Fees must be increased
After three years of detailed work, SONART presents its fee recommendations. The Association of Freelance Musicians, together with most cultural associations, is in good company. The recommendations reflect the complex world of freelance music professions: Creation, interpretation and management in all genres. Above all, however, they help to ensure a living wage.
We are aware that the level of SONART's fee recommendations is considerably higher than the current level for many event organizers in all sectors. Not everyone in the scene can keep up from the outset. But this is precisely why SONART - like all other professional associations in the cultural sector - has issued its recommendations and thus closed a gap: We wanted to know what life-sustaining fees are for composition, songwriting, concert performances, production management and all other musical-artistic activities of music professionals.
SONART was initially guided by the question of how a living wage should be structured. This is comparable to other self-employed professions, for example in the trades, which, in addition to income, also have to cover social benefits, pensions, insurance and investments. The fair fee for a concert of CHF 800 per person may seem high at first glance. However, behind this are three to four hours of presence in the concert hall, countless rehearsal and practice hours, travel, instruments, etc. From this point of view, the fees we recommend are absolutely reasonable.
FairPay - MinimumPay: A bandwidth model for practical use
However, fees on the free market are also a matter of negotiation. Even with the backing of the SONART recommendations, it is still up to the musicians to decide what fees they pay for their performances - their negotiating partners have many other costs and cannot offer a hand in every case. It is also clear to us that in the music scene, musicians are dependent on the organizers; even with the best will in the world, it is not always possible to achieve the maximum if a concert is to take place. That is why the SONART recommendations work with a bandwidth model: FairPay is the level of a reasonable fee, MinimumPay (set between 20 and 25 % lower depending on the category) is the lower limit, which should not be undercut after applying reduction criteria such as the size of the event, professional experience and region.
Cultural promotion: without more funding, the goals are hardly achievable
The Federal Council's cultural message, as well as public and private cultural sponsors, expect the associations to set fee targets and want to make the approval of project support dependent on the question of whether the applicant is willing to pay an appropriate fee. However, without corresponding additional funding for cultural promotion, this practice leads to a shortage and considerably fewer applications for support.
In this constellation, the SONART recommendations are a signal to continue the discourse that began during the pandemic in 2020-2022 in view of the precarious situation in the cultural scene: Ultimately, the aim is to protect tens of thousands of cultural workers - including a good 10,000 to 15,000 freelance musicians. Everyone talks about the great social value and the important role of culture - SONART wants to help ensure that words are soon followed by deeds.
All information, the SONART fee recommendations, a fee calculator and questions & answers at www.sonart.swiss/honorarempfehlungen.
Michael Kaufmann has been President of SONART since 2020. He is active in cultural and music institutions and is also musically diverse.
