Press
Club Musicianship in Seattle
From The Stand:
It’s not easy being a club musician in Seattle, no matter what genre or type of music you play. We are the working-stiff musicians. We are the ones exploited by club owners and promoters who want a great show, but who don’t want to pay the piper.
We routinely play three or four-hour gigs and only get paid what the club makes from the admission of patrons at the door, or even less sometimes. The current way we are paid for our work, makes our lives and our careers unsustainable. Getting receipts from the door brings our pay to about 50 cents an hour — way below the minimum wage. To us, one show means hours of preparation time, rehearsal time, equipment purchase or rental, travel time back and forth from the gig, parking, demo taping and much more. We get exploited for the love of the music. But for us, hope reigns supreme. Maybe one show will bring us a contract, or maybe we will have a good night where pay and atmosphere meld together.
The current situation in most music venues in Seattle is unfair, unsustainable and doesn’t actually support the creation of great music or support a family. But we know local musicians are the life of the city. National groups come and go, are expensive to see and do not represent the inner core of a town. Local musicians are the town’s heartbeat.
But that heartbeat can’t sustain life the way club musicians are paid now. We are expected to bring our own fans to shows by doing the majority of the marketing and advertising, we are expected to perform for almost no wages, provide hours of entertainment, call the club booker 20 or 30 times to get the booking and then be happy with the proceeds we bring in at the door. Sometimes we even have to pay for the doorman out of our percentage of door proceeds, and then we are expected to go home happy… and then try it all again for a re-booking.
Analysis: Weighing Fair Trade As It Hits Portland Music Scene
Fair trade music has come to Portland, Oregon. A group of musicians has organized to establish guidelines for paying live musicians and has received some local coverage at the Willamette Week (seen via Nashville Cream, which has a lively comments section on the topic). The 200-plus members of Fair Trade Music seek a uniform basis for determining payments to performers.
Fair Trade Music: Can Portland provide fair wages for working musicians?
The health of Portland’s thriving music scene is evident when you’re waiting in line Saturday night to see your favorite band, clutching a sweaty $5 bill to hand to the doorman.
But not enough of that cover charge goes to the acts, says a group of 200-plus musicians who have organized as the Fair Trade Music movement.
Bands, Where Oh Where Does Your Door Money Go?
From the Nashville Scene:
Hey kids, ever play a show at a club? Then you know how the door money always goes to the sound guy before it goes to you. What if it wasn’t like that? Well, funny you should ask, because Portland, Oregon’s music scene says it doesn’t have to be. In an interesting article from a local alt-weekly, writer Amanda Ingram lays out the deets:
Many folks in Portland’s music community think that, just like coffee farmers’ wages, musicians should be able to demand a fair wage for their performances. But what do the club owners think?