Posts Tagged "money"

“You are such a great singer!” said the slightly drunken woman to me after the band left the stage. “Thank you very much,” I replied, politely. “Please sing one more song. For me.” she pleaded. “I’m sorry, but the show is over, and we’re not allowed to go back on stage.” “Please?!? I’ll give you fifty bucks if you go back on stage right now and sing a song for me.” The stage was dark, the crew was already packing up the equipment. “Uhh, no.” I replied, rather annoyed. “Besides, how did you get backstage in the first place?!?” The above situation actually happens quite often; I’m often offered money to perform longer than is stated in my contract. The question for me: is such a request a compliment to my skill as an entertainer,...

There are certain undisputed truths about being a pro musician in Europe, particularly in Germany, where I work most of the time: you’re always asked to do more than you want to; you’re always treated well, but never as well as you think you should be; and the cleanliness of the bathroom in your hotel room has more of an effect on your performance at the gig than you would like to believe. On this past five day road trip I travelled to the towns of Bregenz, Austria (directly on Lake Constance, the body of water shared by Germany, Austria and Switzerland), Mannheim, Cologne and Hamburg, a total distance of 1909 kilometers (1186 miles), all of it by train. I performed three shows with two different bands: the Bregenz gig was for a conference of IT...

So, I get to the gig at about three o’clock in the afternoon, a beautiful spring day in Blankenese, a wealthy suburb of Hamburg. My show last night was a wedding party at a private residence; a typical job for me, and a very lucrative one. I perform at wedding parties at least 20 – 30 times a year. Based on the location and my previous experiences performing at weddings in Hamburg, this particular show had the potential to be a good one. Among the many types of jobs I perform, I have to admit that I enjoy playing at weddings, because if you perform well, the show becomes a very memorable experience for the newlywed couple; to this day I have couples for whom I have performed come to me and tell me how much they enjoyed my show. I’ve even had couples who...

Two days ago, a court in Sweden found the four men who created the internet file sharing site “The Pirate Bay” guilty of copyright infringement and of aiding and abetting the piracy of copyrighted material. The men were each sentenced to a year in jail and a fine of 30 million Swedish Kroner (about $3.6 million USD). The reaction in the media and in cyberspace was swift; much of the commentary came down on the side of The Pirate Bay founders, blaming the entertainment and software industries for causing the need for such sites in the first place through years of unfair pricing of music, video and software, as well as the draconian steps these companies have taken to stop piracy in recent years. Others are of the opinion that the Pirate Bay creators got what...