This is great. I think all these points require some research to clarify the problems and the possible solutions. I've done some reading but I will do more over the next few weeks. I can dig up some London Souls festival contracts for examples too.
Here is a piece of legislation that passed somewhat recently: https://www.and.co/freelance-faq/legal/what-are-my-rights-under-the-freelance-isnt-free-act

I don't think the gov't will want to help unless there are contracts involved (or at least proof that you tried to get one). Text/email confirmations count as contracts.

To me, the question about playing for free has no snappy answer. It has to be about changing the culture, teaching people to value their skill as labor when dealing with venues and promoters, and not playing social currency games in lieu of fair compensation. I don't think you can stop those that want to play for free, or are privileged to be able to do so, but you can change the narrative that this is acceptable when everyone else is getting paid.

Agree let's work on some well researched solutions to follow up with.

here's an upcoming workshop for freelancers that seems relevant to Nikhil's points re: timely payments / nonpayments:

https://freelancershub.nymediacenter.com/member/event/title/freelancer-know-your-rights

I also put this on the spreadsheet

In addition to sending to Alvester, we should send our suggestions directly to the Office of Nightlife via this link: [email protected].

Another thought I had, is that we should develop some ways to partner with the Office and/or M.O.M.E on behalf of musicians, which we can then bring to Ariel or to her deputies directly, such as:
- Disseminating relevant information to the music community about funding opportunities, resources, lectures
- Developing workshops to be hosted by the city, and educational materials for their website
- Getting M.O.M.E to sponsor or otherwise fund an SMC event (as opposed to, let's say, a beer sponsor)

Just wild ideas while I had a minute...

Added a few thoughts and links to Nikhil's spreadsheet

I followed up with Alvester last week and got the response below, which sheds some pretty interesting light on the winter jazzfest / NYC festival pay issue:

"Yes, 802 negotiated a scale for Winter Jazz Fest that is about 200/musician in most small groups under 6 players. The rate is a bit lower for larger ensembles. It initially started out lower than this but 802 managed to negotiate in gradual raises after a certain number of years. Yes, this is absolutely a great model. It came about from a grass roots effort of Winter Jazz Fest musicians becoming fed up with low rates and pay-to-play happening across the old version of WJF. Once Nate Chinen got wind of the musicians being unhappy about being treated so bad he was planning on writing about it. WJF got wind of this and to hold back the PR embarrassment they turned to 802 to help in negotiating a rate. Hmm... This has me thinking about the pay to play scenarios you mentioned on the phone - I'm thinking this information in the right writer's hands might be good tool for pushing venues to treat musicians more fairly."

Chris thanks for all this follow up and for keeping the line of communication open with Alvester! Essential in narrowing down our focus with our engagement here.

The WJF story from him is kind of heartening to me. I actually think databasing payouts for NYC festivals in the past few years could be a place to start towards establishing some kind of union mandated base pay for similar shows in the future. I bet most artists would be willing to share their info if they felt it would go towards a more equitable pay situation. Obviously this idea needs to be fleshed out but what do you guys think of that direction?

(A possible epilogue to all this is that apparently WJF lost money this year...? Sustainability will have to be considered with increased pay demands)

Looking elsewhere in our spreadsheet... re: minimum wage, I do think including musicians playing at venues should get a minimum of $15 an hour. But how and when to enforce this? And how could this affect other existing gigs?

I also think it'd be sweet for MOME should sponsor SMC workshops, in exchange for using small portions of the workshops to dissminate info about their programs...?

Hey all - I've created this Office of Nightlife Resources & Research doc to house the various studies, articles and any other info sources we might want to reference. Feel free to add or format differently:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16NTtmAhS8k4X9ubU4HHqQcRQXsC39Narx7Bh6u-ISxs/edit?usp=sharing

It's also in the Working Group folder.

-Chris