Here’s an exchange I was forwarded (on condition of anonymity) that, while being both aggravating and darkly amusing, reminds me how easily non-musician administrators forget that we performers are actually trying to make a living from this kind of work. It’s a job–honest!
With Administrators like These….
I’m chalking up the attitude exhibited by the administrators in this email exchange to ignorance of the actual economic situation of their musician employees. This institution also happens to pay quite a meager per-hour scale to their employees, require unpaid meetings on a regular basis, and do a host of others things that make me think that this is an attitude that is unfortunately ingrained in this particular institution. I’ve changed names and omitted any revealing references (though I’d love to expose the school I’m actually talking about….I’ll be good….). This correspondence, while only bouncing between a few individuals, was also sent to the entire institution’s faculty, which is how I got it….and no, I don’t work at this place! Never have. Also, I couldn’t help editorializing just a bit–my remarks are in italics during the exchange.
Do you have any contractors you work with, music school or otherwise, who ask for “favors” like these? Leave a comment and let us know!
You Play Now!
Administrator: On _______, 2008, [Retail Outfit #1] is celebrating [Random Anniversary]. In honor of this milestone, there will be a concert in the store on _________ from 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM — first floor by the fountain. A grand piano will be available.
[Retail Outfit #1] has invited [Anonymous Music School] faculty members to perform– string ensembles, piano trios, solo piano, singers… etc. This will not include any student performances—it is strictly for professional musicians.
If you have any interest in participating in this community event, please email me so I can give you contact information.
Musician #1: Is there any pay offered to musicians for this event? If not, I would think it would be a disservice to the music profession to have professional musicians provide free entertainment to solely benefit a for-profit business.
Note the “crafty dodge” employed in the response–a classic administrative deflection tactic intended to befuddle the poor helpless simpleton musician mind:
Administrator: Dear [Musician #1],
As I have told all of the musicians who have expressed interest in this event, you will need to contact [Random Administrator #2] to find out about compensation. She never mentioned any type of stipend to me, and as I stated in my email, it is a community service event for the patrons of the store.
While the event does benefit [Retail Store #1], the excellent visibility helps create greater awareness of our faculty and of [Anonymous Music School] for those same patrons. Hopefully, that awareness translates into inquiries and future registrations. While I agree with you that compensation seems appropriate, I am sure [Retail Store #1] sees it as a way for musicians to serve the community, while promoting their talent and their school. I suspect she invited other community music school faculty too.
[Musician #1], please contact [Random Administrator #2] to get more information about the event. Thanks.
What’s that? It’ll create “excellent visibility” for the institution? Yippee! So do concerts…and I get paid for those. “Serving the community,” you say? Are the caterers volunteering their services? How about the security guards? The store employees working late?
Pay up, cheapskates. By neither securing payment from the store or offering up some compensation yourselves, you’re sending a message: our faculty have nothing better to do than to drive to downtown Chicago and play for free, with some possible…exposure? For what–some more random young students at this music school, which, by the way (this is lovely!), takes OVER 50% of what parents pay the school for lessons as “administrative costs.”
You take over 50% of all lesson payment for these “administrative fees,” yet you can’t cough up $100 as an honorarium for musicians for an event that will benefit your institution? Classy….and you make this guy to yet more unpaid busywork to even find out about compensation? You can’t just do it yourself? OK…gotta cool down…NOW I remember why I vowed never to work for these guys….
Musician #1: I called [Random Administrator #2] and she said that there is NO compensation – not even parking or a gift certificate. While I also believe in promoting the awesome faculty of [Anonymous Music School], this is an inappropriate way to do this. [Retail Store #1] would not think of asking a practice of doctors to come and provide free medical assistance to their employees, nor would they ask an accountant firm to perform services for free. They would not ask secretarial students to file receipts or ask that bartenders and wait-staff to work for free just because it is their [Random Anniversary].
Music teachers have bills to pay and families to support. Our teachers have spent tens of thousands of dollars on their musical education and spent way over that amount in practice hours honing their craft. If we are a music school, we need to teach our faculty as well as our students that our craft is worth a price.
Musician #2: I completely agree with [Musician #1] on this. The public at large does tend to subscribe to the notion that musicians will work for nothing for the publicity. If [Retail Store #1] wants musicians to entertain their patrons, or if [Anonymous Music School] wants musicians to entertain at [Retail Store #1] for the benefit of [Anonymous Music School], then someone should provide compensation. In no profession, outside the performing arts, are professionals expected, or even asked, on a regular basis to perform their professional duties free of charge. Personally, I do a lot to provide community service, but I do not subscribe to the notion that musicians should perform for nothing. Unfortunately, there are still too many professional musicians willing to work for nothing. So the public continues to subscribe to this notion.
Think they got paid?
Nope.
We’re Lower than Dirt, Huh?
During my educational certification program these past few years, I’ve had the opportunity to learn more about the differences between a professional (doctor, lawyer) career path and a paraprofessional (paralegal paramedic) career path, focusing on how teaching is in some aspects a true profession (highly regimented, standardized, governing boards, re-certification at regular intervals) and in other aspects a paraprofession (not self-regulated, practitioners held in lower esteem than other professionals, debatable body of unique knowledge). We’ve discussed this profession/paraprofession dichotomy endlessly in class, writing papers and considering how exactly teaching fits into these two paradigms.
Well, guess what? My other career of musician apparently isn’t even a paraprofession by many people’s standards! So, then, what is it? Some sort of circus freak show? Why are we treated like trained monkeys by our own administrators, the very people who should be advocating for us?
What bothers me most about this interchange is the callous nonchalance demonstrated by the administrator I quoted. Believe it or not, there actually is a way to approach musicians and ask them to play for free. It’s not this approach! Also, this kind of event, which is not a benefit/fundraiser but really just a gig, contracted out by a retail chain (and it’s one of the biggest chains in the country, by the way) trying to “cheap out” and hire musicians from the local music school. After all, it’ll be a noisy event, and these musicians are really serving as window dressing, like dancing bears in a toy store; who cares how the musicians sounds, and why ay them if you can get a bunch of warm bodies for free?
An Anomaly?
Is this encounter just an anomaly…or have you had similar experiences? Let us know!
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Jason,
Thanks for this article and thanks for your blog – an outstanding resource.
The first thing that comes to my mind in this situation is the importance of AFM membership and also the great value of having a musicians’ union.
As a professional bass player and local AFM officer, I’m dealing with this attitude in various shapes and sizes all the time. We must constantly counter this by educating the public, and our fellow musicians of the value of our work.
One thing I’ve been meaning to ask you is have you considered interviewing for your blog some of the prominent bass players who serve the music community through the AFM?
Off the top of my head, there is Bruce Ridge, chair of ICSOM and a member of the NC Symphony bass section; Nathan Kahn, AFM negotiator and member of the CO Springs bass section; and Debbie Newmark, Director of Symphonic Electronic Media and free lance bass player in New York.
Thanks again for all you have done for the bass community with your blog.
How wonderful of this school to both throw their doors open to the public and reach out to their teachers! And the musical content providers didn’t even have to pay for the privilege of performing. As we move into the 21st century, this type of activity is what will place this school at the forefront of institutional branding and allow them to confidently stride into the future of music education!
with all due respect, you have it completely wrong. as a full-time professional NON-musician, believe me, i’m asked to do stuff all the time (work extra hours to make nice for a client, to help build a presentation, to do community work, etc) for no pay to better the whole of the organization for which i work. i dare say that every profession requires this to some degree. ask anyone who is in the financial or legal world how many hours a week they work at their supposed 40-hour/week job. (and, yes, of course they are well compensated, but so are those at the top of the music profession as well.) i dare say even our beloved gary karr, etc, works for no pay or a very low honorarium sometimes – if it’s for a speaking engagement (with musical illustration or whatever). again, i mean all this with due respect: your website is a tremendous resource for bassists. however, i think your attitude stinks. and quite frankly, if these are the kinds of emails you are writing, no wonder you are finding it difficult to get paid. i certainly wouldn’t hire anyone with that kind of attitude – and if anyone on my staff sent me an email asking about overtime if i needed them to, for instance, work at a job fair on a saturday, and it was their first email response to the request, and they brought up their college tuition in that email, i would be really, really perturbed. i am in no way saying that musicians (or anyone) should be taken advantage of, nor am i saying you don’t have a valid point, but – seriously – ease up dude. it’s a little intense.
Why not leave your name?
These musicians are not salaried–they’re working for $35 an hour, and being asked to play for free for an institution that takes over 50% of a musician’s hourly rate as an “administrative cost” is insulting. These are the people that aren’t at the top of the musical heap–they’re working for low compensation as independent contractors, and being asked to volunteer services in this instance is insulting.
I do things for free all the time, but I pick and choose, and I would choose not to get into this situation. By the way, I DON’T have “trouble” getting work–I’m just trying to point out inequity in the freelance biz.
If you’re going to write things like:
“i think your attitude stinks. and quite frankly, if these are the kinds of emails you are writing, no wonder you are finding it difficult to get paid. i certainly wouldn’t hire anyone with that kind of attitude”
…you should have the courage to leave your name.
i want peon job. i am very hard worker and hounst person