Good Exposure? Good Grief!

I seem to be hearing it all over the place lately:
  

"We can't afford to pay you much (or at all), but it will be good exposure for you and your band!" 

Now, not that I don't appreciate the importance of exposure, but how many times can you play the same venue, in front of the same people for the same exposure? If the same people that were there the first time show up the second and third time, with few or no new faces... Would you chew the same stick of gum for three days running and still expect it to be fresh?


Consider a few things before you ask me to play for free:

• I'm not only volunteering my time, but the time of my band mates and our families as well. 
• I'm also volunteering our equipment and our vehicles (not to mention the gas that goes into them).

Starting to add up, right? I'm not done.

Now figure that I'm not only volunteering the time that we're on stage playing, but the:

• time it takes us to load up our equipment (which isn't cheap to maintain, by the way)
• time it takes us to get to the venue
• time it takes us to set up
• time it takes to tear down and pack up
• time to get home
• time to unload the equipment

All of that is on top of the time we spend playing and spending our money in your venue.

So, the next time you ask me to play for free, or next to free for anything other than a charity fund raiser (which is an entirely different thing), don't be surprised when I roll my eyes and tell you no thanks.  We just can't afford that kind of exposure.