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The Finances of a Band


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I see, a troll.

Nope, no thanks. not going to play along.

 

The life of a college prof is a guarantee of lower middle class ease. It's pretty great. Never wealthy but few comparative worries if you live within your means. It's like the higher-degreed version of an old-fashioned union job...but you get more vacation. I was tempted by it at one point but went another direction.

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I'm in the t-shirt industry - these dudes can do better for less. I sell a TON of American Apparel, but will sell over $1 million in "knock off" brands that are comparable and much cheaper.

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The life of a college prof is a guarantee of lower middle class ease. It's pretty great. Never wealthy but few comparative worries if you live within your means. It's like the higher-degreed version of an old-fashioned union job...but you get more vacation. I was tempted by it at one point but went another direction.

 

 

I nearly went that route myself. I taught for three years or so at UB while working on my Masters and PhD (ABD, by the way, quit the dissertation stuff when I decided to bail on being a professor). While technically a Graduate Teaching Assistant, I was teaching my own classes w/o any interference from faculty and even got to create and teach my own 400-level course. For the most part, I really enjoyed the experience and was pretty good at it. I won an excellence in teaching award for best GA one year.

 

I "went another direction" after teaching full-time at Canisius College for one semester. It was a miserable experience. I figured I would be more likely to end up at a place like Canisius in my first job, than be at a big institution like UB.

 

The pay depends a lot on where you teach, whether you publish a text book that is widely used, and other ancillary forms of income. But if you are a full professor at any decent university you are probably not "lower middle class". You aren't likely to become rich, but you aren't anywhere near poor, either. And in many institutions the politics relegate you to anything but "ease". If you are looking for tenure and advancement, you'd better be publishing and/or bringing in grant $$. Excellence in teaching is barely valued at many institutions.

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Christian Heavy Metal? No wonder they can't make any money. You're doing it wrong guys.

 

 

Seriously, what a joke. If they are making $300 a gig they are not "mid-level". Of course, maybe they are a "mid-level" Christian heavy metal band.

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Seriously, what a joke. If they are making $300 a gig they are not "mid-level". Of course, maybe they are a "mid-level" Christian heavy metal band.

 

 

Yeah they're definitely flattering themselves by referring to themselves as "mid-level."

 

 

"Alright Cleveland I want you to help me one time. Let's use the power of Christ and guitars to stomp that devil."

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This is interesting to me on many levels.

 

1st, I have a lot to say about teaching in HS and college (from experience) but that's another thread.

 

2nd, I just saw Rush and I was wondering how much the band makes on a normal night on tour. Obviously its more than $300. But I wonder how much each of the 3 get for playing a show. 10K? 20K?

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This is interesting to me on many levels.

 

1st, I have a lot to say about teaching in HS and college (from experience) but that's another thread.

 

2nd, I just saw Rush and I was wondering how much the band makes on a normal night on tour. Obviously its more than $300. But I wonder how much each of the 3 get for playing a show. 10K? 20K?

 

 

I don't know the figures for Rush, but for a band of their stature, touring is a major cash cow. Major bands make far more on touring, these days, than they do on recordings. At least that's the way I hears it.

 

That may be changing a bit, or we might just be in a small downturn this year. I also hear concerts aren't selling as well this year.

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Just saw Rush at SPAC in Saratoga last weekend....

 

Plain and simple: 3 hour show, no opening band, purely AWESOME concert! Great mix of new and old stuff (their stuff from Snakes and Arrows is pretty good, as are their brand new songs they played)....

 

Plus, it is RUSH.... Geddy, Alex, Neil. Same guys for the past 30+ years. THAT adds to the experience for me, having seen plenty of classic bands with fill-ins and not the entire lineup....

 

The place was packed... even the lawn was packed! I will absolutely see them next summer when they tour to promote their new album due out in the spring....

 

But to bring it back to the point of the thread, I was thinking they must make some serious $$ from a tour.... Each of the 3 band members must make 3 or 4 grand a night in take home pay you would think....

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a related question: if a band plays at a place like Darien Lake or SPAC do they get a lump sum from the venue to come there? Or is it a % of the total gross ticket sales or something else entirely?

 

I always wondered how that worked... According to some figures on the tour Rush grossed over 450K in ticket sales from their one show in Saratoga...

 

I wonder what % of that the band members actually get.... I'm sure there are a ton of people (plus the venue itself) who get a cut somewhere along the line....

 

Even if the band itself only sees 10% of that gross revenue, that is still 45K, or 15K per person for one night of work.

 

It was awesome work!, but still, it goes to show how much of a divide there is between the big bands and the ones just starting out.....

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this was interesting to read (minus the teaching debate).

 

How about bands on the college / fraternity circuit? In the mid 90's we used to pay between $1000-$1500 per night for bands (a few times per semester), so I always figured that wasn't half bad for those guys. Of course, they can only make that 2 nights a week and the other nights they probably make $300 at a random bar...

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