Fair pay practice tools: Starting Rates and Calculation Tool for Performing Freelance Classical Musicians in Seven Professional Practices

Fair pay practice tools

The Chain Table Freelance Classical Musicians hereby presents the ‘Final Report on Starting Rates. Outcomes instrument development fair practice for freelance classical musicians’. An online fee tool is included so that musicians can calculate their fees for performances without a collective agreement themselves, using the criteria in the report. The final report distinguishes seven professional practices. These are: orchestra or choir, more than 16 persons; ensemble or choir, between 8 and 16 persons; chamber music, 8 persons or less; accompanying choir or soloist in orchestral form; soloist with choir or orchestra; soloist or duo; studio recordings. Starting point is a professional at the college level. Therefore, the hourly rate including self-employment percentage is always the same. The distinction in the rates per professional practice is then related to aspects such as: education; nature of the work; experience; complexity of the production; size of the assignment, registration/release. In order to arrive at fair rates, a survey of workers was conducted in advance with the help of independent researchers and a comparison with 13 adjacent collective bargaining agreements was made in the final report.

Practice tools:

KNYFE i.c.w. Chain Table Freelance Classical Musicians fair pay practice tool 1:
‘Final Report on Starting Rates.

KNYFE i.c.w. Chain Table Freelance Classical Musicians fair pay practice tool 2:
‘Online Calculator tool fair pay for freelance classical musicians.

Review of consultation

The comments received were positive and did not result in any changes to the drafts of the starting rates and the associated online calculation tool. One response pointed to affordability. Another response asked whether sufficient research has been done on the income gap for instrumentalists and choral singers who do not work in ensembles. In response, preliminary research was done by HTH on 127 freelance classical musicians in various professional practices, among others. In this, no remarkable differences were reported. Subsequently, Berenschot and KNYFE retrieved data from a total of another 65 respondents. The problem of the current low fees in relation to the hours spent on performances by musicians is mainly related to the large number of uncompensated hours. The final report shows this clearly.

Looking ahead to additional activities

The final report notes that little data is available on the number of freelance classical musicians and the amount of performances they provide. From the sources that do exist, it can be distilled that there are at least 1,000 musicians and over 14,700 activities. The macro income gap ranges from €4 million annually in a conservative estimate to €42 million. Regarding the micro income gap, it can be observed that the recommended starting rate in the examples among the seven professional practices ranges from 17% to 110% on top of the current fee. It should also be noted here that the part of the sector studied for which there are no collective bargaining agreements is mostly not subsidized or is no longer subsidized by governments after cuts.

All this led to a specific offer letter from the chain table in October at the time of the consultation with further interpretation and context. In it, the chain table participants recognize and acknowledge the outcomes of the final report and the tools provided by KNYFE in its brief. It sees its concerns about too little fair pay confirmed and values making clear to third parties that there are also major concerns in the implementation, assurance and especially affordability of the developed standards. The letter is also a call to the industry to provide inspiring responses and examples.

Finally, the following can be reported. In the final phase of the instrument development for fair practice on behalf of freelance classical musicians, there has already been positive technical contact between the chain table and the Dutch Association for Performing Arts in relation to the Collective Agreement for Music Ensembles. FairPACCT, in consultation with the chain table, now wants to approach the diverse group of work providers with further explanation of the fair pay starting rates in the final final report. New financial (subsidy) opportunities can also be sought with other national partners.