The financial side of making a living on the double bass

Nobody hands you a budget when you decide to play the double bass for a living. I learned the costs the way most of us do, one surprise invoice at a time. Musician financial planning sounds dull next to practicing excerpts. The players who keep working treat the instrument as a small business, and the bass is only its first line item.

Insurance, travel, conventions, and auditions are the costs that surprise new players. The tax bill and the uneven income you grow into.

Insuring a bass worth more than your car

Your homeowner’s policy will not cover an instrument you earn money with. I found that out reading the exclusions after a near miss in a parking garage, and the wording was right there in black ink. A professional bass is worth more than the car most of us drive to the gig, so the exposure is serious. Standalone instrument coverage fixes that, and these are the terms:

Premium. 1-2 percent of the insured value a year.
A $25,000 bass. About $250-$500 a year.
Valuation. Agreed value, set in the policy.
Bows. Scheduled separately from the instrument.
In transit. Worldwide coverage, shipping and flights included.

A fine bow can cost as much as a student bass, which is why it gets its own line on the schedule. Specialist carriers like Clarion or Heritage write these policies; a general agent cannot. The instrument insurance cost is minor against a year of gig income, and the coverage follows the bass onto the plane.

Getting the bass from one city to the next

A double bass will not fly in a cabin, and most students learn this the expensive way. The 2012 federal law on airline musical instrument policy gave guitarists and violinists a cabin guarantee, once their cases fit overhead. Bassists got nothing usable from it. A flight case heavy enough to protect the instrument breaks the size and weight limit for a single seat. The bass travels as freight or stays home. A bass crosses the country one of four ways.

Hard flight case. $1,500-$4,000, and 80-120 pounds loaded.
Air freight, one way. $400-$1,200 by distance.
Checked oversize baggage. $150-$300 each way, where accepted.
Renting at the destination. $50-$150 for the week.

Double bass shipping through a freight forwarder will beat checked baggage for a fragile instrument, and the policy you already carry covers it in transit. Most large events arrange rentals through a local shop, the ISB convention among them. Build a bass player travel budget around renting at each stop. Players who tour all year leave their own instrument at home.

What a convention week costs

The 2013 ISB Convention filled the week of June 2-8 at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester. Recitals and competitions packed the days, with an exhibition hall downstairs. A week like that costs plenty once you total the pieces. The costs break into a handful of categories.

Registration. $250-$450 for members, less for students.
Lodging. $40-$80 a night in the Eastman dorms.
Travel to Rochester. Airfare into ROC, plus ground.
Meals. $30-$60 a day.
Competition entry. $50-$150 per event.

Music convention expenses reach four figures for the week, and that figure lands before the rental bass waiting at the other end. Students should hunt for the early registration deadline and the dormitory option, since the two together can halve the week’s cost.

Auditions on your own dime

An orchestra will not cover your travel to the audition. You pay to get yourself and your excerpts to the city, and the next opening costs the same if the first comes up short. One trip means the following, before you play a note:

Airfare and ground. Set by route and date.
Hotel. One or two nights near the hall.
Audition deposit. $25-$100, refunded when you appear.
Local bass rental. Cheaper than shipping for a short trip.

Audition travel costs reach into the thousands for anyone chasing several openings a year, so players cluster trips by region when the calendar cooperates. A deposit returned at the door still ties up cash for weeks, which is worth remembering when three auditions land in the same month.

Taxes the orchestra never withholds

Gig checks arrive whole, with nothing held back, which feels generous until April. Freelance musician taxes include the self-employment tax, 15.3 percent of net earnings, layered on top of regular income tax. Set aside a quarter of every check and file estimates four times a year. A working player deducts most of what the bass costs anyway.

The instrument. Expensed or depreciated under the equipment rules.
Strings and repairs. Every set and bridge adjustment.
Insurance premiums. The policy in full.
Travel and mileage. Every audition and gig you drive or fly to.
Lessons and scores. Continuing study counts.

Keep the receipts in one place from January. A year of string changes and toll roads is impossible to reconstruct in April.

Buying the next instrument and surviving the lean months

Few players buy the next bass out of savings. A music equipment loan through a string shop or a specialty lender spreads a $20,000 instrument across 3-5 years. The interest counts as a deductible business expense. Read the term and the rate before you sign, the same as any other financing.

Gig income budgeting is the skill that separates the players who last from the ones who quit. The money arrives at irregular intervals, a wedding one month and a pit orchestra the next. Open a holding account, deposit every payment into it, and pay yourself a fixed amount on the first of the month. The buffer covers the empty weeks of August and the slow stretch after the holidays.

Grants that cover what gigs cannot

Arts grant funding will cover what gig money never stretches to, a better instrument or a summer of study abroad. State and regional arts councils fund individual musicians, and the ISB awards scholarships of its own. Plenty of that money goes unclaimed for lack of applicants. The society’s competitions carry cash prizes, and several scholarships exist to send students to the convention who could not otherwise afford the trip.

I keep a spreadsheet now, one column for every expense the bass creates and one for every check it brings in. The habit took an afternoon to build and has paid for itself several times since. Treat the instrument as a business from your first paid gig, and the surprises stop being emergencies.