Nashville bar bands: Do they really just work for tips?

Cafe Society
1

So we just got back from a great weekend in Nashville. We basically sat in bars from around noon til midnight and listened to bands. The worst band was better than the best band you’ll hear in Cincinnati most nights.

Most of the bars on Broadway didn’t ask for a cover, which was awesome because it allowed you to hear them before committing to staying. The downside was the ever-present tip jar/bucket. My husband has a big soft spot for door-to-door salesmen…and, apparently, starving artists. Every time the bucket passed by, he’d drop in money. He was going through cash like the tooth fairy in a torture chamber. (In retrospect, it’d have been a helluva lot cheaper had we been charged a decent cover.)

Anywho, before they passed around the bucket, the band would tell us about how the tips are their livelihood. One guy said, "Just a buck or two if you’re enjoying yourself is all we’re asking. "

So our friends and I got into a discussion about whether these bands are really working just for tips, or if the bar kicks in something. I mean, assuming 1/4 of the people did throw in just a buck or two, in the smaller bars, they’d only end up with $150 or 200 TOPS on a good night (Fri/Sat night), to pay 3 to 6 band members! Hell, the waitresses made a lot better money than that, and they didn’t spend hundreds of hours practicing.

A few of my friends were insistent that the bands were just working for tips, knowing that being dirt poor was the price they’d pay for a chance to get “discovered.” Others argued that if you take away the bands, the bars would close, so they had a financial incentive to get the best bands in and to pay them well, so OF COURSE they gave them a percentage of the food/liquor sales.

I still don’t know.

Anyone with any insider knowledge have any idea whether these bands are working for just tips? Just curious, to be honest.

2

Most bars I have known that had live music either paid bands a tiny set fee ($50-100 for the band) or, at best, a small percentage of the gate. If there was no gate at the bar, then yes, they were mainly subsisting on tips or merch sales. Bars do not make enough of a profit to split the booze and food money as that is their only income and they can always get another band.

The goal for the band is to play enough crappy gigs that they get a following that will get them booked into bigger bars, which leads them to be able to get booked into venues in large cities and seen by an A&R Rep from a record company.

3

There a lot of musicians who like to play simply for the joy of playing. They probably all have real jobs during the day because otherwise they wouldn’t make enough to pay for lunch.

4

Frankly, if I find out a bar has live music, I avoid that bar. The bands usually detract from my drinking.

Given that people like me exist, and wannabe bands are a dime-a-dozen, bars have no incentive to pay the band when they’ll play for free.

5

I live in Nashville (well, the suburbs) but I am not in the music industry and have no special insider knowledge outside a few musician friends. But remember that the bands you see playing the bars all have (or need) regular jobs that pay their rent and keep them in guitar picks and strings. If they take in only $100 for a 90-minute set, they’ll happily take it. Their bigger priority is to earn new fans, make contacts with the venue owners and (hopefully) impress any industry people in the audience. For the most part they are not depending on tips to put food on their table.