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Bar Owner Rant


jeff42

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I found this mini- rant on FB this morning. Is he right? Is he wrong? What do you think? Figure I would put this here for discussion. Liven up the place a bit more. :)

 

As a bar owner in a small town... Have you heard the fees ASCAP AND BMI. Are charging bar owners?!! Why aren't they charging the bands??? You are the ones replication their music?? Not me... I'm already paying you..??? Why do I have to pay them??? It bs... And I'm not trying to piss iff any musicians.. I don't offer less.. I just send them home.. If you don't have a following... Don't charge a ridiculous amount to start with... .the bar owner is responsible for the help, the alcohol, the building that sometimes gets destroyed, the insurance, the bouncer/ door guy, and has to replace the alcohol served that night it's quite costly... If you don't bring them in then what?? We should eat the whole night??? Only the ignorant would think that .

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Idiot. The licensing covers not only the band, but the jukebox, the TV and cocktail waitresses iPhone that get plugged into the system. And what a typical small bar pays it's bands would barely cover minimum wage. Oh sure, maybe for the four hours I'm playing. My musical day (which cuts into my day job that pays almost as much per hour as you're offering for an entire evening, thank you) starts sometime in the afternoon when I start loading up sound and lights, that you're expecting me to provide at no additional charge, so I can go set it up and dial it in at your business. So that $50 per man per night divided up over say ten hours is pretty crappy compensation when you look at it now. And I'm there to entertain your customers. I'll put out the word and bring as many of our people out as I can, but if your entire business model is based on what a $50 dollar a night band can bring in, you should really re-think it. Be a destination your customers can depend on for quality entertainment, not one that scrounges on scraps from whatever garage band you can talk into playing for a couple pitchers of beer. (This was a lot longer and lot more ranty, but I cut it back)

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I love the bar owner that after booking you though an agent wants you to rebook direct and save "him" the commission. so I'm going to screw my agent that has booked me for 20 years so i can save a club owner I just met a couple dollars the next time I play there? I don't think so.

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I don't understand why he pays his waitresses.

 

A lot don't. Or barely. In some states it's legal to pay a much lower minimum-wage to employees who earn tips. I believe federal law allows them to pay as low as $2.13 an hour for employees that receive tips. Not all states allow this, however.

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$2.13/hr????? Aieyaiyaiyaiyaie!!!

 

We do that up here, too, but the minimum wage for liquor servers is currently $9.55. The minimum wage elsewhere is $10.25. They both need to come up about five bucks IMO.

 

As for the bar owner who wants to circumvent the agent...these are the same folks that try on helmets in motorcycle stores and then order them online.

 

Wes

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I don't know what the license fees are in the US, but I've heard that they're pretty steep here in australia.

 

Such that the venue that has music once a month or even once a week either gives up on live music, or doesn't pay at all... Hardly a recipe for longevity.

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A lot don't. Or barely. In some states it's legal to pay a much lower minimum-wage to employees who earn tips. I believe federal law allows them to pay as low as $2.13 an hour for employees that receive tips. Not all states allow this, however.

That's a federal requirement, per the Fair Labor Standards Act, so it applies in all states. If an employee regularly receives $30 per month or more, they are considered a "tipped employee", and the law applies.

 

Employees are paid a wage of at least $2.13/hr, more if tips received do not total $5.12 an hour (based on the current minimum wage of $7.25).

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That's a federal requirement, per the Fair Labor Standards Act, so it applies in all states. If an employee regularly receives $30 per month or more, they are considered a "tipped employee", and the law applies.

 

Employees are paid a wage of at least $2.13/hr, more if tips received do not total $5.12 an hour (based on the current minimum wage of $7.25).

 

It may apply to all states, but many have their own minimum wage laws set higher. In both California and Nevada, tip employees have always earned at least the regular minimum wage for those states. I'm pretty darn sure of that, anyway.

 

Never worked a tip job, but I dated a lot of cocktail waitresses. :)

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