TWO (well, all right, three) THINGS I WANT TALENT BUYERS TO
KNOW
1.
Actually, 1a and 1b. Musicians simply want gigs, and fair payment for the gigs.
a. Musicians, like
other hard-working people, know that we are doing something worthwhile. We want
to do what we are good at, share it, and be recognized for it.
Golfers want to
golf, carpenters want to make things, merchants want to sell goods. Musicians want to gig. It’s what we do.
The difference
between most musicians and most other hard-working people is that musicians
have to ask much more frequently than others for the opportunity to do our
thing, and then depend on someone else’s whim to be given that opportunity.
When we don’t get the opportunity, despite our strongest efforts on both an
artistic and a business level, we get disappointed, and sometimes that
disappointment turns to resentment.
Can you understand
that, Mr/Ms Artistic Director? If you
can understand that, can you please show that you understand it?
b. Musicians, like other hard-working people,
want to get paid fairly for what
we do. We want to know that what we’re doing is worth doing. Getting paid a
fair amount for a gig is one way of being told this.
So many times,
musicians get told, “We can’t pay you, but think of the exposure you’ll get.”
Or “This freebie will be really good for your career.” Or “You have to look at
it as the cost of doing business.” Or
“We’re running a free festival, so you can only get a pittance for playing.”
Those things may
indeed be true. But musicians can’t buy things to eat with those comments. You
can’t say things like that to the sound company at your concert, but for some
reason it’s okay to say them to musicians.
What constitutes fair pay ought to
be a matter for negotiation between
the talent buyer and the musician.
But so often it is not. Most often, it’s
a matter of the talent buyer saying. “We will pay you this much. Period.” If
the talent asks for more, the result is usually the same as the result that
Oliver Twist got when he asked for more. It also usually ends up with the
talent buyer saying he/she can’t afford to pay more. The musician must either take the offer or
walk away from the gig; in either case, the musician is the loser.
Do
you see, Mr./Ms Artistic Director, why this upsets musicians? If so, can you
please try not to treat musicians that way?
2.
Musicians want
to be treated with respect. This means several things.
a. First, it
means being acknowledged as a physically
existing, sentient, being. I apply for your festival, therefore I exist. To
prove that I exist, I need you to acknowledge me. Send me some kind of
notification that you’ve received my app. Send me some kind of notification
that I didn’t make your shortlist, or the final cut, or whatever.
b. Next, it
means being given a contract that we both
agree to, that treats me as well as you with respect, and that is adhered to by
both sides.
i.
Every musician can tell a story about signing a contract for a show (festival,
concert, coffee house, whatever) and then having some part of that contract
ignored, or modified without agreement, by the talent buyer. What is more
upsetting even than that is that there is usually no recourse for the musician
except to walk away from the gig—and lose whatever the pay is for the gig.
ii.
Leaving aside the matter of fair pay as referred to previously, every musician
knows how difficult it is to get a talent buyer to modify the buyer’s contract
at the request of the musician. Signing
a contract for a folk festival is usually a matter of receiving the festival’s
contract, signing it, and returning it. There isn’t much negotiation as to the
terms. Sometimes, yes, it is possible to get a special request agreed to and
incorporated into the contract; much more often, the response is that it can’t
be done.
c. Then it
means that musicians will all be treated
equitably. That doesn’t mean, for example, that a young folkie doing his
first festival set will automatically get a headline position right beside a
well-established, well-known, and popular act.
i.
What it does mean, though, is that each act should get the same information,
the same opportunity, the same level of honesty, as every other act. One
festival I am familiar with declined to hire a local act one year because, the
AD said, that act had been hired the previous year, and the festival wanted to
keep up a standard of variety. But the festival did hire another local act for
three years in a row. That's disrespect.
d. One other
meaning is that musicians don’t wish to
be treated as though we are the least important factor in the equation of a
show.
i.
Someone wrote that musicians are not the centre of a festival—communities are.
To some extent that’s true. But try this. Ask a fair sample of festival-goers
what they think the primary attraction of a folk festival is. Is it the beer
garden, the fresh air, the food court, the craft tents, the children’s
activities, something else? Many will say yes to one or another of these things,
of course. But the majority will either refer directly to the music, or connect
the beer garden or the children’s area or something else with the music. Like:
“I enjoy the music in the open air.” Or “I just go for the beer and the music.” Or “I get to hang with my friends and listen
to a weekend of great music.”
So
please don’t treat musicians as though we count for less than those other
factors. If there were no music, would
there be a concert? Folk festival? Coffeehouse? Beer garden? Children’s area?
So, to summarize.
Festival artistic directors and other talent buyers, please hear this:
Musicians
want gigs.
Musicians
want to be paid fairly.
Musicians
want to be respected.
Is there anything wrong with any of those desires?