Education Tag

blank

Pop music chain table presents plans for paying fair pay at CPFE Congress

9 October 2023

Photo: Ben Houdijk

The gap between commitment and earnings of pop musicians

At ESNS 2023, after a year of mutual consultation, the Pop Music Chain Table presented an analysis of the income gap between current fees and an appropriate and fair fee (fair pay) for pop musicians. Conclusion of the analysis: €7.8 million more is needed per year for fair pay. The analysis and accompanying report, The gap between commitment and earnings of pop musicians, were conducted by consulting firm Berenschot. Berenschot also concluded that the amount in question cannot be raised within the pop sector itself or from higher public revenues. Thus, the chain table pondered the question: how can we structurally finance that 7.8 million? At the Congres Podia Festivals Events 2023 (CPFE) of the Vereniging Nederlandse Poppodia en -Festivals (VNPF) and the Vereniging van Evenementenmakers (VVEM) on September 18, this question was answered.

Is that 7.8 million above water yet?

During the CPFE panel discussion “What’s the state of Fair Pay? Is that 7.8 million above water yet?” program manager Noud van de Rhee, Jolanda Beyer of Patronaat, Will Maas on behalf of the Kunstenbond and Rita Zipora of BAM! Pop Authors presented the chain table plan to fund fair pay for performing musicians at pop venues and festivals. The initial proposal is to increase the income of pop musicians through a percentage surcharge on all performances. The aim is to pass this surcharge on to the service charges, which will be passed on in ticket prices. This means that ultimately the audience will pay for fair pay. The extra income that comes in through the increased service charge will be remitted by pop venues and festivals to an umbrella fund, yet to be established. Finally, the fund will redistribute the money to pop musicians.

“Pop musicians’ income is increased through service charges”

Feasibility study on raising service charges and establishing fund

To determine the extent to which raising service charges and setting up a fund is realistic, Berenschot is conducting a feasibility study. This will record, among other things, which roles should be fulfilled in funding fair pay in the pop sector:

  • Audience: from whom does the money come?
  • Ticket sellers: through whom does it come in?
  • Administrator: with whom is it managed?
  • Distributor: by whom is it redistributed?
  • Pop musicians: to whom does it belong?

A modest amount

Before suggestions will be made for parties to participate, legal research will be conducted on the legal possibilities of the above system. Here it is also important to determine what criteria should be set for the managing party and the distributing party.

At the conclusion of the CPFE panel discussion, a few questions were raised from the well-filled room. The most pressing question: isn’t that 7.8 million understated? To this end, the panelists explained that indexing has yet to take place. In addition, only music venues and festivals affiliated with the VNPF are included in the report The gap between effort and income of pop musicians. Thus, the 7.8 million euros concerns a modest amount. The feasibility study will therefore pay extra attention to the number of pop musicians whose income needs to be increased. The study is expected to be completed in a few weeks.

blank

Pop music chain table develops tool for matching gages by career stage

10 July 2023

Photo: Austin Neill

The Pop Music Chain Table is looking at the fair remuneration of musicians performing at venues and festivals. Topics to be discussed are transparency in the budgeting of costs and revenues of venues, festivals and live acts. Live acts are independent musicians as well as (session) musicians hired by a main artist. Chain table participants Rita Zipora, board member of BAM! Pop Authors and electro-songwriter, and Martijn Munk, artist manager at Day Four Management, talk more about the process of developing the career stage tool:

The gap between commitment and earnings of pop musicians

At ESNS 2023, after a year of mutual consultation, the Pop Music Chain Table presented an analysis of the income gap between current gages and an appropriate and fair fee (fair pay) for pop musicians. This took place in the panel Faire Gages in de Popsector with fair PACCT program manager Noud van de Rhee, Pien Feith of Friendly Fire B.V., Rita Zipora of BAM! Pop Authors, Jolanda Beyer of Patronaat and Will Maas on behalf of Kunstenbond, led by moderator Oscar Kocken.

Conclusion of the analysis: €7.8 million more is needed per year for fair pay. The analysis and accompanying report, The gap between commitment and income of pop musicians, were conducted by consulting firm Berenschot. At the time, State Secretary Gunay Uslu received the report at the conclusion of the panel.

Career stage tool under development

Determining appropriate fees for each career stage of an artist requires criteria that “scale” pop musicians according to their level of advancement, from amateur to established professional. The Pop Music Chain Table has developed a tool for this purpose. On the basis of eleven objective criteria, the stage of an artist/act is determined. This tool, together with the size of an act and the type of show, forms the basis of the minimum fee table. After the final steps to optimize the tool, we can start putting it into practice.

“we have been able to develop a tool that is representative of the talent development chain in pop music”

Over the past six months, one of the things the chain table has been working on is testing and optimizing a test tool to use to determine an artist’s career stage. For this purpose, we have extensively tested among as diverse a group of pop music professionals as possible who have enough data on an artist to be able to test the tool. Think of bookers, managers, record companies, and of course performing artists and musicians themselves.

In total, the tool was tested on about fifty cases. Most of these artists received a correct stage classification. For the artists where this did not happen, this was often due to a difference in genres, years of inactivity of an artist (for example, during a reunion) or a phase definition that was too vague. With various adjustments, for example in wording of presentation and question, as well as adjustments in the proportions of the tool, we were able to develop a tool that is representative of the talent development chain in pop music.

As the tool moves toward its final phase, we are focusing on the last major task to achieve fair pay in the live circuit for pop musicians: funding. We hope to provide an update on this soon.

blank

Chain Table Arts Professionals in Cultural Education and Amateur Arts makes proposals for fair pay in room letter

9 July 2023

Photo: Creative Commons Google

The chain table Arts Professionals in Cultural Education and Amateur Arts consists of a broad group of workers. It also includes work providers and mediators within education and leisure. Together they are working within the chain table on concrete practical tools for fair pay. Via external chairman Bertien Minco, the chain table has sent a letter to the Lower House for the debate on June 29 on the Basic Principles for the Cultural Basic Infrastructure 2025-2028 (BIS) of OCW State Secretary Gunay Uslu. It calls attention to the situation of those working in these two subsectors. The letter was also sent to the VNG.

Diversity in expressions and participants

According to the Kamerbrief, the professionals in cultural education and amateur art are pre-eminently and traditionally in society those who are present within the school, at the out-of-school and child care centers, in neighborhood or village, during church services and on the street corner. With their profession in the visual arts, circus, dance, film, photography, literature, music, theater and the like. These workers are there during the day, as well as in the evenings and weekends indiscriminately for everyone through teaching, conducting, directing, coaching and the like. From farm band to brass band. From drum lessons to deejaying. From mixed choir to gospel choir. From classical ballet to k-pop. From writing classes to spoken word. From drama club to theater sports. In short, arts activities with a diversity of expressions and participants but always with the same message: the cultural and social development, opportunities and inclusion of children and adults.

Cultural education and amateur arts local grassroots players

Many local institutions have disappeared in recent years due to municipal budget cuts. In the local cultural extracurricular basic infrastructure, there is now only a legally guaranteed place for public libraries and broadcasters. But if this base is not put in order more broadly, an important element of the cement in society will disappear, there will be an additional hurdle to equality of opportunity, and the top for our country will also fall out of the picture.

Lifelong development is encouraged from the state: cultural participation, cultural education and amateur art are part of this. So states the parliamentary letter. And to speak with the LKCA director: ‘Furthermore, it is striking that the Letter of Principles does not mention the importance of cultural participation and amateur art.

When discussing culture and its infrastructure, I often hear consultants, policymakers and administrators say that they are committed to getting or keeping the basics in order. But doesn’t that base begin precisely with cultural participation? Indeed; they are preconditions for cultural life.

“Without a broad base, no excellent summit. “

Proposals for quick wins: fair pay in current policies state secretary Uslu

In its parliamentary letter, the Chain Table makes proposals for fair pay in policy measures in which the State Secretary is already involved. Specifically mentioned are: the subsidies via the Fund for Cultural Participation; the Healthy and Active Living Agreement/GALA including the broad impulse for combined functions including culture coaches; cultural covenants with the co-governments and accountability of the schools in the framework of the new law ‘Simplification of Financing Primary Education’. But, according to the chain table, attention must also be paid to fair pay through the General Framework for Intergovernmental Cultural Relations between the governments; the compensation by the State to the municipalities with a provisional amount of € 70 million per year and the relationship with poverty policy.

The chain table will soon make its presence felt again

The chain table has reported to the Chamber that it will hear from them again soon. It has engaged independent agency Social Finance Matters, also a fair pay adviser to a number of funds, to make concrete proposals. First of all, it has mapped the salaries and fees in collective bargaining agreements and guidelines for cultural educators inside and outside culture for comparison purposes via a so-called reference framework.

It then provided a survey on the use and compensation of hours worked: the overwhelming response of more than 1,000 working people shows that the issue is enormously alive in this sub-sector. On the basis of all this, the agency and the chain table are developing well-considered and objective rate guidelines for the various types of work in cultural education and amateur art. Externally shareable proposals are expected this fall.

blank

Producer or actor, director or make-up artist; everyone will soon be speaking the same language

21 January 2023

Photo: fairPACCT

Creating a shared basis that workers and clients can refer to when making agreements and when complying with agreements made is high on the agenda of the chain table film/AV. Special attention was therefore given to compiling a framework of terms, which by now already includes more than 250 terms; from “liability” to “sixth and seventh days.” Doreen Boonekamp, independent chair of the chain table, explained the importance of the conceptual framework and how the working group got to work on this comprehensive task:

Learning to speak the same language

Because of the lead time, complexity and labor intensity, the production process of feature films, animation films, documentaries, innovative media productions and series involves many different people with different specialties. These specialties involve the necessary, often industry-specific, concepts. Added to this is the fact that funding for productions is project-based and virtually everyone is self-employed. That means new agreements for each production and thus renegotiation. Currently, terms often still have varying interpretations. This causes misunderstandings and delays in negotiating (assignment) agreements and performing work. A framework of terms will soon enable workers, clients and employers to speak the same language, making it easier to reach unambiguous agreements.

Togetherness in the industry increased

The working group started with a rough list compiled from contributed terms including descriptions by all chain table participants. A split was first made between general concepts and concepts with valuation. In the first phase, which runs through Feb. 23, the working group is focusing on creating a general glossary of terms. Chain table participants often gave different descriptions for the same terms; the working group reformulated these neutrally. In this way, the terms will soon be useful to all disciplines rather than to one specific profession. The chain table participants realize that the outcome of the chain table is important to the entire subsector. The need and interest for improvement is very high. This is also noticeable in the energy, time and attention that all participants put into this process. The collaboration and togetherness within the entire audiovisual production sector has received a huge boost during the corona pandemic and with developments in the audiovisual landscape. That is characteristic of this chain table.

blank

Chain Table Pop examines fair pay among pop musicians

6 December 2022

Design: Graphic Happiness

Calling pop musicians

In the chain table Pop within our program fairPACCT, musicians, venues, festivals, bookers and managers are working together on the concretization of the Fair Practice Code. The goal is to achieve fair payment for (semi) professional pop musicians. To make this happen, we would like to know what the average week of a professional musician looks like. You can participate in Berenschot ‘s survey via the following link: https://bit.ly/3P2pZVN.

Conference No Man’s Land

Chain Table Pop participants can also be found at panels and discussions on fair pay at music conference No Man’s Land at TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht on Wednesday, Dec. 7.

blank

Session with designers at Dutch Design Week

28 October 2022

Design: Graphic Happiness

“Design your own rate”

In collaboration with the Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie, Platform ACCT organized a breakfast session at Dutch Design Week on October 26. Entitled “Design your own rate,” we discussed how the Fair Practice Code can be put into practice and what Platform ACCT wants to contribute to that from the fairPACCT program.

Info sheets

We presented info sheets on this topic that serve as a rationale for more activities. What those activities might be, we are working out under the guidance of agency Department of Extraordinary Affairs.

blank

Nice steps at chain tables fairPACCT

20 October 2022

We would like to keep you updated on the progress of the various chain tables within the fairPACCT program.

Film AV Production

In September, great strides were made in the Film AV Production sub-sector. Much preliminary work has been done recently to invite the right parties to participate. Experienced consultant for the film sector Doreen Boonekamp picked up the chairmanship at the request of the program. All participants agreed on the starting memorandum focusing on themes, goals and an approach and the first concrete steps forward have been taken. A hopeful start in a complex environment! The chain table presented itself to the sector at the Netherlands Film Festival on September 23 in the NFF Conference: Wage to Work.

Pop, literary and arts education/amateur arts

Furthermore, this fall the tables in the pop music, literary and art education/amateur arts subsectors will be followed up. The pop sector met in September to discuss the proposal for a concrete practical instrument. A tip of the veil was already lifted during the VNPF Congress | Podia | Festivals on Monday, September 19. The chain table provided an information session for a captivated audience. The literary festivals will be relaunched under the leadership of independent chair Sylvia Dornseiffer, while art education/amateur art will be led by Bertien Minco (see photo below).

New research budget

In September, an additional grant was awarded from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, which means that a larger research budget is now available from the program. Assistance can also be offered to sectors that want to organize more collectivity, for example by setting up an umbrella of professional associations or a platform that can manage products of a chain table for the longer term.

Want to know more?

If so, please contact program manager Noud van de Rhee (noud@platformacct.nl) or program secretary Lydia Jongmans (lydia@platformacct.nl).