Professional Ethics of What to Charge

[patricia-jaeger]

Victoria, a poster here asked “how do you find the standard price for your services in your area?” and people gave some good answers to that question. If you belong to American Federation of Musicians, you just charge what the professionals tell us in meetings, or just phone in or e-mail the local union office because we all have the contact information. Working, professional players have voted on minimum prices each year as fair in any particular area of the U.S.A. The groceries got much higher in my area over the summer: Coleslaw is now $4.50 a pound for instance. So lately the local union here raised minimums that performers and also teachers should ask, to avoid undercutting other professionals. The minimum for teaching a 1-hour lesson is now $55.00. It is more than I had been asking but for new students I will support that ruling because it is quite fair considering the poor economy in my area at present and property taxes are higher than they have ever been.

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

The American Harp Society stays away from such issues, perhaps wisely. Being a member of the Musician’s Union is one way of guaranteeing a degree of professionalism and having a (too-low) set minimum fee. Since this problem seems to exist everywhere, what is needed is a Guild of Professional Harpists that sets regional minimums for types of gigs for members, and requires that members have at least a college degree in music with a harp major, and perhaps require an audition with some minimum playing standards.
That way, a Guild membership will be a guarantee to clients and members, and can have rules like not trashing each other, stealing gigs, and other behavior problems.
This is definitely needed for teaching. This way, those who cannot be members will get what they can from people who don’t care.
Maybe it won’t work. What does work is when harpists get together and agree on set minimums for weddings and such that will work in their region, and agree not to undercut each other.

[Affeltranger@att.net]

I am interested in what is being charged for an hour of playing in a retirement/nursing home in Northern California. Have no idea and can’t seem to find out what they pay other musicians (guitarists, singers, pianists and such). I do volunteer playing frequently at one very large institution and for one charity but am interested in doing some other gigs for recompense.

[mikela.hoffman17]

I have been playing the harp for ten years, and I have recently begun to have a lot of gigs. I’m unsure of what to charge, as there are not many harpists in my area at all (closest is about an hour) and I am less experienced in performance. There isn’t much competition to worry about undercutting or keeping up with, so all controversy aside, can anyone give me a hard number of an idea of a fair price?

[Author]

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