It’s important for me to make a living as a musician. Working with clients can be… tricky. The philosophy that keeps me out of trouble may seem harsh to most people:

I refuse to collaborate on other people’s projects for free.

Why?

First, the energy is unbalanced. What are they giving back? After all, I love giving energy to making a project better, and I love receiving energy in the form of appreciation and payment. It makes sense.

Second, it’s a bit cruel to myself. What does it say about me if I don’t charge appropriately? I care about creating music that carries the story and is appropriate, so it makes sense for me to charge for that.

Third, if I do something for free once, they think I’ll do it for free again. Yuck!

Whenever I meet with a potential client, I am upfront with them by saying I charge what I’m worth, but that I love to talk and hang out. Having good people to interact with makes me a lot happier as a human being.

It’s so sad to see so many wonderful musicians settling for free when they should be paid a lot more.

Music… Is… VALUABLE!!!