Part I: building a better music scene.
Jake Pegg, Fair Trade Music PDX
I've been talking to a lot of people about the Fair Trade Music campaign. There seems to be a widespread misconception that it's exclusively about money.
It's not hard to see why - most of my friends know that most Portland musicians are literally just scraping by: According to a poll we conducted last year, the average Portland musician makes under $9k a year (the federal poverty level is $12k.)
However, among most of the people I talk to, very few people seem to be aware of why. Part of it, unfortunately, is that our culture doesn't really seem to value live music or musicians as much as it used to, or as much as other cultures do (see the article on Joshua Bell in the DC subway)
The other is that following a federal labor law ruling in the late 70's, an arbitrary, invisible line was drawn between musicians and all other service workers in a club. This line magically absolved club owners of any legal obligation of paying the musicians. So, venues pay the musicians last, if at all.
It's common practice for a club to use the cover charges fans pay to pay for sound and door personnel, as well as an additional 'house cut.' The bands split up what's left. This has even been reported to us, without shame or intent of irony, by venues that say they are only profitable when a band is playing, love music, wouldn't be there without it, and "support the arts." (More on that later.)
All that said, the goals of Fair Trade Music are much broader than simply putting a few more bucks in musicians' pockets. We have reason to believe it can make a better scene with better music and make Portland a premier destination for traveling music lovers.
MAKING BETTER MUSIC: when?!
Musicians feel the time crunch of modern life, perhaps more than anyone. Many musicians work additional jobs to make ends meet, which makes it tough to find time to work on their craft. Full-time jobs pay the bills, but leave almost no time to write music, practice, rehearse, or record. Performing music is a sideline for these musicians; they cannot devote themselves to developing their potential.
This is the music lovers' loss.
Part-time jobs are a little better, but, in Portland, good part-time jobs are very difficult to find. They tend toward low-pay, low-skill "McJobs."
In addition to working 'day' jobs, musicians often work in clubs with no guaranteed wage whatsoever. If they don't want to play for free, they have to put hours into promotion. This involves designing, printing (at their expense,) and putting up hundreds of flyers, managing social networking accounts and email lists, and calling their friends and fans to try and get a decent turnout. This can take 1-5 hours - for each show.
This is time that could be spent making better music, but it's not - it's spent making sure the venue gets customers, for which the musician may or may not see a share of. This is the music lovers' loss.
This promotes a quantity-over-quality approach that does not benefit the music, the music scene, or the music fans. It trades in a long-term, stable build for short term gains.
What would happen if musicians could eke out a minimal living making music, and actually had enough time to practice? It would enable them to make better music! Music lovers win. Music lovers go out to shows more, stay longer, and eat and drink more. Club owners win.
Making a better scene with better music is just one of the reasons we're doing this campaign. We're also trying to raise the level of professionalism among musicians, as well as securing Portland's place not only as THE city for live music, but also its place in history as the first Fair Trade Music city, with others (NYC, San Fran, Nashville) to follow.
