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So I'm looking at playing gigs again over the summer.
Any solo guitar gigs that I had previously were straight forward with a set fee.
I reached out to a restaurant a half hour drive away as they had a notice up on Facebook looking for musicians to play.
They just got back to me via email saying they'd love to have me play etc.
They are asking for my fees and and expenses/additional costs.
Apart from petrol which other additional costs do you guys add in?
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03-04-2024 12:43 PM
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I have accepted less pay because a PA was provided. That's about it. From negotiations I get the impression some bands over complicate things. I'll play 3 45 minute sets for x or 2 65 minute sets for y, will bring a small pa for x but the larger pa is y. House music between sets is extra.... that forest for the trees mentality.
Just tell them your cost, your set time and bring the shit you need to do the job. The easier you are to book, the more likely you'll be rehired.
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That seems right to me.
Originally Posted by AllanAllen
I don’t think I’ve ever had someone ask me that.
Other than a rain/cancellation fee. Thats usually a good idea.
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That is obviously true but it doesn't answer my question. Originally Posted by AllanAllen
I'd be pretty sure that some restaurant guitarists try to get free food and/or drinks.....
I'm just wondering what others put in as expenses?
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But I did answer your question, I don't do any add on expenses. Tell them what you'll do the gig for, keep it simple.
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Hmm. That’s not really clear from the question. Originally Posted by Liarspoker
Sure I’d ask about food and drink. That’s pretty normal, though I don’t usually care either way what the answer is. But that’s also not really something that would occur to me as being a “fee or expense.”
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Food? Drinks?
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I once had a carpenter add on a charge for depreciation of his tools.
If they've hired more carpenters than musicians, might that explain it?
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Depreciation of equipment is an itemized deduction on one's business tax returns. It is not an expense to pass on to the customer. If your carpenter was running his business like a business, his accountant would know this. Unfortunately, a lot of blue-collar tradespeople are not very good at business. Same for musicians. Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
A small purchase, like a hammer or a pack of guitar strings, is usually depreciated 100 percent in the first year it is put into service. That is, you deduct the full cost of the hammer from your gross income and pay tax on the net income after expenses. If you are in the 30 percent Fed tax bracket, not paying tax on the income you used to purchase the hammer amounts to your getting ~30% off the purchase of the hammer.
A larger piece of equipment, like a tractor or a backhoe or a tour bus, might be depreciated over multiple years.
I am not a tax professional; this is just what I learned from 20+ years of running my own business and paying tax professionals to handle this kind of thing.
So your carpenter was either bad at business, or running (parts of) his business under the table, or double-dipping and charging you for depreciation at the same time he was writing off the hammer on his tax return.
I hope that at least he was a good carpenter :-)Last edited by starjasmine; 03-06-2024 at 09:43 PM.
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Well of course when the carpenter was charging for depreciation of tools that was just additional income to him. He just broke his invoice into components. Similar to a fuel surcharge on your landscapers bill for instance.
I have seen invoices from a large regional accounting firm where they added an 3% arbitrary “Technology, Security and Administration Charge”.
Every business has their “overhead” the above is akin to your customer reimbursing you for some of yours. Nice work if you can get it!
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That well may be but the point above was it's complete b*******. It's just a made-up number it's like itemizing and charging you for fairy dust. Originally Posted by alltunes
I understand that he is itemizing that because he wants to show you that he's trying to recoup an expense that he incurred but he didn't incur that expense because what he's depreciating off his balance sheet to his income statement has no impact on his cash flow.
He is not out of pocket that depreciation amount. He is now just pocketing a made-up number that he gave to you and you paid.
It's not similar to fuel surcharge. That is a real amount that somebody paid to come to your house they are recouping that outlay of cash.
For what it's worth I think that tactic is also b*******.
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Customers take a fee better than a price increase. A fee feels like something that is out of the businesses control, a price increase feels like greed. Both are bad, but one feels worse.
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That is very insightful. Great point. You must be in marketing! Originally Posted by AllanAllen
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Originally Posted by AllanAllen
A price increase may or may not hint of greed, but keep in mind by time that venue manager or whomever gets around to asking you ' how much ', he's already been hit with increases at every corner of his business. So he knows full well what increases are because he's been fighting and dealing with them every day.
MHO
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What are additional fees?
I must be working the wrong gigs.
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You don’t charge more to wear a suit?
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If you want to see fees rather than higher prices, look at your phone bill. ATT adds fees to my bills that add up to an extra 20% per line, plus more for the basic account. This makes marketing more attractive, because while the advertised price may be $25/month, you actually pay in excess of $35, even after they give you purported discounts for things like electronic billing, etc. There are 9 (!) extra fees for each phone, and I have 7 phones. Multiple cost recovery fees, administrative fees, ad nauseum. The nominal cost is $160/month, but I pay >$250.
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