Posted on 06/23/2020 8:21:03 AM PDT by real saxophonist
‘They’re the original gig-workers’: Musicians financially impacted by coronavirus crisis
WASHINGTON DC BUREAU
by: Morgan Wright
Posted: Jun 22, 2020
WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) ─ It’s a tough time to be a musician, with the coronavirus pandemic canceling concerts both big and small.
With a lack of gigs for independent musicians, Mitch Glazier with the Recording Industry Association of America said the artists are not getting paid and are financially hurting.
“They’re the original gig-workers,” Glazier said.
Glazier is now asking for Congress to step in an help.
“They did appropriately address creators and independent contractors in the CARES Act – the problem has been in the implementation,” Glazier said.
Glazier said the unemployment rules don’t recognize that most musicians aren’t full-time employees.
“The relief that they get doesn’t match the income they get,” he said.
Glazier said the fix is simple: musicians who don’t have steady jobs and go from gig to gig need unemployment benefits based on their free-lance income.
“The policies need to be updated and that’s why there’s a silver lining of this coronavirus crisis, in my opinion, that we are addressing this quicker than what would be the typical model,” Rep. Tom Reed, R-New York, said.
“We have to be prepared to make sure workers who continue to be out of work in that industry are still taken care of,” Rep. Anthony Brindisi, D-New York, added.
Brindisi said time is of the essence as some unemployment assistance is set to run out at the end of next month.
“Folks who work in industries that may still not be able to come back as of July 31 are going to continue to be impacted,” Brindisi said.
Both Reed and Brindisi said Congress may need to take action to be sure those in the hard-knock music industry can continue to make music after the pandemic.
I have been on gigs with guys who have said they'll go on unemployment if things dry up.
Now someone's trying to get the government to give them more money.
PS - I missed out on a few gigs because I refused to join the union.
They really don’t have much of a case but if it comes to that or more big business loans that are going to end up in senators pockets I’d rather see them get it.
I’d rather see no one get any we owe 25 trillion dollars or more in case anybody hasn’t noticed. That’s more than I owe
I like music, I respect musicians. I don’t have that talent.
But, face it, if you work in a gig-type economy, you are going to have periods of feast and famine.
Should we socialize this for musicians, and have them all work for the government?
Yup! Although, I probably realized early enough that despite wanting to play music all the time, the reality was that with kids and all, an actual job would be required. And I had several with the last one lasting 36 years and ended with a decent retirement. Sadly, I know too many folks who refused to ‘compromise their desire to play’ and end up in their 60’s/70’s with nothing. Until the scamDEMic hit I had the pleasure of getting to jam with folks 2 or 3 times a week in local bars at jam sessions. Did the band thing for 14 years while still working my ‘real’ job and now don’t want to commit to that. But, if no jams open back up, I may have to. LOL! Keep rockin’.
ot = or
We did that already, it was called the WPA.
One of our sons is a bass player in a band that is just starting to be recognized by the higher ups in the music industry, When the band isn’t touring or having gigs at local venues or festivals, each of them have other jobs, in the restaurant/bar industry, So double whammy.
Our son was one of the first to have his bartending job taken away by the shutdown. Then other businesses closed a few days later. He last worked on March 14. He filed for unemployment right away, and it took several appeals and refiling to finally be approved. Thankfully it was retroactive, and he has been able to put money back into savings after having depleted every penny. He got his first unemployment check on May 30. I’ll tell you, it was rough for him and still is. He’s realizing that while he wants to continue the music side of things, being a bartender pays the bills, but not when you can’t work. So he’s trying to figure out another “day” job.
Another thing, there’s been no practice because all that was closed. These guys are often writing and tweaking their next songs when they’re not performing. You can’t just do that anywhere. It’s just too loud with drums and all going.
The guys don’t want any handouts. They would like to be able to have the chance to play again.
The stupid shut downs need to end and the bars in the concert venues need to re-open
I’m sick of this crap
Who’s with me?
Who wants to go out of the damn local pub and have a beer ?
You know this whole thing has been about how far they could push us, and then when we pushed back, they didn't like it, and that's when the riots started.
I love music. I don’t like musicians telling me their opinions because I stop liking them. It is funny that musician are so liberal yet they are almost entirely dependent upon capitalism for their financial success. In Soviet Union, musicians worked for the state in the national symphony. Just like athletes, who were on official teams, and the only ones who made any money were the ones that defected.
Musicians rely on people working hard enough to earn money beyond their need for sustenance to spend on frivolous things like records and tapes. Yet they would rather support multi-generational welfare systems that don’t have any way of producing extra comfort for the people who would buy music if they had more money than it cost to eat and keep a roof.
My band playing days are over. But that was the first thing I thought about when the pandemic hit. Watching Youtube you get snarky musicians like Adam Neely dissing Trump before covid to show he’s part of the cool celeb culture and I think will he sing a different tune now that Trump is offering financial assistance for people hurt by the pandemic? Probably not because any change of heart is a sign of betrayal to celebrity culture.
I once saw a video of Adam fawning all over some movie soundtrack writer and I thought, “Good luck Adam, he’ll never give up his gig for you and he’ll just keep you around to stroke his ego and kiss his ass.” Completion is fierce for musicians and to get to those upper rank jobs you probably end up compromising yourself in terrible ways. It’s the casting couch all over. And then the celebrity culture has you in its power, in its grisly grasp — it owns it your job and soul.
Musicians aren’t (or shouldn’t be) the point so much as gig workers in general. With loads and loads of workers paid by taxpayers at their full rate without working at all (via the PPP incentive to small businesses)—while gig workers at best got squat through PUA.
In MA when restaurants reopened for outdoor dining only some musicians played in courtyards and other areas outside. This was quickly shut down by local authorities. Now some indoor dining allowed but no bar areas can be used and
places that are strictly bars have to wait a long time to reopen.
Example: rockin’ blues group Victor Wainwright and the Train would play a place in Beverly MA with a capacity of 200.With the shutdown these gigs disappeared. The best they could do was play some songs via Facebook live in their own spaces. They have a new album to support but people can order it online...
no “merch table” at gigs.
Festivals like Marshfield Fair in MA
would have entire days of several blues
or roots bands, outdoor stages.The whole fair got cancelled. Comic cons with music nights...
Music festivals...cancelled.
Right. Like lots of folks’ businesses, jobs and gigs cancelled—by our government!
Forget about the regular workers... what about government workers who have been on 3 to 4 month vacations so far, with full pay and benefits? It's oh so Soviet for the government workers to be a special class--salaries, living accomodations, resorts, special stores, hospitals... We're heading that way. A Democrat/Communist revolution would only accelerate it.
Right, with their exorbitant pensions padded day by day.
Our town despots have delighted in keeping its citizenry locked away, while their layabouts do nothing.
Lots of restaurants and other businesses
closing permanently or having so many
restrictions on capacity that it may
not be worth it to reopen
Tourism—motels, attractions
Hair care
Medical (dentists, elective surgery)
Fitness centers
All enforced by bossy governors with
fines for opening early. A fitness
center in MA was given huge fines
and govt had the locks changed,
power cut.
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