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How I Got Paid $445 To Hang Out With My Best Friends At New Year

Ok, I'm a little embarressed about the title

I'm sitting here at the coffee shop thinking that this look likes I'm showing off. Or exaggerating. Or even straight-out lying. But I'm not. It's just what actually happened. In fact, it's what being a musician is all about. You earn stupid amounts of money doing what you love, with the people you love, for the people you love. Awesome.

My band got booked to play New Year's Eve and the night of New Years Day for a venue in Scotland that's out in the middle of nowhere (sorry to all the great people who follow me on Twitter. I couldn't wish you a happy new year because there wasn't even any phone reception there!)

Here is the story: We left home about 6pm on New Year's Eve and drove to the venue with some friends and family. We set up, met new people, played a few songs, talked, ate some food, had a few drinks and generally had a great time.

I saw in the New Year on stage, sitting at my drum kit, surrounded by 3 of my best friends. That's pretty cool. The only bad thing was that I didn't get my New Year's kiss from my girlfriend until we got off stage!

How we did it

Ok, are you ready for the big secret? The way to get everything that you want? Here it is: we just asked. We had played a few gigs for this venue before so we knew them fairly well. They liked what we did, they liked that we always turned up on time and most importantly they liked us as people.

During a gig for them last year they happened to mention that they were dissapointed with the last band they booked for New Year's Eve. We suggested that we were available and would be happy to do it instead and they booked us pretty much on the spot. It was that easy.

Did we have to do any extra preparation for this gig? Well a little. We needed to learn a few traditional Scottish songs. So we spent a few extra minutes working on each new song during a band practice. But other than that, we just turned up and did what we do.

Here's the cool bit

Total income: $445
Time on stage: 7 hours (3 for New Year's Eve and 4 for New Year's Day)

Divide income by time and that means we were on an hourly rate of $63 per hour. Once again, awesome.

Quick google search for "jobs that pay $63 per hour" and we find:

• Doctor - 7 years at Medical School? No thanks
• Lawyer - Endless reading and researching cases? No thanks
• Physicist - All those formulas and numbers and stuff? No thanks
• Professor of Mechanical Engineering - Sounds like I might get my hands dirty. No thanks
• Construction Safety Manager - I might get into trouble if people died. No thanks
• Data Warehousing Manager - What is that?! No thanks

Oh yeah and we got free private accommodation for both nights too which would've been worth an extra $400 - $500. So I'll stick with being a musician thanks. Besides, it's the one of the few jobs where you get to have a beer while you're at work.

Now this is NOT what you should be aiming for. A lot of bands will earn much, much more than this. A lot of bands will have much, much more fun than this. A lot of bands will do all of this and more in much, much cooler places.

What we did is nothing compared to what is possible.

What you can do

Here are the 3 most important things that we did to get this gig and that you can use to get gigs of your own. These aren't theoretical points (I'm not a Physicist, remember.) These actually work.

• Build relationships with venues
• Be at your best for every show
• Keep your eyes open for opportunity

And don't forget to have some fun along the way!

Alex

What do you think?

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