Wedding Bands in Summer

admin | May 12, 2010 | 0 Comments

The Wedding Bands in the UK are having a huge struggle this year as many couples postponed their weddings to 2011 or simply went for much cheaper options like the wedding DJ. The bands were not as badly affected in 2009 as most of the bookings came in 2008 and still went ahead.

The UK wedding and function market for all intent and purposes has never been lucrative enough to justify the cost of running, managing and paying a band of professional musicians.

Like one musician brought up to me the other day. “It was never great during the good times, it certainly sucks now, we were working but after taking away the cost of maintaining a car to do these gigs, storage for the equipment and maintainance, rehearsal studio time, it never did add up”

Music agencies had a good run but with more bands being accessible via websites on the internet, the agencies have had less of a role to play. They have seen their advertising and marketing cost double but have seen their revenue half since the end of 2008 till now (2010 May).

Based on the current economic trend, 90% of professional performing musicians and bands generally need to start looking at music as a part time paying hobby. It can not longer be depended upon as a reliable source of income. 10% of professional and qualified muscians are with record companies and corporate events companies.

Recording Studios are charging what they used to charge in 70′s almost 40 years later.

The music industry is great, it is fun, you can travel the world as a giging musician, enjoy the perks when you are young and decent looking, but only get into it if you don’t mind worrying about your next months paychek for 30 – 40 years of your working life. Teaching music has always been a good avenue but it remains a highly mundane profession and nine out of ten doing it because they have to and not because they want to.

Then off course if you get lucky and make it big and get to gig with the big names or are a techno trance DJ that plays to thousands you will be ok, but this happens to such a minute number of people, you need to ask yourself if you are likely to want to take that risk.

It is great to be your own boss, do what you really want, but is it really worth it in the long run?

I am not too sure at this juncture, I have been a self employed professional agent and musician for 20 years, since I left school, it has been great and wonderful ride. I went om to finish my degree in music and Masters in Entertaiment Law. I have had a months where my income was nothing short of fantastic.

With a growing family for the next 20 years, with a steady source of income required, it now seems rather daunting to be a professional musican as the main source of income based on the current economical trends.