The Fair Pop Pilot is up and running! How does fair pay work in practice?

The Pop Musicians chain table of the Platform ACCT program FairPACCT is launching the Fair Pop Pilot! From September through November 2024 at 8 participating pop venues, fair pay compensation will be paid to performing artists and musicians. This is done using the previously presented Pop Musicians Calculation Tool. During this pilot, Erasmus University Rotterdam is investigating the most effective financing method and the effects of fair pay on the sector. The pilot and the practical research are funded by the Fonds Podiumkunsten, the Cultuurfonds and Fonds 21 . Implementation is in the hands of Platform ACCT.

The pop venues

The eight participating venues are Hedon (Zwolle), Doornroosje (Nijmegen), Neushoorn (Leeuwarden), Melkweg (Amsterdam), EKKO (Utrecht), Paard (The Hague), Patronaat (Haarlem) and Effenaar (Eindhoven). Diversity in programming, genre and regional distribution were considered in the selection. Acts programmed in small to medium-sized venues are eligible to participate in the pilot.

Practice research on effective funding routes

Erasmus University Rotterdam’s research focuses, among other things, on the question of what is the most effective route of payment to performing musicians and artists. Therefore, in the pilot, some acts and artists will receive additional fair pay compensation through the stages and others will receive it directly, without stage intervention. Researchers Prof. Dr. Pauwke Berkers and Frank Kimenai are also looking at how both routes affect the natural dynamics of programming. In addition, the impact of a fair pay payment on the professional practice of pop musicians and the operations of venues is being investigated. The calculation tool will also be widely practiced and tested.

Fair pay fees for performing pop musicians at five career stages

The Pop Musicians Calculation Tool gives pop musicians and their clients insight into what constitutes fair pay and helps negotiate an appropriate remuneration. With the tool, 11 objective criteria can be used to determine to which career phase an artist or act belongs: starting, upcoming, developing, mid-career, arrived. Based on the respective career phase an artist or act is in, it indicates what a fair compensation would be for a live performance on stage. The figures are based on established standards around minimum wage, modal wage and welfare and research into the income and hours worked by pop musicians. This research was previously done by Bureau Berenschot which resulted in the report “The gap between commitment and income of pop musicians.”

Presentation pilot at CPFE and results at Eurosonic Noorderslag 2025

On September 16, 2024, the chain table will present the pilot during a session at the CPFE congress in TivoliVredenburg. The first results of the Fair Pop Pilot will be shown at Eurosonic Noorderslag in January 2025. There, earlier in 2023, the Chain Table Pop Musicians handed over the Bureau Berenschot report “The gap between commitment and income of pop musicians” (see link in previous paragraph) to the then State Secretary of Culture, Gunay Uslu. Then, in 2024, the Pop Musicians Calculation Tool was presented. With the Fair Pop Pilot, all of these steps will be put into practice and examined.

Want to know more about the chain table Pop Musicians? Read more here.