In this video, Wendy Day discusses the critical transition for emerging musicians from offering services and performances for free to charging for their work. She shares her own 28‑year career timeline—six years before earning any income and ten years before supporting herself—to illustrate how long the unpaid phase can last. The core of the talk centers on strategic decision‑making: using low‑paid or free shows to break into new geographic markets (e.g., Memphis, Jackson) and then gradually raising rates as demand solidifies. Day emphasizes that pricing must be driven by market feedback—once a consistent booking price emerges, artists can incrementally increase fees. She stresses that the choice of when to stop giving away work is an internal, goal‑based decision rather than a one‑size‑fits‑all rule, and that artists should balance short‑term revenue with long‑term brand expansion.
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Hi guys, you know, I know that, um, when you're just starting out, we do a lot of stuff, all of us, those of us behind the scenes and, um, you guys who are artists, we do a lot of stuff for free. And I think that there comes a time where you have to decide whether you're doing this just for the fame and building your brand or whether you're actually trying to make money doing this, where you could do this for a living and feed your family. So, um, that's what I want to talk about today, is free versus monetizing. And I can't, I can't really tell anybody when to start monetizing. You get to a point where you get enough renown and your buzz is strong enough that you can actually start charging for what you're doing. And that's the goal, is to get to the point where you can monetize this and you can make a living doing this. I've noticed that with newer artists, sometimes, um, you guys are a little bit nervous to ask for money or to put a price on what you do. And I don't know whether that comes from the fear that you're not going to get what you're asking for or if you just don't have enough value, you don't place enough value in what you're doing, or if this industry can be a little bit heartless and not want to pay people for what they do. You know, when I first started in the music industry, it took me 6 years to really start making money. I just didn't feel like I knew enough to be able to charge people for what I did. I mean, I was way wrong, but I definitely knew enough to start charging. But I just felt like I didn't know enough to really start charging folks. And then even after I did that, it took me 10 years to make enough money to be able to support myself. I'm at year 28 right now. So I look back on it, and while I have no regrets, and if I had it to do all over again, I'd probably do the same things, but there comes a point when you want to be able to quit your day job as an artist and start making a living doing this. I'm assuming that most of you are doing this if you're part of the music business and you're watching these videos on how to make money with your music. I'm guessing that you want to at some point make a living doing this, and that's where you've got to start deciding when you have certain opportunities, are you going to keep doing stuff for free, or are you going to start charging people for what you do? Now, all that to say, there are times where even when you're making money doing this, you're going to want to do stuff for free, and there's certain charities that you may want to, um, offer your services for free to, or Um, when we're expanding into new markets, sometimes we'll do shows for free even though the artist is already making money. And let me give you an example of what I mean by that. So let's say that you are working Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, and South Carolina, and you're somewhere around $3,500 a show or $5,000 a show or even $7,500 a show. And you get a call from somebody in Memphis who wants to book you, but in Memphis they're only willing to pay you $1,500 or $2,000 because you're not that big there yet. So you have to decide, okay, you're going to give up a Friday night or a Saturday night where you could be making $7,500 in Macon or Columbus, Georgia, or Columbia, South Carolina to go do a show for $1,500 or $2,000 in Memphis? And the answer would be yes, absolutely, because you want that new market. You want to be able to open up your fan base in Memphis, and there's no way you can get $5,000 or $7,500. People just don't really know who you are there yet, so you're going to charge less, or you might do a show for free if you're trying to get into bigger markets. Like Jackson, Mississippi is an awesome market for making money as a rapper. So if you want to start getting paid shows in Jackson, you might need to go into Jackson and do a free show at first just to prime the marketplace and let them know who you are and show them what your show is and you have value. So this is all business decisions that you're going to make based on what your long-term goals are. And if your goals are to do this for a living and expand nationally, even though you always start out regionally because you can't afford to market and promote to the entire nation, you know, unless you're a multimillionaire and independently wealthy, um, in which case go for it. But if you're starting out like most of us where your budget is relatively limited, you want to start out regionally and grow nationally. You're going to have to make decisions about what you do for free and what you don't. And Please don't misunderstand what I'm saying, because when people don't know who you are, you're gonna have to do a whole lot of shit for free in the beginning. It's just that you're gonna make— need to make a decision at some point about where you draw the line, when you're gonna start getting paid and when you're not just gonna keep doing stuff for free. So, um, you and your team can make that decision. It's definitely an internal decision. It's not something that I can sit here and tell you when to charge or when not to. To be honest with you, I have a really hard time with my own clients unless a song really catches and people start calling in to book them at a certain price. And then it's easy to figure out, you know, what price to charge because that's what the offers are. Um, and then growing it becomes easy because you start getting a lot of calls and you see that you're being booked a lot at one price, so you raise it like $500 or $1,000. And, and you see what the market can bear. But it's that beginning, it's when you start to charge that it's hard to decide when to do that. And we all have difficulty doing that, but it— there comes a point where you're going to have to stop doing stuff for free and you're going to have to start setting a price. Okay guys, thanks for tuning in. This was not an easy one to talk about because there is no set easy answer for this. It's got to come based on what your marketplace can bear and what your goals are as an artist. Okay guys, bye!
