Musician charges for working away for 3 months

[user1478639495]

Hey all anyone a musician or know someone who is that has/does work abroad a few months at a time?

my cousin has been asked to play in the Maldives for a about 2 months, I said roughly you would charge yourself out at about a grand a week, this is 6 shows a week. She scoffed at me and said oh god no you won’t get much for that kind of work you’d be lucky to get £250 a week. Now I’m no musician but she also is terrible at pricing and money in general, she works hard and has nothing. I wonder if anyone out there knows what would be a decent quite to play 6 shows a week whilst away? Tia

She needs to join the musicians' union.

Would her accommodation be covered?

£40 a show? That’s practically charity money, is it including travel and full board? Then I’d maybe consider it a free extended holiday.

music teachers charge on average £35 an hour across the country. Wedding bands start at £800 but most are between £1-2k a night. For a regular gig, unless you’re headlining vegas it’s going to be less than a one off wedding gig, but £250 a week is ridiculously low.

There is little money in music unfortunately.

Well this is in the Maldives where presumably many contractors will be local and paid even less than their UK colleagues

yes it sounds terribly low, unless as pp said it’s including travel and board

my parents are freelance musicians and the going rate is upwards of about £40 an hour but baring in mind its never full time

I think the pay would vary immensely depending on the situation.
Is her food and board covered? If so, what sort of quality is the food and board? Are flights covered? Will she have most of the day available and see it as a free holiday with a bit of work?
£250 is very low, but if everything is covered and she’s wanting to do it as a “paid for” holiday, with plenty of time to relax, then okay. If she’s not fussed on the holiday and/or will be working all day and night, and paying for everything too, then no, that’s ridiculous.

My eldest is a freelance (classical) musician. Does a fair amount of work abroad. He wouldn't get out of bed for the rates your cousin is talking about.

My only question is is she getting accomodation / food / travel included in the deal? If so I might see the appeal of a funded holiday in the Maldives.

So we only know the basics so far as she’s waiting to hear back but as I’m aware flights would be covered and accommodation but she’d be sharing a room with one other. It’s for a sax and dj set (her doing both sax and dj) food im not sure yet but its in one hotel every night 6 nights a week

She should be paid a per diem rate to be away plus "wage" fees. This should be above the accommodation.

My experience is 30 years out of date but I think stuff like this is almost seen as a “working holiday” rather than a well paid job.

The bloke we knew was a singer. As he put it “as a 22 year old who fancied going on holiday for a year and loved singing and would do it for free if I had to it was an awesome deal. As a 30 year old who had fallen in love and wanted to get married and start a family it didn’t work for me at all.”

When we met him he was in his late 30s / early 40s he would get a couple of free holidays for him and his family every year in return for one night singing in the hotel. (That was how my parents met him - they were very confused to discover that the person in front of them in the queue to sign their child into the Hippo Club was the same person that they had seen on stage the night before.)

Well she’s in her 40s she’s looking to be more settled but in saying that she’s always between here and Spain doesn’t have a place of her as she has no money, she works so hard but has no money sense whatsoever ever (drives me mad!) so overall terrible with money not spending as she has money to spend but always under valuing her self and she still lives about 5 decades behind the rest of us she need seems to keep her artes with the rest of the world and she floats about how she makes loads on a gig and when I ask her I’m like is that it? She’s deluded I love her but she is.

so although she’s 40s she is on the settling down scale she would do it for the money but her money and put money are two different things. If she could get a decent amount she’d do it to get herself some sort of nest egg (her nest egg the rest of us a decent wage) if any of that makes sense. I feel a grand a week or just under is fair, she’s professional she’s good she’s away from home if they don’t want that then fine they can find someone else who would be happy to donor for less for the experience. It frustrates me how she is with money and pricing herself. But I was so interested to see what other people’s thoughts are on this, I maybe well out with my pricing but I don’t think I’d do it myself if I was her for much less than that. If she gigged her for 6 nights a week at say £200 per gig that’s £1200 so to me that’s a good quote. Honestly her reaction it was like I said charge a million a pound a night 🤦‍♀️