Re: [Harp-L] Fair Trade Music

[Joseph Leone <3n037@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

You are SO correct................it hurts. 
sj

On Mar 2, 2013, at 8:30 PM, Robert Hale wrote:

> On Sat, Mar 2, 2013 at 1:21 PM, Steve Power <stevepower@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
> 
>> Fair Trade Music.
> 
> 
> I read through this group's website when I first heard about them.
> 
> "Fair" and "Trade" here are arbitrary value judgments. Who will you trust
> to establish "fair" pay? One size fits all? (Fair is what you can get
> when negotiating the gig!)
> 
> I'd like to earn better pay and play [work] better rooms, too. But wanting
> and wishing doesn't make reality.
> 
> Harmonica players earn "what the market will bear" regardless of how
> delightful and talented we think we art. I don't fundamentally "deserve" a
> minimum wage from anyone.
> 
> UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
> Club owners may agree to participate for a time, yet faced with higher
> per-night costs, will cut somewhere else to maintain their profit. Maybe
> fewer nights... maybe shorter hours, 2 and 3 hour gigs instead of 4. Or cut
> corners elsewhere in the business.
> 
> Less desirable gigs are where musicians sharpen their skills, and prepare
> to play [work] better ones. Take away those opportunities, and we actually
> stunt the growth of new harmonica players.
> 
> SUCCESSES?
> Where can I read about those successes in Portland?
> 
> Robert Hale
> Spiral Advocate
> Learn Harmonica by Webcam
> Low Rates, High Success
> http://www.youtube.com/DUKEofWAIL
> http://www.dukeofwail.com
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