Fair pay campaign for musicians
The Musicians’ Union (MU) has launched a new campaign calling for fair pay to musicians.
Maddy Radcliff, Campaigns and Public Affairs Officer at the MU, states “Working musicians are frequently being asked to work for nothing. It’s fair to say many engagers (someone booking a band for their wedding, village fete, festival, venues etc) don’t realise what they are asking for.
By asking musicians to work for free, they are forgetting years of training, years of practicing, years of playing rubbish gigs for rubbish money to get ‘experience’ for the CV, buying an instrument (often more than one), instrument care and other costs. Then there’s the event specific stuff which can include: putting the band together, rehearsing, creating a set list, taking time to learn any requests, travel time, expenses and childcare costs.
That’s why the MU have started a fair pay campaign Work Not Play. The MU is not just fighting for fair pay for its members, but against the commonly held view that musicians should work for free. That’s just not right. Event organisers wouldn’t ask the caterers to work for free. They wouldn’t ask bar staff. So how can they justify asking the performers? Musicians deserve to be paid fairly for their work. Is that really expecting too much?”
For more information etc click on this link to the Work Not Play website: http://www.worknotplay.co.uk/
For more information on the Musicians’ Union, visit their website: http://www.musiciansunion.org.uk/