Unfair Competition?

[carl-swanson]

Karen- I seem to remember that post. I think I was quoting a local harpist here who used that line, but it still is unfair. I apologize. And you’re probably right. Many of these brides are in fact haggling, or at least trying to haggle, with everyone they deal with. I think everyone that caters to the wedding industry treads a fine line. It is possible to be too expensive and to therefore price yourself out of business. But if you slash your prices, for whatever, for one or two brides, then everyone is going to assume they can get that price too, and you are going to price yourself out of business in the other direction.

[diane-michaels]

At this risk of being repetitively redundant, I want to share a story, via my husband, a bassist. Recently, he was hired as a sideman on a cocktail hour. Keys and flute played the ceremony and then joined him for cocktails. The gig was booked by a pretty big wedding contractor in our area. Husband was inside, enjoying the AC on a hot day at the point the processional was due to begin. There was a little frenzy, as the mother of the bride couldn’t be located outside for the line up. She was found inside, not inside to enjoy the AC, but rather because, in her words, “I can’t stand to hear that music being played out there.” My husband silently concurred – the flute player, especially, was simply awful. Both ceremony musicians have day jobs and don’t rely on gigs for income. And this contractor books musicians at abominably low rates. I won’t work for them. My husband shouldn’t, but work is slow right now.

So long as people agree to go out for low rates, the market will continue to demand them. And in the case of an office that employs a large number of musicians, the quality of the musicians they employ will continue to slip. If one of the most recognizable names in the local industry is sending out unqualified musicians, what motivation does a potential client have to book live music provided by anyone if so-called name brand music falls below standard? This is where musicians hurt each other. The contractor will never raise his musician fees if he can keep finding musicians at low rates, and as bad as his reputation may be, he has never seemed to be hurt by it, so he’s here to stay, besmirching the field of live music for all, thanks to sub-professional hacks.

[catherine-rogers]

I certainly hope the mother of the bride, who might have been paying for it, complained to the contractor about the quality of the music. Unfortunately it’s difficult for the layman to recognize inferior harp playing because it’s hard to make an ugly sound on the harp. If they notice anything amiss, it’s usually sloppy rhythm or wrong notes, but often not even that.

[Karen Johns]

Diane,

You just pretty much summed up the whole problem with the American economy. Harpists in Walmart? Yeah, it could happen. After all, we already have harps and parts for harps being made in China. This is where we as consumers need to take personal responsibility, IMO.

Karen

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

My point about flowers was that many wedding have them by the boatload, not just bouquets and a nice display at the altar. But that money is spent before they go looking for a bargain harpist. At least

[Jessica A]

I’ve never heard another harpist play a wedding, so I

[barbara kraichy]

Has anyone encountered a bride that has hired a string quartet because she is getting 4 people for the price of one or two?

[alice-freeman]

Yes, a friend of a bride touted the “advantages” of a string quartet to me, and I quoted Florida harpist Jan Jennings: “The harp is a wonderful solo instrument, just like the piano. If you
hired a string quartet, you would have 4 instruments that [usually] only play one
note at a time. The harp will produce more sound and more notes at one
time than an entire string quartet.”

— Alice in windy Wyoming

[barbara kraichy]

Thank you Alice for your reply. I am also a Florida Harpist and Jan Jennings and I are friends. That reply is awesome, but in Southwest Florida there are several string quartets, due to the economy, that are undercutting the harpists. They can just carry their instruments onto the beach. I guess they figure that $75.00 each is better than nothing! Quite frankly, I’d rather stick to my price and not lower my standards. I’d rather play fewer weddings (quality) than more weddings (quantity) and there are quality brides out there who want a professional harpist with a good reputation. As mentioned, schlepping a harp and the wear and tear on the expensive instrument needs to be taken into consideration when accepting any job. We are also getting competition from CDs of harp music, not to mention the numerous DJ’s who will play the ceremony, cocktail hour and throughout the dinner for the price a harpist charges for a ceremony!

[diane-michaels]

This string quartet discussion brings up another side to the point I was making. Harpists are not shy about taking care financially of the cost of the their instrument, the difficulty in transporting it, etc… when quoting fees, which has helped keep harp rates high enough to support a career in background music, nationwide, for many years. When I first became involved in my local AFM, I learned many in the union were grateful to the negotiating powers of harpists in the 80’s to help all musicians.

Union price structure is based on a base scale (5, actually, depending on length of engagement and the day of the week) and then the premiums – cartage, travel, leader fees, doubling, pension, health care… Saturday scale is the highest, and was a lot more than I knew non-union offices were paying non-harpist musicians. Which was a revelation: shouldn’t the basis of out fee be our skill, not the labor of moving an instrument?

Although I use NY’s Saturday scale + premiums as a target for my own fees, I also use that for my sidemen. I get a little more to cover the cartage and leader fee, but we all bring our chops to the gig, and that deserves more respect (read: bucks) than anything else.

The cheap string quartet plague is prevalent in NY. And these often feature some really fine musicians, too. This is another reason musicians can be their own worst enemies in this field. Value yourselves and what you do!

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

You may be interested to know that even though he did all the management work, when Salzedo toured with other musicians, he paid everyone equally!

[Jessica A]

Some people prefer the sound of strings.

[laura-stokes]

I completely disagree. Someone who is under the age of 18 may have still had 13 years of lessons and experience, I know that most people don’t start harp this young but it could happen. I started playing gigs when I was 15 and although I charged slightly less than my teacher for gigs, she impressed upon me from and early age the importance of not undercutting other local harpists.

Obviously if you are too young to conduct yourself in a professional manner you should not be gigging but those who fall in to this category aren’t interested in playing gigs yet.

If a student is marketing themself as a professional and not playing/ conducting themself well at gigs word will get out and they will not be hired again.

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

I think that people who are hiring a musician (or any other service, for that matter) have a reasonable expectation that they are hiring an adult. Experience is not the only issue. I think it is a bit false if it is not disclosed that they are hiring a student, regardless of how much or how little experience. I do think, adamantly, that a student must charge significantly less than a professional, not to undercut them, but out of respect. A teenager who has been playing for years is still a teenager, and not self-supporting. It should be a very clear distinction to the client, if they have to be cheap, they have to know what they are getting. But it’s the same for basically amateur adults to work as “fully-fledged”

[unknown-user]

I agree with Laura. I too started working professionally at a young age, under the guidance of my teacher. She was one of the top players in the country and it was under her recommendation that I start work.

I was always a member of the union, I always charged union rates or a bit above. I tended to get paid less than other top, or more experiened, players around town. I never hid that I was a student of a high profile teacher. In fact, it was mostly on her recommendation that I got the gigs in the first place!

I personally think age has nothing to do with it –

[Author]

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