Kendall said... "The problem with being good at what you do is simple; they think it's easy and fun, so, you should do it for little or nothing."

Yup. That works for anything, music or otherwise.

A buddy of mine got so fed up with people sounding affronted at $45 per 45 minute hour, he doubled his price. He gets about seventy-five percent of the work he quotes, but you do the math.

Minds me of a funny (?) situation. A local musician has repeatedly asked me to show up at his gigs with Bodhran in tow and do some tunes with him and some solo stuff to spell him off.... no pay cause I'm "just banging on a drum." I could tell you a few more stories, but suffice it to say, (read : here's the moral of the story) if you are willing to bend over, a line has already formed.

Don't be afraid to charge what you feel you are worth. If you actually aren't worth what you charged, you'll find out and you'll charge less next time... no problem. The most important thing to remember is, once you quote, don't reduce your price, no matter what they say - beg - plead - whine - etc, because that's where you lose credibility, as a musician and as a businessperson.