Tom Dunne: Money for nothing? Most musicians are very poorly paid 

The top acts might be raking it in, but the vast majority of other musicians earn surprisingly little for their endeavours 

A recent Musicians Union survey underlined how most people can't make a living from playing music fulltime. Picture: iStock

“Money for nothing and your chicks for free,” a man I spoke to last week once sang.

We band people changed Mark Knopfler’s lyric to “chips for free”. It sounded less, well, 1960s #Misefreisin, and was more realistic. Being au fait with Irish gig fees, a bag of chips – shared- sounded about right.