pro musician in a gigging covers band, especially while selecting a setlisf: never over-estimate (the taste) of your audience!

I'll believe the busking part. Back in my early college days, when I had been playing and taking lessons for over 15 years straight, I took my saxophone down to the local pedestrian mall and gave it a try. I was down there for a couple hours and make like... $15. I had teachers who definitely thought I could have made a career of it, but that's not what I went to school for, so I'd say that's pretty good for a kid who had no idea what they were doing other than set up, open case and play some songs I knew.

I have about 200+ live shows under my belt. Those being full band, acoustic, and solo. Multi-genre rock/alternative. Small venues, to full lights and sound on a bigger stage. Best I’ve ever made in 1 night was about $150 for 3 hours, only one break. Covers and plenty of originals. I’ve made nothing or near to nothing many times, putting whatever we could in our band fund to focus on merch. Due to a nasty fall out and a very harsh experience of burnout, I haven’t been playing much these days. Hard to find the spark anymore, and with working full time I’m just too tired to fight the still-lingering burnout. Please keep playing, but never over stress yourself. Totally not worth losing your spark!

Very good info 🤓

Super fun watch. Thanks for the info. I'd add church musician/band leader. I've got a few friends who make a respectable salary doing this.

My little local group of nobodies in the Chicago burbs area generally charges $400 for a 3 hour set, extra Benjamin if we're providing sound. We have played larger shows for more and we commonly play benefit shows for free or $100 depending upon the situation.

Congrats on the 1m subs btw!

FWIW, in Australia the industry minimum fee for a 3hr set is $250. However that's just the absolute minimum. That time period is expected to include set-up, travel and meals.

This was great, accurate and clearly presented. It seems everyone needs to wear a few different hats & balance it in order to make income thru music. LOCATION is also so important - when I was in California, cracking into the wedding/corporate scene was quite difficult. But once I did, I was averaging around 100+ gigs a year. For people reading this, the key to finding these gigs is to network directly with event planners & venues. Often times, being reliable & knowing the venue goes farther than being the best player or having the best gear. Teaching, whether you’re a famous RU-vidr like SammyG or an assistant professor will always be the most reliable source of income. Depending on responsibility level, can be difficult to balance.

Been playing the broadway strip in Nashville for the past two years, as well as weekend runs to out of state venues that generally pay a little more. There are some bars on broadway that don’t pay musicians, however the $75 price point is accurate for a lot of places. I’ve been lucky to play in some of the higher paying bars down there, making $100-$200/man plus tips. I’ve even been paid $1,500 for a weekend trip to Ohio, all expenses paid, but gigs like that are hard to come by. Learning to negotiate deals with venues is an absolute must

I used to be a busker In Tenerife and I would pull in anywhere from 100-200 euro minimum a day during the tourist season. It also led to other gigs, playing at private parties, weddings and gigs at bars..It was amazing. Great years

This is very insightful! I'm not great at playing any instruments at all, really, but I'm writing songs. I've been looking online at session musicians who offer commercial rights. A lot of the prices are so low I'm wondering, "How much money are they even making with this?" And you did touch on that. I don't have a lot to spend on this, because it's just a hobby, but I also really don't like the idea of not paying someone what their work is worth. It seems that online session musicians, according to your figures, probably can't live off of that income alone. I wish that weren't the case, but again, I don't have a lot to contribute.

A good and interesting video. I would have liked to hear a breakdown of how much one can make at a higher end of RU-vid, i.e. once you hit a million subscribers. Perhaps that's a little too personal, however. Anyway, thanks for the breakdown!

You brought back some great memories of when I used to play full-time 40 years ago. Most gigs were a free meal and all the beer you could drink. Now I'm on the edge of retirement and restarting my music career. I have the fortunate luxury of not needing to make money in music and do it for the love of music. Of course, it's a rush when I make a few dollars on RU-vid. 🙂 Thanks for the interesting video; I enjoyed it very much.

Back in the early 90s a guy a that wanted to learn some guitar brought a 12 pack over. I think that is the only time I ever made anything playing. Spent a lot on gear since then though. haha

I busk in Spanish tourist locations regularly in the summer. Can make 75-100€ an hour if you're good, but getting a license it next to impossible

Does knowing how to read music help. Great video thanks.

Thanks tor the informative video. I still work the day job but I’ve been doing 70-80 gigs a year since 2015 and making $75-100 hr on average so seems about right on the money (pun intended).

Interesting video. I like the story you ended with. Most people do not get to do something they love for a living. Mainly because it’s usually not easy. I started playing drums when I was 12 years old. In 1962! Things were much different then. From the time The Beatles came in the scene until about 1970 I had no thought of doing anything for a living besides playing in a band. I played in my first band (outside of the school band) in 1965. Last band around 1970-71. Never made any money. It almost cost more to go play somewhere than we made playing the gig. 😂😂 I also lived in West Texas and never liked country music. Which was a detriment. Reality set in. I quit playing, went to college, got a job and spent 43 years working in the engineering business. No regrets. But I sometimes wonder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

I live in Nova Scotia and play in bars and I usually make like 200ish a night

As a busker in the EU I would make about 60€ a day (playing 3h more or less). Not bad...but very unstable and tiring. Now I busk, but I do it for fun mostly...I dont rely on it. It gives me much more freedom to play what and when I want.

Reminds me of an old musician joke I heard years ago; 3 strangers sitting at a bar, start making small chat. Talk turns to money and first guys says "I'm in sales and netted about $90k last year." Second guy says "I'm a lawyer at a small firm and grossed about $150k last year." Third guy sits there quietly. The other 2 press him on what he made last year. He says quietly "Around 15k." " Oh yeah?", one of them says, "What gauge strings do you use?: LOL!!

Nice vid.

i have played guitar for nearly 10years and i have starting playing gigs the last 3 years and i have made 150 euros combined i call that a win