As an older amateur musician, I totally agree. I played a fair number of restaurant/reception type gigs. To me, the amount wasn't as important as just getting paid, although that's another area of concern. If I could get a small fee, a free dinner, and a tip jar, it was not so bad. I used to feel bad that these places often were nearly deserted, but then I learned that happened often to legends like Bill Evans. I do recall one place I played regularly that was visited by the ASCAP guys (on another night from when I was there). But they said to the owner, "the musicians played ABC and XYZ and you don't have a license for those songs, so we're going to sue you for $50,000, and by the way, we've never lost a suit in decades. Now how would you like to buy a license?" I don't know how often it happens, but any establishment who has music (even a radio playing) can get shaken down like that, but... they all end up paying it! However, I think this was a really bad thing for jazz and live music... Thanks.
You are right ! You have years of music study & practicing. And why some club should get it for free?! I played about 2-3 gigs in 10 years of gigging for free. And it did not brought for me extra orders for new gigs. Money for live music is like prove of respect and love of art. I will go to birthday gig today and will get paid for that like people pay for birthday presents in shops!
It does depend on the situation, however this is always the larger impact on the music scene. If some people play music for free, venues start to expect all musicians to play for free (which is obviously bad for people that make a living playing music). Not saying I haven’t played free gigs, or that no one should ever play for free, but if lots of people play for free, it is bad for the general music scene.
