Well, at long last, the call has gone out for talent to perform along the route of the upcoming Rock & Roll Marathon, a huge, internationally known traveling event for runners which fancies itself hipper than most other similar endeavors, and which is coming to Savannah in a few months. The organization which promotes this charitable athletic happening supposedly has locked the city in as its destination for at least the next couple of years.
This is a MAJOR boost to the local economy, and a real feather in the cap of our local tourism industry. I’m excited to see that we snagged it, and hope it is a tremendous success all around.
That said, for an organization which bases its whole marketing strategy around the idea that cool, rocking bands and/or solo artists play live music all along the marathon route to entertain the entrants and the spectators, it’s pretty shameful that they seem to have fallen back on the time-honored tradition of screwing over professional musicians.
It seems that while they will “consider” compensating the bands who are booked to perform, they openly state on their website that priority status will be given to acts which agree to play completely for free.
Details on this can be found here.
Read between the lines and you’ll quickly understand that means that virtually no one who is “lucky” enough to get signed to appear at this marathon (save, perhaps the somewhat famous “headliners” who’ll appear at the finish line) will be paid a dime for their time, talent, travel and hard work.
Taking advantage of artists and performers who are so desperate for public exposure that they’re willing to give away everything they have is the oldest trick in the book.
It’s a lame, chintzy philosophy that pervades the sort of conference table board meetings where big-time fundraising events like this are hatched.
You can practically hear the organizers chuckling to one another about how they don’t have to even budget any money for the very performers who make this a “Rock & Roll” marathon.
“They’ll be lined up to do it for free,” one says. “No, seriously. Just you wait and see!”
The fact that the ultimate proceeds are earmarked for a charitable cause is merely the icing on the shuck-and-jive cake. Who wants to look like a greedy chump for demanding they be paid for their work in the service of a charitable fundraiser?
Well, most people.
Now, I know there will be tons of volunteers helping with this event - as there should be. But when it comes to deeply specialized craftspeople, tradesmen or administrators, would the folks in charge of this big to-do actually have the nerve to assume they’d all work for free?
Do you think the owners of the Rock & Roll Marathon company (and it is a for-profit company) get the best and brightest job applicants for key positions in their organization by giving priority to those who don’t have enough self-respect to ask for a decent salary?
Do you think they’re expecting giant insurance companies who provide them with millions of dollars in liability coverage to wave their premiums?
Do you think the hoteliers who are housing the tens of thousands of folks who Savannah expects to come to town for this event are giving away rooms?
Will the restaurants where these runners, their families, the spectators, sports journalists and out of town musicians will be eating for several days be giving away their food and drinks?
Will the waiters who wait on these people hand their paychecks back to their bosses at the end of the week with a softly whispered “that won’t be necessary,” and a chiming twinkle from their shiny white molars?
How about the people who will be asked to provide the whopping 25 (!) stages along the route, not to mention the PA gear and professional sound engineers to run all of it.
Are they bringing their hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of staging, amps, mixing boards, mics and cables for free?
Will the specialized booking agency that has been HIRED by the Rock & Roll Marathon organizers to wade through the scores of musical applicants and decide which ones get these coveted slots do so out of the goodness of their own hearts?
Of course not.
So why should it be assumed that talented, captivating musicians offer to work for free (and perhaps even travel here, spending money on gas, food and lodging to do so)?
Because so many people still think that if you “play” music, it’s not really “working.”
On behalf of those who make all or most of their income from entertaining others by playing live music, allow me to state unequivocally that it is most definitely hard work.
It’s a job.
It’s my job.
And I’m more than happy to give you a cut rate if it’s in service of a cause I support. Hell, I might even offer to work for free if the spirit moves me. It’s been known to happen many a time.
But don’t assume we all will, or worse yet, SHOULD.
It’s horribly insulting. Especially for an organization that is likely raking in MILLIONS from this entire production.
The amount needed to pay a fair wage to professional musicians is a tiny chunk of that at best.
Now, will there be scores of musicians who line up and beg to play this event for free? Sure. And it’s their prerogative.
But so many of them will unknowingly do so because they have never properly learned the object-lesson that Patti Smith elucidated so eloquently in her landmark 1975 single “Piss Factory.”
Listen, if you’re a working musician out there and you’re reading this and you think to yourself, “Screw that guy. I don’t do art for money. That’s selling out. I play for the people,” fine. I dig it.
Just don’t let your convictions lower the bar for the rest of us who do it for the art, the people, AND to keep the lights on!
As a general principle, talented musicians with a worthwhile product to display should not play for free.
If fair compensation is offered, they should graciously take it, and if it is not, they should demand it. If they don’t need it or have strong convictions against accepting it, they should turn right around and donate it to their charitable cause of their choosing.
That way, the next hardworking musician that comes along doesn’t get passed over for a job because a club owner or Rock & Roll Marathon organizer knows he can just get somebody else to do it for free.
Natural facts.
UPDATE:
I’m told that the organizers of the Rock & Roll Marathon are boasting that approximately 23,000 people will be registered to run in the Savannah event.
The current registration fee is $115 per person.
DIG: If the organizer set aside a measly $1.50 from each runner to go into a fund to pay the live musicians ***who actually set their event apart from every other charity marathon in the USA***, that painless act would instantly generate enough cash to pay each and every one of the 40 bands $862.50 each for their hard work.
Break that down. It means EACH RUNNER WOULD BE PAYING EACH BAND LESS THAN FOUR CENTS TO PERFORM FOR THEM.
Think about it. If each band has an average of four members, that means each runner pays each musician ONE PENNY to rock out in the elements for their entertainment.
Just how greedy and cheap do the organizers look now?
I am officially calling for the organizers of the Rock & Roll Marathon to divert $1.50 from each runner’s registration fees to be divided equally among all 40 musical acts who will perform on the 25 stages along the marathon route during their Savannah event.
Since the very nature of playing along such a route almost negates the notion of a band or artist being responsible for “draw,” such a remuneration plan would level the playing field among musicians vying for these 40 spots, and instantly make the quality and suitability of their music the only criteria for inclusion.
Who’s with me on this?
