This is how it's done...

I want to share with you an email I just received from Jerry Rosen, a local jazz guitarist. Apparently he just got solicited by a company who was doing a Christmas party and wanted his music for the event - and wonder of wonders, they asked him to do it for "exposure", with no compensation (translation, for free). Rather than blow a gasket and tell them where to get off, I really liked how he handled this situation and I think it's an example we can all learn from. Not only did he end up resolving it to his interests, he created one more business owner out there who had a change of heart when it comes to paying for live music.

"My name is Jerry Rosen, and I play jazz guitar. I've been following the Pay The Band thing for a while now, and have to say it's caused me to question alot of my normal practices when it comes to dealing with the public and getting gigs. Anyway, I want to tell you about what just happened to me when a small company approached me to play their Christmas party. They were really nice and enthusiastic about it, and then the other shoe dropped. Yep, they wanted me to play for free, while energetically trying to prime me about all the great exposure I would get. My first impulse was, seriously, to tell them to shove it. I have a significant amount of equipment to haul around, the party was a considerable distance from home. Instead I bit my lip and rethought it. Here was an opportunity not only to at least try to get paid, but to educate someone who evidently had no idea that what I do (as a living) is a service that deserves the same consideration and respect as someone elses.

I first told them that I would love to play their event and was flattered they asked me (stoked their own importance first, how diplomatic!). Then I quickly followed with asking them why they didn't consider using music on CD. They said they much prefer a live person for the "feel" that cannot be replaced by canned music. Aha! There's my in. I told them I agree, there is nothing like live music and there is so much time, practice, equipment upkeep, blood sweat and tears that go into being a performer at their best. I followed that with the fact that our bills don't get paid any faster than theirs do, without compensation to do it. I stopped pressing there, and said if they like I could give them the names of a few other musicians who might be willing to play this event for free. There, my contact surprised me by saying no, they wanted me and she would see what she could do about compensating me. I couple of days later, they called back and said they came up with $350 in their party budget to pay me. I took the gig and thanked them once again.

What I learned from this were a few crucial things. One, don't be afraid to stand up for yourself. Say what needs to be said. Two, keep the focus on the positive when you are negotiating, like play up on how honored you are by the offer etc. Three, and this might be the most important: If you succeed in getting paid, you have just turned another heart and mind for the cause of "revaluing" live music.

I hope this serves some purpose, and hope its some kind of testament about how we can change minds as well as come our richer. Happy Holidays to you and yours,

J. Rosen


I think that about says it all.

Holiday gigs - Are you getting your due?

It seems like they move Christmas earlier every year. Now we don't simply have a Christmas holiday begin, but months of "hey Christmas is coming" before the actual period hits. If you are like me, on one level you want to scream if you see one more little white fur lined red cap on a counter clerk. But as musicians, this is supposed to be one of the cash crops of the year.

If you are, you know, getting paid.

As we saw with the Hogle Zoo ZooLights debacle (congrats to us for shutting that one down!), just because the Season of Giving is upon us does not necessarily mean wallets are open for performing musicians. In fact, our local history is that there are far more Scrooges around at that time, and the rest of the year, than not. Add to that the stinky economic times we are facing and it could really put the north pole cold on your Christmas revenues.

If you haven't already, you should be out scrambling for Christmas gigs yesterday. Many office and departmental Holiday parties have already booked their musicians by now, but you could still find some who haven't firmed them up. And here is the important part about booking gigs this year - do not let them plead poverty to you because of the economic downturn as an excuse to not pay you. Remind them politely that you are a part of the hurting economy as well, and the Christmas goose isn't magically put on your table just because you agreed to play for free at their office party. Most people will be surprisingly reasonable and accomodating if you reason with them as "one of the working multitudes". That way they can relate to your plight, because being business people, that is their plight too.

Oh, and don't forget to have your Holiday CDs in order. I've never played a private holiday event that didn't allow me to sell my CDs as well.

And lastly, here is another call to send me your candidates for listing on either The Worst of The Worst businesses and people for paying musicians, or The Best. I will be compiling both lists and making them a permanent feature here as soon as I get a few recommendations.

"Fundraiser" ripping off musicians again

Recently I ran across an ad for a "fundraising event" that caught my eye because - you guessed it - it is trolling for free live music. What made this one stand out is some of the big numbers floating around an event that is posing as so cash poor that they can't pay the musicians. For instance, they are charging $50 at the door. They are expecting 350+ people, and think they can raise $25,000. They are advertising gambling (which made me laugh because they are doing this thing in Provo, Utah).

Anyway, it smelled fishier than even I first thought. So thanks to a supporter of ours at Northern Lights Radio Society, I got on to the website of the organization putting this thing on, called The Great Life Foundation - which from all appearances looked like one of those new agey "life coach" scams. I knew if I dug around I could find what they were actually peddling, and how much they were soaking people for it. Eureka. If you go into the "classes" that they offer, take a gander at the fees. One class was $1685 per person.

Is this passing your sniff test? All this cash they are bringing in (and we have no idea how much of it actually will go to any charity, do we?) and they cannot cough up a few hundred bucks or so for a band?

Anyway, if you are interested:

Living Christmas Benefit
The Great Life Foundation
November 14th 7-11 pm
APX Headquarters 5132 North 300 West, Provo UT.

If you want to give these folks your feeling on asking for free live music, you can contact them at:
801-466-1222 or www.TheGreatLifeFoundation.org

SaltAir - A real stinker?

I just got notified about the venue "SaltAir". I've been to this place as a concert goer (clear back when KMFDM played there) but never as a performer. It didn't seem bad to me at the time, but apparently there are numerous complaints from performers there about the policies of the place. To wit -

They tag a "service fee" to the concert ticket. What 'service' is that about?

They charge you for parking and are eagerly waiting to tow your car if you don't leave in a big enough hurry.

Once you manage to get in they charge you a membership fee to get to the drinking area.

And, if I am not mistaken, they are a Pay to Play venue.

Now when I tabulate all these charges, I'm trying hard to come up with reasons that customers would go all the way down to that lake smelling place just to get robbed.

If anyone has had experiences like this, or to the contrary, please post in the comments or email me directly and we'll follow this one.

We've had our first success!

The final chapter in the Hogle Zoo ZooLights! debacle. A savvy participant on the talkbass.com forum has informed me that Hogle Zoo has cancelled its free live music at the event - thanks in large part to this blog and mostly those of you who called in or wrote in your complaints of how the musicians are treated. The director of this event who you have come to know is Cagney Smullen, abruptly delivered this information to a musician calling in to ask about the event. She said live music has been canceled due to too many complaints about musicians not being paid, and then hung up.

Congratulate yourselves!

The only down side of this is that I wish they had not erred on the side of greed and canceled the event completely, but used those university educated financial managers to figure out a way to get the performing musicians some sort of fee. But hey, it's a victory nonethless.

On the same talkbass.com forum I saw that we had a hand in canceling yet another free music event, but that wasn't specified. If I can get the particulars on that, I'll post about it.

Once again, great job, people. This is what organization and unity of purpose is all about. Now, we are known, and a force to be reckoned with.

Keep up the pressure!

Been thinking about "The List"

Some of you have written to me that it would be a good idea to come up with a list of places in their locale that make a habit of not paying musicians or requiring them to pay to play. I think it's a damn good idea we need to pounce on.

So, if you would be so kind, send me a list of such venues, and add to each one a personal experience or reason that they should be on the list. I will collect these and then post it as a sidebar on this blog for easy access. I'm thinking that if it gets filled out enough, we can start physically printing that list and posting around town, or handed out to the clientele of the venues themselves.

Remember the offenders need not be a nightclub alone, but a business or even a person. Please back it up with some specifics so we don't get in trouble with libel/slander.

Thanks for the great idea!

The Fire Spreads

I love the simple pleasures in life, but I really dig the bigger ones - like seeing an issue of importance to you catch on so fast with others. That's what's been happening in the scant few days since this blog was launched.

Looks like we've garnered some well-heeled support over at the excellent site GIGDOGGY, a place I'd definitely recommend for musicians of all walks to huddle about the issues that concern them. Props go out to them for writing us a glowing review that you can lay your eyes on here. Oh, and don't forget to mark them as one of your daily blog checks. They is good people.

Thanks also to Irminsul for the recommendation to GIGDOGGY. Keep harpin' on this one (you must get that all the time, sorry!)

UPDATE: ZooLights! (Hogle Zoo rip off)

I just got a communication from another local musician who agrees on how Hogle Zoo's Zoolights! debases musicians, but from what she tells me, this is just the tip of the iceberg on Hogle Zoo's community relations problems.

This musician's daughter (who was 15) worked at Hogle Zoo and was routinely overworked for her age - in violation of Utah labor laws. On top of that the management left these young girls alone, at night, for extended periods until they could be picked up from work. Apparently calls to management were just ignored. So add labor abuse to roster of Hogle Zoo's problems.

This is still developing so stay tuned...

********

BIG FREE EXPOSURE SHOW!

OK, this one just showed up in the last couple of days. Here was the post:

http://saltlakecity.craigslist.org/muc/883827915.html
FREE EXPOSURE DWNTWN !!!! (SLC DWNTWN)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A very popular place is going to have a HUGE Haloween party and we need a band. What kind of music do you play? This is NOT for pay, it is for fun. THX

Yeah, thanks. They are having a HUGE Hal(l)oween party at a "very popular place" - so huge and so popular that they cannot afford to pay a band. BUT, they really really want you to play.

Between fits of laughter, I discovered my favorite response to this ad:

Somebody should apply for the gig in question with the intention of flaking on the night of the show. I think it'd be hysterically funny to have a club that was expecting some band to play their enormous Halloween party for free...and then have the management thereof standing around with their dicks in their hands while several hundred people stood around in the silence, sipping their beers and wondering why the fuck they came to such a quiet party. LOL.

You'd have bragging rights as the band that fucked over "the one venue" (whose name we've not been made privy to) by not showing up to play the BIG FREE EXPOSURE SHOW! on Halloween. I'm enough of an asshole that I'd be willing to wear that badge with honor. Yes, you run the risk of getting a bad reputation among club owners in Utah, but since they're all evidently out to fuck musicians (read: us) over to begin with...well...fuck 'em. Do unto others before they have the opportunity to do unto you.

Awesome. It probably won't happen, but it was good to see that other musicians are cluing into the ethical stupidity of these episodes. If you saw this ad, please resist the urge to play it. If you happen upon this "BIG FREE EXPOSURE SHOW" on your Halloween night romps, find the coordinator or host and really give them a real fright - by asking them why they won't do the right thing and pay their musicians.

Zoolights! - Hogle Zoo's annual musicians' rip off

You like animals? You like Christmas? Sure, who doesn't. It sounds like a wonderful event for all during the holidays, doesn't it? Everyone except for the musicians.

For two years running now, the Hogle Zoo (Salt Lake City, Utah) hosts a holiday event called "ZooLights!"; an evening full of Christmas lights, music and animal exhibits. I first saw something about the event in the "musicians" section of the Salt Lake City craigslisting. "Cool", I thought "this sounds like it would be a nice event to play. So reading the entry, it was clear within ten seconds that Hogle Zoo was asking for the musicians to play (drum roll please) for free. Oh, they laid it on thick, all the talk about what a wonderful exposure opportunity this was, how many CDs you could sell etc etc. But none of it was thick enough to cover the fact that this thing was once again in a begathon for free live music. So I sat down and constructed a polite, respectful but to the point email to Cagney Smullen, the Special Events Assistant who was in charge of this stuff for ZooLights, email addressing my concerns as a musician being petitioned to do what I do for a living, for free. The response was a surprisingly curt, snarky dictum saying that they would not pay for live music and that I didn't have to play for the event if I didn't want to.

Wow.

I wrote her back and tried to be even more specific about the problems, and the ethics (or lack of them) in asking people to play for free at an event that Hogle Zoo was CHARGING the public for. The fee at that time was $6 an adult, $4 for children. I got back another response, completely refusing to address those issues and in even more snotty language declaring that I don't have to play there.

About that time, more musicians piped up about the situation on craigslist. And of course, a smattering of reactionaries who saw nothing wrong with musicians being ripped (that's to be expected - it is craigslist, after all). But the majority easily saw the problem and weighed in.
That was back in 2007. Well, Zoolights! is at it again. They have already advertised for this year's musicians rip off, and whats funny this time around is that no sooner did I dash off a quick protest on the musician's section....along with several others...about the repeat performance than I got this email from Ms. Smullen:

I realize you have an issue with this event, but please bring it up with me and let other people make their own decision. It states right up front that they will not be paid, if they don't want to play, they don't have to participate.

Thank you.

Cagney Smullin
Special Events Assistant
Utah's Hogle Zoo

I see. So, not only should I just shut my trap about Hogle Zoo devaluing the living of working musicians, I should keep my protestations to her desk - where they would be duly ignored. Sweet.

If you would like to give Ms Smullen a piece of your mind about this ludicrous situation under her watch, feel free to contact her at (801) 582-1631 ext 658, or csmullin@hoglezoo.org. If she is nasty to you, don't say I didn't warn you. But, it is very very important that we start pressuring businesses who pull this crap. Get their names out in the light of day.

Call or write as soon as, and as often, as you can.

Enough is enough

This is supposed to be a manifesto, but it keeps coming out like a declaration of war.

Maybe I should leave it that way. After all, working musicians have been under one barrage or another, for as long as they have been around. In Elizabethan England, they could have their fingernails pulled out, get thrown in prison, or die for playing the wrong song at the wrong place. Ivan the Terrible of Russia was known to drive his staff through the foot of some unlucky court singer, and if the shrieks of pain didn't sound like music to his ears, he would send the poor guy off to his death. The stuff of revolutions? Not back then. The musicians weren't unionized yet.

But even after the advent of the American Federation of Musicians, new problems sprouted up for those of us who were determined to make a living from our art. Over the last decade or two, the venues and practices of those who would hire musicians took a distinct turn for the worst. Nightclubs that had long paid bands for their set performances now decided to turn the tables and charge the bands to play there. On top of that, they dumped advertising costs on the bands as well - a task that venues used to insist they did themselves. Other businesses and organizations took notice, and asked musicians to perform at their functions for "the exposure", which was just code for "we don't want to pay you, so maybe someone will see you who will". Cultural pockets around the nation, like the one here in Utah, spreads the idea that music must be a labor of love, and not pay. They forgot that "labor" has "pay" sort of implied in the word. Add to all this a deteriorating US economy, which has more wallets snapping shut than ever before, and it turns into a giant headache - maybe even panic - for us who perform and or compose for a living.

Don't get me wrong; free music has a place, and every serious musician I know plays a certain amount of it each year. But they select where and for whom. It's like charity work, up to the artist. It is not merely expected that the artist won't ask for compensation. It is not, and never should be, a mere happy surprise to get paid. Serious musicians put in their time, their toil, their money for training and instruments and maintenance of those instruments, all as preequisites for doing what they do. Their "product" should no more be considered free than a service you'd get from a plumber, a painter or your lawyer.

After hearing the umpteenth story of a band or solo performer getting screwed at a job, or being asked for the enth time to play for free, and seeing fellow musicians merely grumble about it, we decided to launch PAY THE BAND. The focus is to share stories, gather information, spread awareness and change minds in the business community when it comes to fairly compensating working musicians. It's that simple. So if you are a musician, let's hear yours. If you are a music lover, we want your opinions too. If you are just a human with a conscience and sense of fair play, we want your support. If you are a business who wants to know more about this issue, we want to help.

It will take all of us to change the notion that all performers should do it for free. My bills won't all get paid with a mere "thanks to the fiddler".

Will yours?