Fair pay practice tools: Wages for performing pop musicians in five career stages and Calculation tool determining career stage

Fair pay practice tools

Following the recent public consultation, the Pop Musicians chain table maintains the level of fair pay gages for performing musicians as contained in the January 2023 report “The gap between commitment and earnings of pop musicians. The further social minimum gages included therein by career stage serve as a floor for fees. The report distinguishes five career stages, each with its own wage level: 0/Starting up, 1/Upcoming, 2/Developing, 3/Mid-career, 4/Arrived. The online calculation tool that was developed has 11 objective criteria that can be used to determine which phase an artist/act should be considered to belong to and the corresponding fee.

Practice tools:

Berenschot i.c.w. Chain Table Pop Musicians fair pay practice tool 1:
‘The gap between commitment and earnings of pop musicians.

Appendix 1 to fair pay practice tool 1, Berenschot i.c.w. Chain Table:
‘Table of social minimum and fair pay gages performing pop musicians at 5 career stages.
Final version.

Ipsis i.c.w. Chain Table Pop Musicians fair pay practice tool 2:
‘Online Calculation Tool Determining Career Stage Pop Musicians.

Review of consultation

It was noted that it will frequently happen that an act/artist will remain in a low career stage for a long time. The answer is that the fair pay practice tools are not intended for the development of career paths. The question was raised as to why it is about the career determination of an act/artist and not that of individual session musicians. The chain table previously decided after careful consideration that the act/artist should be the guiding factor in the application of the fair pay practice tools. It was further asked how to proceed with regard to the career determination of acts/artists who move on under a different name or start their own solo careers etc. The chain table has previously opted that in these cases the calculation tool considers pop musicians as new performers. It was further requested whether there is a cap on the number of band members that may be counted. The chain table relies on the gap report, which talks about a maximum of four people. There were further some technical questions about the tool being processed such as the result download.

Looking ahead to additional activities

The structural extra money for additional costs in career stages 1 and 2 is €3.1 million for the purpose of gages at a social minimum level or €7.8 million for fair pay rates. According to the Berenschot report on the gap, these amounts cannot be raised within the pop sector itself or from higher audience revenues. Without additional income support or financial incentives, better pay for most pop musicians is unfeasible, in this agency’s opinion. FairPACCT then produced a detailed picture of all the various expenses and incomes at the VNPF venues, the subsidies from municipalities in particular and the Performing Arts Fund plus the (ad hoc) contributions from private funds. Partly based on this, the chain table believes that a solution could be found from the culture note period 2025-2028 in a combination of new funds. It concerns the increase of the service costs for ticket sales of all pop concerts matched with extra government subsidy e.g. via the Performing Arts Fund. A feasibility study was recently done for this, which the chain table has yet to assess. In order not to lose any time now, it is also busy planning a fair pay pilot in 2024 at five pop venues using the Calculation Tool and with financial help from a private cultural fund. At the latest during Eurosonic Noorderslag in January 2024, the chain table will share its conclusions.