I have a band. When we got started, we worked for free. Our clients loved to book us, but when we showed up at the gig, we really got not respect. They would keep us for hours, not provide breaks for us, and worst of all, the emcee would start talking over the music without even giving us the sign to stop playing.
Eventually I took over all bookings. I laid down the law: we charged $800 for the quartet and $1000 for the quintet with singer. The time limit was 4 hours, with breaks every 45 minutes. If you wanted more, we could provide it at 250 / hour, which started automatically after 15 minutes of overtime.
To our amazement, we continued to get gigs. In fact we got more gigs, and the clients respected us much more. They even fed the band, and when they wanted to make an announcement, they asked me before grabbing the mic.
Higher prices mean more respect. Of course, you can’t always just charge more. But more is sometimes better than less. It is not always intuitive!
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