Money In Country Music??

Smiley Roberts · From: Hendersonville,Tn. 37075

This,from my friend,Mayf Nutter:
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Suppose there's any money to be made in Country Music?
Mayf
CHICKS AND TOBY HAVE TOP TOURS
According to Pollstar, their projected figures show that the top grossing country touring act this year is the DIXIE CHICKS who took in $61.6 million. Their sparing partner this year, TOBY KEITH, had a huge year as well grossing $42 million. Rounding out the top five country touring acts are SHANIA at $35.5 million, KENNY CHESNEY at $34.4 million, and TIM McGRAW with $31.3 million.
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$31.3 mil in ONE YEAR??? Hell,I don't make dat in THREE years!!

Smiley
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  ~ ~


  ©¿©  It don't mean a thang,   


  mm   if it ain't got that twang.


       www.ntsga.com

[This message was edited by Smiley Roberts on 17 December 2003 at 12:41 AM.]

John Floyd · From: R.I.P.

And you were telling me on the phone the other day about Lower Broadway Pickers only making $20 a night, Something wrong with this picture for sure.

[This message was edited by John Floyd on 17 December 2003 at 12:51 AM.]

Walter Stettner · From: Vienna, Austria

Smiley,

Is that before or after taxes?

Walter

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Billy Wilson · From: El Cerrito, California, USA

I remember Mayf Nutter from when I was a kid in Bakersfield Ca. in the fifties and sixties. Isn't he associated with the Bakersfield thing? What is his story? I remember him acting in some TV shows.

Bob Watson · From: Champaign, Illinois, U.S.

Smiley, the first time I met you was at a bar on Gallatin road right by the railroad bridge called Hassies Swangin'Country (its a used car lot now). I had just moved to Nashville and had dragged in my guitar/steel rig to sit in on a Saturday night. I remember overhearing you tell the drummer, Gus Barbara(spelling?) that you "had been here for twenty years and were still making the same money" LOL. You can imagine what I thought, being a newbie to Nashville, but I stuck around for 11 years and had a great time. It was a memorable night for me because I also met the bass player, Lee Marx, and years later we both worked for Jeanie C. Riley for a few years.

[This message was edited by Bob Watson on 17 December 2003 at 02:09 AM.]

[This message was edited by Bob Watson on 17 December 2003 at 02:10 AM.]

Tom Olson · From: Spokane, WA

I heard there was a lot of money in playing the state lottery too!!

Kevin Hatton · From: Buffalo, N.Y.

Yeah, and the average pay for band people is $250.00 to $350.00 a show. All the money going to the star, the bus leaser, and the lawyers. When is someone in the musicians union going to do something about it. There should be a general strike by the road musicians. A total rip off of the band members.

Kenny Foy · From: Lynnville, KY, USA

Kevin,That's a good idea but you can bet someone will cross the line. There will always be someone who will not play by the rules.

Lyle Bradford · From: Gilbert WV USA (deceased)

They would just use tracks!! Most of the TV shows that are on keep the band hid anyway and they might as well use tracks. Or when it is a live band and the steel takes a break the will show the bass player!!

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

They may indeed have made millions of dollars...but at least none of them were my dollars!

Eric West · From: Portland, Oregon, USA, R.I.P.

Well. Lets just use Toby. He COULD gross that much, and STILL end up in the hole.

About the time Alabama came into being "The Industry" realised that they no longer had to PAY Charlie Pride, George Jones, Dolly P, and others asking price. In short, they decided to become the "boss". They just went around and found a little decent band playing NCO clubs in SC, and made them a national act, sending Dolly to Dollywood, Merle to his Female Farm at Lake Shasta, Mel to Branson, and Buck to his "town". George Jones fired up the riding mower, and Johnny Cash went to the South Pacific.

The grabbed a little opening band for Emmy Lou Harris in a 100 seat club, and his show replaced half of them in the same time period.

Now, even artists with more than a dozen #1 hits have to sweat making ONE DIME by the time all the promo, record, legal, insurance, and TAX liabilities are covered. The cost of The Band is probably down there with bus and semi fuel..

No Union can look out for people that are too stupid to look out for themselves. Period.

What are they going to do? Lock them up and have ankle bracelets that go off whenever the guitar gets played for less than scale?

Shoot a couple dozen that are caught "working for tips"?

Hmmm.....

I have an upcoming "treatise" on the "Bondservant" "sideman" mentality, but I'm mulling it over sufficiently.

EJL

Ken Lang · From: Simi Valley, Ca

Other than the "stars" I don't see much money in any kind of music, as a player.

Thru 40 years of playing I was happy to get what I could get, but money was never the bottom line. Playing music was the bottom line and if I had some off time I was out of sorts and didn't know what to do with myself.

What great fun to play a 5 or 6 hour gig and then race to an all night place to sit in, where the music never stopped untill well past the morning sun when the musicians either fell asleep where they stood/sat or went for breakfast.

Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

It was 'splained to me right from the start of my so-called "steel guitar career", that one could expect to make literally "tens of dollars" playing this thing... but they never told me over what time period! When should these tens of dollars start arriving?

Jerry Hayes · From: Virginia Beach, Va.

Yo Smiley,
Mayf Nutter? That's a blast from the past. He used to fill in for Billy Mize on occasion when I was playing at the old Foothill Club in Long Beach (Signal Hill), California about twenty some years ago. I remember ol' Mayf was one helluva entertainer. I remember he played the country singer Bobby Bigalow on the Walton's TV show and one of the Walton kids played in his band. What's he doing these days? Have a good 'un...JH

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Livin' in the Past and the Future with a 12 string Mooney Universal tuning.

Joe Miraglia · From: Jamestown N.Y.

Is there money in Country Misic,for some there is.Is there money in Oil? For some there is.The person that pumps the gas,I think not.our Vice president??,o'well-

I think I'll stop buying CD's and gas. Joe

Kenny Dail · From: Kinston, N.C. R.I.P.

Get a meaningful daytime job and pay your SS so you can have medical benefits, retirement and job security and use your music to supplement you day job. To hell with the union, all they want is your money anyhow. Nashville is dying and the music market as a whole is "up the creek" and even if you get lucky enough to find work in Nashburg as a musician, you wind up in poor health with no insurance, no way to pay your hospital bills and no retirement. Everytime a musician dies in Music City, they have to have a benefit to give him a decent funeral. Not to mention, what happens to his family...

Sorry...didn't mean to shoot my big mouth off. Those are some of the reasons I never entertained the idea of moving to Nashville, Tenn.

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kd...and the beat goes on...

Kevin Hatton · From: Buffalo, N.Y.

Kenny, my thoughts and feelings exactly. Very good advice.

Gene Jones · From: Oklahoma City, OK USA, (deceased)

....Get a meaningful daytime job and pay your SS so you can have medical benefits, retirement and job security and use your music to supplement you day job.....

Amen Kenny! I did that back in 1964 and it has turned out to be the BEST decision I ever made!

www.genejones.com

Joe Miraglia · From: Jamestown N.Y.

22 years at Cummins Engine,making them engines for them big trucks and them buses that all those stars and road players used. Now I have retired,and playing more then every. Joe

[This message was edited by Joe Miraglia on 20 December 2003 at 06:32 AM.]

Bob Carlson · From: Surprise AZ.

Kenny Dail...you just explainded why I got off the week end Band Stand at a very early age.

Bob

Kenny Dail · From: Kinston, N.C. R.I.P.

Merry Christmas Bob Carlson.

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kd...and the beat goes on...

Damir Besic · From: Nashville,TN.

Nashville is not dying,country music is.Nashville is not and never was a place to make money playing live.It is a music industry business what keeps Nashville going,like recording and other things that go with it,record labels lawyers and agents,tourism,promotors and producers.Non of them gives a damn about music,they`ll just do anything to keep their jobs and if that means pop selling under country,so be it.NObody ever made money playing in Nashville local clubs,they came here,play for tips and if they`re lucky they get someone to back them up financialy and they end up on the road,making money everywhere else but Nashville.The days when producers were crusing the clubs looking for the artists are long gone,now you have to buy a deal.If you have 500K you can buy a deal and be a star if you want to.Talent?Who has a talent?Musicians in the bands do,and what money they make?I received an Email from a good riend of mine steel player from Europe who was telling me about the CMA awwards,he said :"if it wasn`t for Allison Krauss and couple other artists I wouldn`t know what was I watching",sad.

Bill Hatcher · From: Atlanta Ga. USA

Kenny Dail, you are very mis-informed about the Musicians Union. The union has the finest pension plan in America funded now by over a BILLION dollars and paying out as much as $125,000 a year to some of the top retired musicians in the country. Even the run of the mill players who have been smart enough to file contracts on their work are receiving nice benefits every month.

It is not the Unions job to get you a gig or to help you make the right decisions, only to set a minimum pay scales and represent you if you are working under a contract and you have a problem. If a musician works for underscale or agrees to a bad deal then that is his/her fault and not the Union.

I serve on the Executive Board of the Atlanta Federation of Musicians. One thing that I have learned is that most musicians are the stupidest business people in the workplace. They will constantly shoot themselves in the foot by selling their talent for the cheapest prices and by getting hung up in the worst playing arrangments. Happens all the time. We as musicians have much more training and experience than other professions making a LOT more money.

As for the people who work for these big stars. You negotiate within the market place. If a good player will work for a star for cheap then the star cannot be faulted for hiring him. That is called free enterprise. Bill Gates is a billionaire. The people who work for him are not. If you don't have something special that an artist cannot get from a cheaper player then you don't have any bargaining position and will only get what you are offered.

You can bad mouth the Musicians Union if you want, but I can tell you that it is the finest organization you can belong to IF you are a pro musician.

Kenny Dail · From: Kinston, N.C. R.I.P.

Bill, I stand corrected. I never hear anyone bragging about the benefits, such as medical, retirement or any other Union benefits. I do know they have their hand out for a "fee" before you can play anywhere on the road. If the "package" is so great..why do we have so many benefit shows for the Nashville working musicians that have passed on to greener pastures.

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kd...and the beat goes on...

John Steele · From: Renfrew, Ontario, Canada

Kenny, my friend,
It's partly because the pension contributions are optional, and, as Bill mentioned, alot of guys don't have much foresight, and opt not to. The cash in hand seems nice, but in the long run...well...
I'm not a labour union enthusiast, but the musician's union is something I think is warranted. After all, it still gives you the freedom to make the bad choices like the one listed above.

Think of the symphony cats, who spend a lifetime nuturing an art that no simple-minded North American would know enough to support. To some of those guys, $200 a show would seem like pretty good bread. They'd have to fight for that, amidst a sea of people who'd lay down good money to watch some clown sing Karaoke at the corner bar.
Say, did anyone watch World Idol last night ? Darn, I missed it.

I think the union is doing their best, as we all are, to combat the forces of a public whose taste is as deep as a one-finger shot.
As some wag put it: It's a noble calling, but a poor trade. Eric, you can use that if ya like.

The problem is at the other end, imho.

By the way, Kenny, Merry Christmas, hope you're well, and I hope to see you soon; you're on my short list of Good Guys.

-John

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