All year, I have been fond of saying that 2014 has been the best year for me, gig-wise and musical income-wise, since the recession in 2008. Part of the reason, I believe, is because although music (especially live music) and arts in general are the first things to take a hit when the economy tanks, they are also the slowest to recover. So I’m officially declaring this recession over 🙂

An interesting thing I just noticed, that may or may not have anything to do with this, is that instrument prices have dropped. As previously noted, the “Firebird bubble” is definitely over. In addition, ebay prices for Conn Connstellations had been steadily rising over the past few years, from the $600 I purchased mine for in 1996, to well up over $1000 (a few years ago it wasn’t uncommon to pay $1200 for a mint-condition 1960’s vintage Connstellation). But a brief survey of recent completed ebay auctions shows that we’re back down to 1996(!) prices, between $550 and $750. This seems counter-intuitive if the economy has “recovered” AND musicians are making more money (so they should be able to afford higher prices), but maybe it’s just the economy saying “ok, let’s be realistic here…”