Usually when I am contacted by e-mail about a prospective gig, the initial message consists of this question, sometimes a date, and that's about it. Now, before I give a "rate", I want to know the rough location of the gig, the type of venue, the type of event, the size of the room, the size of the crowd, etc. If I'm going around the corner to play for an hour in somebody's living-room for Grandma's birthday, I'm not going to charge the same as if I have to drive through heavy traffic for an hour, set up a sound system, to play in some huge, noisy barroom till 1 a.m. But I so consistently get this question about my "rates", that it makes me wonder if most other performing musicians just have a standard, default "rate" that they quote without second thought, and without knowing any details of the prospective gig. So, for those of you who are (small-time) professionals, what's your practice?
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