In this episode, Jared Judge delves into the stark differences between high-end and low-end gigs, emphasizing why aiming for high-end gigs can transform your music career. Jared shares personal experiences, valuable insights, and practical tips on how to secure high-paying, low-stress performances. He also introduces a free masterclass designed to help musicians break into the high-end gig scene.

"High-end gigs are easier to get, easier to make a lot more money, and easier to play because you'll have support and people who trust you with what you do."

- BookLive: Everything you need to start marketing and booking your act online (without having to hire or rely on a tech team!)​
- Your First Gig: Everything you need to book your first high-paying gig.
- Fulltime Music Masterclass: The Secret To an Unlimited Stream of High-Paying Private Event Gigs …Without Spending a Fortune on Online Advertising or Having Any Connections!
- Fulltime Music Academy (Gig Vault): 24,665 High-End Venues + Event Planners: Use this directory to book your highest-paid gig to-date.
- Breaking Into High-end Gigs Masterclass: How I Went From Broke Musician to Thriving By Breaking Into These Largely Unknown High-Paying Gigs

What's up, renegade musicians? It's Jared Judge. Welcome back to another episode of The Gigging Musician Podcast, where we do things differently than most gigging musicians. We see what they do realize, their lack of success, their lack of happiness, their lack of money.

And we do the opposite so that we can have success, have money, have happiness. And today I wanted to chat about, you know, the dangers of playing too many low end gigs and the big difference between low end gigs and high end gigs. Now, you know, I want you to kind of imagine a high end gig.

You know, what does a high end gig look like for you? For many, it happens in a high end venue. For example, a ballroom or on a golf course or places that are typically associated with. With wealth and money, large hotels.

And then, you know, what else is there about that high end gig? Typically, you might associate a larger paycheck with it, and you'd be right to imagine that.

So you're getting maybe ten times what you might be making at a low end gig, possibly more. And what else about that high end gig? Maybe it's the people that booked you.

You know, maybe they are a corporate event planner or a high end wedding planner where the person booking you values your talent, they value the work that you do. And so they're going to pretty much just let you do what you are best at. They trust you.

They're not going to try to micromanage you. They're going to be fairly hands off. They're just like, hey, you available? Cool.

What do you charge? Awesome. Send me a contract. Here's your money.

Great. Show up. Here's where you show up.

You know, imagine the other circumstances of a high end gig. Perhaps they've even provided a sound engineer for you. Like, if you're the kind of act that needs a PA system and you need mixing, you need monitors, perhaps they'll have a sound engine.

You're both running front of house. And maybe they'll even provide a monitoring engineer, provide you with some in ear monitors. And each band member gets their own mix so your drummer can hear a little more of the guitar, a little less of the vocals, whatever you might need.

You know what else, what else about these high end gigs? Perhaps they even feed you afterwards, right? If you're playing for a nice event that has a catered dinner, maybe you get some prime rib, some steak after, after the event.

Perhaps they'll put you up in a hotel after the event, right? And, you know, these are all things that I've personally experienced because I play lots of these high end gigs. And these are luxuries that could be everyday luxuries.

Now let's flip that around and imagine your typical low end gig. These are the gigs that many musicians are comfortable and experienced with. And you might imagine that it happens in a bar, you know, a dive bar maybe, where the floors are sticky with old beer.

Has that musty smell to it. Yeah, they say there's a PA system, but looks like it was from the seventies. And the sound that comes out of it is muffled.

Alright, what else about this gig, you know, what else do you imagine about these low end gigs? So you might imagine the paycheck is low end. Yeah, like $100 a man or less. Or, you know, I want to also make it clear that these low end gigs are not just in like the COVID band or band and acoustic guitar world.

These are also in the jazz, in the classical world too. In the classical world, I've played many low end gigs. Like one, and one of the ones that comes to mind was this quote unquote semi professional orchestra that paid $50 per performance.

That was kind of low end. I mean, it masqueraded as high end because I had to wear a suit. Excuse me, I had to wear a suit and tie, tuxedo, bow tie kind of thing.

And I was on stage at this really gorgeous venue. But wow, that paycheck was pretty low end. And, yeah, so these are not just our gigs I'm talking about.

What else? What else makes it a low end gig? Perhaps it's the way that you're treated before, during and after the gig. Before the gig, even just getting the gig. Low end gigs have that kind of experience you have to go through to get them right.

Massive amounts of competition because most gigging musicians are going after the low end gigs. You know, maybe 5000 musicians all going for the same Friday night slot at this 1 bar or the Saturday afternoon spot on that festival.

And so you're applying, competing against others, literally pitting musicians against musicians just to get a low end gig, one that doesn't pay very well, one that, you know, maybe you'll get some new fans out of it.

Yeah, people will enjoy it. You'll see their smiling faces. But are you going to be smiling when you see that paycheck come through? And when rent is due, especially, you know, 2024, this is not the easiest economic times.

People said that it was going to be better after COVID, but I think for a lot of people it's gotten kind of worse.

Rent has gone up, groceries have gone up, even energy bills, you know, triple between the hours of one and 07:00 p.m. it's like costs have gone up, but the average pay for these low end gigs, it's pretty much stayed the same since I've heard since the seventies.

So 50 years now, we musicians have been getting the same for these low end gigs. All right, what else I said before, that's the competitive process to even just get the gig. Or, you know, you'll email dozens of bars and restaurants to not get any response during the gig, right.

You might get have those experiences where, like, it's just less than ideal for you. You're spending hours setting up, hauling hundreds of pounds of equipment, you know, spending money on that equipment, because we all know sometimes equipment breaks during a gig or just by using it, you know, maybe the circuits get fried. Even our bodies are tools that we use for gigs.

So if it's a low end gig and you're expending massive amounts of energy, putting stress and strain on your body, spraining an ankle or crushing your finger when you're closing up your.

Your case or something like that, you're putting wear and tear in your body for a low end gig. So that's kind of the during aspect and then after for low end gigs, I've heard horror stories about trying to get paid.

Some bar restaurant owners either try not to pay you at all, or they make it really hard to get that check. When you get that check, sometimes it's for less than the amount you agreed upon. And that's especially true if you're playing for the door.

Right? You know, people have to pay a cover charge, or you get a percentage of the bar there. Your job is basically a commissioned salesperson, not a musician.

And then how do you know that the amount that they're paying you accurately reflects the amount of sales that you generated? That's kind of worst case scenario for a commission salesperson, is when the company they work for lies to them and steals money from them.

And then after the gig, yeah, we already talked about that, like, getting the money, and then the process starts all over again because, you know, typically you just have to hustle for every single gig. And so, in my opinion, those two types of gigs are not created equal. High end gigs and low end gigs.

High end gigs are, in my opinion, easier. It's easier to get them. It's easier to make a lot more money.

It's easier to actually play them because you'll have support. People trust you with what you do typically get paid in advance so you're not chasing down a check.

And that check is always going to be the exact accurate amount because you can bet your bottom they have, since they're a higher end corporation or something, they've had to actually, you know, use their payroll company to issue that check or their accounting department to issue that check.

So it's not like they can lie. They have a contract in place with you. And that's another big difference between high end and low end gigs, is you have a contract for high end gigs that protects you, that you give them a contract, setting your boundaries, setting your terms.

They don't just tell you, hey, show up, play, and will probably pay you. So I guess, you know, you guys have kind of a choice.

You don't have to take all those low end gigs, right? Just because a gig exists doesn't mean it's a good opportunity, right? Let other less experienced, less high quality musicians take those gigs.

We renegade musicians do not take every gig that comes our way. You know, sometimes we're unavailable and it just would be inconvenient for us to reschedule our lives around these low end gigs that it's perfectly fine for us to say no.

And, you know, we can elevate our marketing, elevate our promotion materials to get these high end gigs.

And I say this kind of on the tail end of watching a hundred gigs workshop where, you know, another person who educates musicians on their promotions, how to get gigs, was, you know, saying, you can get as many gigs as you want, and that's cool and all, but, like, not all gigs are created. The goal is not volume of gig. The goal to me is quality of gig.

I would take a high end corporate gig over ten low end gigs any day. And so if that means that I play fewer gigs in a year but still make more money than, you know, what many musicians who play five gigs a week are, that makes me a pretty happy musician.

And that also gives me, like, like I mentioned, less stress and wear and tear on my body so that I could be more creative, have more time for my family, have more time for the projects that I want to do.

Like, I recently picked up another hobby because, you know, I'm not gigging all the time. That's not my goal. My newest hobby is learning to be a racing drone pilot.

Yeah. So, you know, those drones like the, you know, DJI or whatever. Well, DJI doesn't produce racing drones, but those things that you fly and they have a camera on them, remote control.

There is like a whole sport dedicated to racing them, and they make these really cool race tracks. And I don't know, I'm getting kind of addicted to it. I don't have a racing drone yet.

I'm using a simulator. It's basically a game on my computer that you connect a controller to and then you learn how to fly, because it's very different than flying a remote control car or flying a DJI drone. You have to learn how to use the different controls a lot more independently.

And I have the time and the mental capacity to do that because I'm not gigging all the time, but I'm still making more than many musicians who are gigging all the time.

So that's kind of my call to action, is to consider the relative value of each gig. Do you want to be breaking your back, playing every gig that comes your way? And some of you might.

I would just argue that you're not a renegade musician. If you are, if you do want that, and that's okay.

But if your goal is more time, freedom, and higher quality gigs for the music, you know, the kind of gigs that your music actually deserves, then consider starting to say no to those lower quality gigs and replacing that with a promotion effort, a conscious effort to promote yourself for higher end gigs.

And if you don't know where to start, like that is the place to start is learning how to promote yourself for higher end gigs.

And if you don't know, well, where do I actually start with that? Well, lucky you. I teach that I run a free masterclass at FulltimeMusicAcademy.com highend gigs. There are dashes between each of those.

So high end gigs, then there's a registration page if we're having an upcoming masterclass on that, and I'll show you exactly how.

I broke into the high end gig scene here in Denver very quickly, you know, generating a full time income in less than a year of being here. You know, many people, they say it takes you 510 years to build a music career in a new place. I did it in under a year.

And you can learn exactly how by taking my free masterclass. Alright, I gotta get off my soapbox. But you know, I love you guys and I just want you to be financially successful as a musician.

I don't want you to be breaking your back, chasing down these low end opportunities, making no money off of your music. And similarly for the original artists, like, I know how hard it is to get your. Get paid for your music, right? Spotify and the streaming services, they are not designed to pay you.

In fact, a recent interview came out with the CEO of Spotify who basically said, you know, they compared making music to creating content and they said the cost of making music these days is almost nothing.

And it was just so offensive to so many musicians that there's been a huge backlash. But, like, is the situation gonna change? Probably not, right? Spotify has got the whole world on lockdown as far as how they listen to music.

And so we have to be different. We have to be renegade musicians. And so that's my call to arms is join me in this, in this pursuit.

Don't let people tell you what you're worth. You tell them what you're worth. If that means taking fewer lowering gigs, fine by me.

Fine by you. Let's see. All right, that's all I got for you guys today.

Thanks for tuning into another episode of The Gigging Musician Podcast. Remember, “Your music will not market itself!”.