All Musicians Deserve Fair Pay and Safe Working Conditions

April 1, 2025

Tina Morrison  -  International Executive Board Member and President of Local 105 (Spokane, WA)

“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times …”

When I was a kid tagging along with my dad on his gigs and meeting his musician friends, hearing them perform together in a concert or nightclub was only part of the experience. I also got to hear them talk about the music they were listening to and the musicians they admired.

In that primarily Greatest Generation circle, they really loved music that incorporated South American rhythms, that borrowed from European folk songs, and of course, there was the omnipresent African American jazz and blues influence. Folks worshipped Oscar Peterson, Dave Brubeck, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Django Reinhardt, Miles Davis, and Chet Baker among others. Musicians have always shared and been influenced by each other’s cultures and experiences. Music has no borders.

But there are barricades to money and opportunity. Good instruments are expensive and opportunities to learn while you earn are few and far between. Some genres basically require an expensive education. Many musicians have teachers who also serve as mentors, but it’s not treated like a real apprenticeship.

Our profession has become increasingly complicated as entry-level, paid, live work has eroded. Recording is more accessible due to technology, but monetizing recordings is a challenge. Technology can be helpful, especially when it comes to education, but it’s always changing and comes with additional expenses. And exploitation of musicians by technology is rampant.

Political and societal changes are creating uncertainty. Technology has made the world smaller, while creating greater divisions. Musicians traditionally have been important in turbulent times, whether by documenting, empathizing, or influencing. I’ve been thinking about folks like Dmitri Shostakovich, Billie Holiday, Woody Guthrie, and Marvin Gaye. We can bring people together, lift up voices, give comfort, and inspire. But beyond making music to the best of our ability, another important role is in our union.

We are the American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada. We will work together to build strength in our union and make sure that musicians have a voice in any decision that affects us. We each have a responsibility to ensure that our workplaces are safe and free from harassment. We must make our local unions places where all musicians feel welcome, valued, and respected.

We all have colleagues who are not in the union. Now is the time to invite them in; ask them to join you in the effort to make a better life for musicians. Beyond having the ability to purchase and maintain instruments and pay off student debt, musicians need affordable housing, practice spaces, health care, child care, food, and reliable transportation.

Even if music making is a part-time job, there should be fair compensation and safe working conditions. Much of the work to be done is local, so we must build strong local unions to network with the rest of the labor community, identify community partners, and build relationships with elected officials.

I still have this ideal that success in music making should be based only on the sounds produced. If a musician makes sounds that others want to hear they should be able to develop a career. We have challenges that impact all music makers, and we need to call in all working musicians to unite against the exploitive and divisive forces we are all facing.

Thank you for your work!

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