"Pay for Free" actually means "Pay to Play"! If you add up your annual overheads as a musician - Public Liability Insurance, Depreciation on instruments and kit, Instrument Insurance, wear and tear (strings, rosin, picks etc), web site registration, and divide the resulting sum by the number of gigs you do a year, for my wife and I working as a duo, that comes to at least £20 per gig before we leave the house. Then you add your variable costs like travel, parking, refreshments (assuming these are not paid by the venue)So getting £40 per gig in a nursing/residential care home is probably just covering our costs, which is fine if you are enjoying it!