By Armand Cabrera
Working for free is always a touchy subject for artists. For
the sake of this discussion let’s ignore requests from family and close
friends. That is a different situation and depending on your family dynamic or
relationship it can be a nightmare that has no easy answer. My opinion is to avoid
it whenever possible. If you must
succumb make it clear it is on your schedule and paying gigs always take
precedent.
Strangers are easier to handle. After all you aren’t being
paid so your time is better spent working on your own projects or trying to
improve your weaknesses than giving away services. Working for free includes
giving away your expertise to for-profit
corporations as a teacher, speaker or demonstrator.
Charities and causes are the exception. I believe non-profits need our support;
a for-profit corporation needs to compensate me though when they want a speaker
or presenter. Compensation doesn’t
always have to be in the form of monetary remuneration. It can be a trade for
services or advertising or merchandise. The key here is to get something to
show for your work and not buy into the idea of ‘exposure’ which nine times out
of ten is useless to you as an artist. Most people are well aware of the free
and low paying end of the market so the exposure you get is usually more of the
same kind of clients coming out of the woodwork. Not exactly a career builder.
When you are starting
out this attitude is more important than you think. New people want so badly to
get established as artists they are willing to do almost anything for a chance
at proving themselves. This is where most people get taken advantage of by unscrupulous
businesses. This type of work will actually impede you on your road to paying
work by taking up all your time if you let it. The experience you get from it won’t apply to
high paying jobs or better venues because the professionalism at the free level
is non-existent or very limited. Respect the profession and it will respect you,
limit your donations to charity.
