A couple of weeks ago, a good friend of mine sent me a link to a video. Her name is Cheryl Cobb, but her maiden name is Evans, and we knew each other in junior high school but had not had contact for 20 years when I unknowingly asked her husband to do keyboard reviews for me back when I was editing GIG.
At the time that seemed incredibly unlikely, but in these FaceBook days, I have stuff like that happen all the time. Bet you do too. Ahhh, but I am off on a tangent again…
So the video. Cheryl "got it" because it spoke to her as a musician trying to book gigs, but I have referenced it so often since getting it-pretty much every creative pro I know has heard me talk about it- that I finally posted it on my own wall.
It's called "The Vendor Client Relationship In Real Life."
How familiar does this sound? It opens with a couple at a table in a restaurant, and they are discussing (read, denying) parts of the tab with their waiter.
"You know, when we go to the taco stand, we pay about $12."
"Sir, this is not the taco stand."
"It's beef there. It's beef here…"
"Sir, you had the filet."
"It's cow, OK?"
Doesn't sound familiar? Let's exchange the words "beef" and "cow" for "speakers."
"Well, when we have the music store across town do sound for our event, it costs half of this amount."
"I am not the music store across town. I run a pro sound company."
"He brought speakers, you brought speakers…"
"He brought beat-to-crap, 30-year-old, worn out, homemade boxes. I brought a $30,000 tour-grade line array."
"They both make sound, OK?"
Now does it sound familiar? Or how about this one. Woman sits down at the hair stylist and says she really wants the highlights, but can only pay for a trim. Stylist: "So, we're just doing a trim today." Customer: "No, I want the highlights but I can only pay for the trim."
The video works, because it takes the outrageous demands on pricing that production pros hear every day and puts them in the context of "real world" business transactions. Looked at it this way, it seems laughable, and yet for many of us, it is the day-to-day reality of our lives.
Why? Because we let it be.
I have another friend who is a pro musician. These days, he is mostly in the studio, but he toured for years with some pretty big-name acts. About a decade ago he had just finished a five-year run with a band that pretty much defines the pop music use of his chosen instrument, and he started working with another well-known artist who was about to embark on a tour to some very exotic locales. He had been in rehearsal for a few weeks when the producer walked in and told the assembled players that the deal had changed and they would not be getting insurance, their per diem was being cut by half, and their day rate by 30 percent. "And," he said smugly. "You'll all take it because you need the gig." And he was, sadly, pretty much right.
All except this friend of mine, who told him to blow it out of where the sun don't shine, walked, sued and-eventually-got as much money as he would have on the tour. While everyone else was toiling for sub-par pay, he took another tour and basically got paid twice for that time period.
Closer to home, I know a sound company owner who was asked-no, told- by a major act that he had to cut his rate by about 20 percent a week and take on the salary of the mix engineers, which had been the responsibility of the artist. He knew there was another sound company waiting to take the gig. So did he cave in order to keep it? Well, not really. He told the artist to enjoy the show in (Insert name of city here) and that his truck would be there after the last show of the week to collect the gear.
You know it is not easy to stand up to outrageous demands, especially in times of economic turmoil and uncertainty. But we all know that if we drop trou now, the client will expect it again next time even if the economy is robust. Another musician I know regularly turns down gigs that his band mates would take in a heartbeat because-while the money looks good on the surface-it is half of what they usually make. As he put it, "Once you are a $5,000 band, you are always a $5,000 band."
Sometimes we have to look the client in the eye and tell him he is not at the taco stand and he ordered the filet…
