January 23, 2008
Are Pricey Practice Spaces Driving Bands Out of New York?
There are no "garage bands" in New York City. Unlike some of their suburban counterparts, musicians here have to pay the piper for their practice spaces, which can be hard to find in a city where every no-frills square-foot costs something. In fact, to really be a "garage band" in New York, one may end up paying $225K a year.
The NY Times reports on where musicians city-wide are rehearsing these days, and how it's becoming more tedious to find a space. The bands you see filling up bills at local venues every week are generally paying between $10 to $50 an hour for their practice space, a figure The Times got from nycMusicSpaces.org...but even those figures seem on the low end.
“I would love to have a space just for my band,” said Kara Suzanne, a singer and a songwriter who lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn. “It’s just too expensive.” She pays $60 a month for a four-times-a-month share in a rehearsal room near the Smith-Ninth Street stop on the F line in Brooklyn.If a band doesn't want to lug their equipment back and forth, and rent out the space monthly (instead of hourly) it can cost upwards of $300/month.
In a study released today, NYC Performing Arts Spaces concluded (after surveying 300 musicians) that there is a lack of affordable rehearsal space (surprise, surprise). The Times also mentions they "concluded that unless the city arranged tax incentives similar to those it offers for film and television production, there would be fewer places for musicians to appear." They added there may be fewer performers as bands begin to move to less pricey places. Are Brooklyn bands becoming an endangered species?
Photo of a Brooklyn practice space via Razorbern's Flickr.
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way too expensive.
Hmmmmmmmmm... Nope!
Why does Gothamist simply re-iterate everything I read in then NY Times? It's getting a bit old. *sigh*
It is becoming way too expensive to have a practice space.
My band pays $375 for a space in Williamsburg.
wow. i can't find a monthly cheaper than 500 in jersey. i might have to move rehearsals to the city!
besides, $10 is CHEAP! i think i'm more shocked that people didn't know about musicians being broke, spending money on booze, instruments and rent.
375 divided by four people is less than $100.
get a fucking job.
Well I know one place musicians won't be practicing-- in the apartment next to mine. Those assholes are getting evicted for their constant noise violations. Thanks, landlord, it only took a year!
move to baltimore
hey disconnec,
are you trying to say people with jobs can divide? by the power of greyskull, I can throw my calculator in the garbage! Imma get me a job!
Dear "Get a Fucking Job" poster,
Bands are frequently on tour and cannot have conventional day jobs. Band members must freelance, temp or do manual labor jobs that they can take leave from on a frequent basis. This usually makes their income inconsistent or nonexistant. Band members don't have health insurance (another casualty of not having a day job), so they must pay full price for their health care. A band must have a vehicle to drive their gear around to gigs, which they must purchase, maintain, and fill with fuel. It's rare for a band to play a show and get a huge payout afterward. Usually a band will struggle for a long time playing for little or nothing ($10, $30 a show) before they can start living on proceeds just from the band (if they can ever do this). $100 a month is a huge, huge investment to a band member struggling in this city, and in order to play better as a team and get bigger, better paying shows, guess what - those bands have to practice.
I know it's insane to try to talk sense to anyone who thinks they're a wise ass on the internet, but please - a tiny bit of thought and empathy goes a very long way.
@10: Maybe that's the problem actually, trying to make a living playing music. I find that I enjoy playing music, and playing in bands when there is no pressure to 'make it'. Everyone in my band has a decent day job, and even though we record and play shows, we don't have any pressure to attempt to pay our bills this way. 99.9% of bands will never make a living off music, that's a fact. So if you enjoy music for teh sake of itself, I would suggest getting a day job, and playing in your spare time. You'll be suprised how much better the music sounds, and how much more honest your playing when the financial pressure is removed.
Best advice I ever heard, 'Don't Quit Your Night Job'.
while you're mostly true, emilydickinson, i think the phrase "make a living" off music gets a little misunderstood. when i say i want to make a living playing music, it means just that. not trying to be a superstar and have a few million dollar homes, but having music as my only job, one that can provide a sustainable living.
it is indeed difficult to completely immerse oneself into an "art" if there is too much worry about how much it well sell.
Seriously, wah. Any artist who expects to be able to subsist on his art needs to get a fucking clue, get a fucking job, and quit whining about not being able to afford 80 bucks a month for a practice space. Shit, split the space with another band and you're down to forty bucks. Can't afford 40 a month? GET. A. FUCKING. JOB. Seriously, 40 dollars is 4 hours of waiting tables or two hours of food delivery.
And if you're so self-absorbed that you think the world owes you a fucking practice space to make your art, I'd rather you move to baltimore.
Bands as all other types of music have been and should continue to be a strong artistic release for us all in NYC - whether we go see a band play or are a musician and music is your passion we should all have a place to listen to it and have the artists rehearse.
What's that building near PS1 - it's like all artist studios - the city should designate a place for bands to be able to come and rehearse similar to that.
What is sad though is that as more condos go up less and less spaces to see live music exist in NYC.
This would explain why there're no bands coming out of Brooklyn (or NYC in general) anymore.
Wait, there are? Never mind.
Um, I live in Atlanta and have to pay 425/month for a space. Yeah, we all have to have dayjobs. Sounds like we need to move up there and save some money.
people are losing their homes in this country and this is what the ny times chooses to focus on.
sometimes i think new york has its collective head up its ass.
@BMMDan: In understand what you mean, but realistically it is nearly impossible to make a living in a band, and live in NYC. Sure, I understand that you don't want to be a 'Rockstar' and walk around with a diamond encrusted chalice a la Lil' Jon, but even a reasonable llving in NYC will run you at absolute minimum, $35,000 USD a year. Say yoru band is a three piece, that means your band needs to generate $105,000 USd a year so the three of you can live here. How is a band going to generate that much loot? I'm just saying, those are the economic facts. I wish things were otherwise, but the days of the $100 NYC loft are long gone, so NYC probably isn't the place to be a band trying to make it. Philly is a much better choice: ultra cheap rents, good music scene and close to the NYC venues.
There's too many groups of half-talented friends who call themselves "bands" anyway. Natural selection!
good point, good point. i would never move to philly though. as obnoxious as i think nyers are, people from philly are that much worse.