Rates for professional musicians

How were rates determined?

Notes

• 21% of instrumental groups have engaged one
• Even fewer section leader(s) are engaged on an annual basis than orchestral leaders, and if at all they are engaged for concert days, including rehearsal.
• Figures exclude expenses

Notes

• 82% of instrumental groups have engaged one
• Far fewer orchestral leaders are engaged on an annual contract than is even the case for accompanists
• The most frequent mode of engagement for orchestral leaders is for a concert with rehearsal
• Figures exclude expenses

This table is about individual orchestral musicians, excluding percussion and harp (see separate table below) engaged to play as part of an instrumental group, for instance to supply or beef up one section.

Notes:

• 97% of instrumental ensembles have done so in the last three years
• We asked for an average over the last three years, excluding expenses.
   

This table is about individual percussionists and harpists engaged to play as part of an instrumental group.

Notes:

• Whilst higher than for other instrumentalists, fees generally include expenses, e.g. on transport, which are routinely incurred by percussionists and harpists

Previous ABO/MU agreement

Below, please find the comparison table of fees currently paid by Making Music members and the fees as stipulated in the last ABO/MU agreement to which Making Music was party (April 2014 – April 2015).

Notes:

• Accompanist also includes organists engaged for concerts
• 94% of vocal groups engage one
• Accompanists are less likely than conductors to have an annual contract and more likely to be paid per rehearsal or concert
• You might also like to compare these figures with those published by ISM recently, following a survey of their members who work as accompanists: http://www.ism.org/advice/accompanists-fees
• Figures exclude expenses

Notes:

• Chorister is any voice engaged to sing as part of a vocal group, for instance to beef up one section
• Only 16% of vocal groups did so in the last three years
• We asked for an average over the last three years, excluding expenses.

Notes: 

• This is about the leader of a group, whatever their role may be called
• 76% of all groups engage one
• Conductors are most likely, of all types of musicians engaged, to have an annual contract
• The concert day overwhelmingly includes a rehearsal with the conductor as there were only 56 respondents to ‘concert day no rehearsal’ (183 answered the option ‘concert day including rehearsal’).
• Figures exclude expenses

Notes:

• Soloist refers to any instrumental or vocal professional engaged to perform with an amateur music group for a concert.
• 87% of all groups engaged soloists We asked for an average over the last three years, excluding expenses.
• Fees refer to concert including one rehearsal.
• For ‘central range’ definition, please see "Definitions: 'professional; 'central range'" above.
• There are payments which fall well outside the norm and which we have excluded, for instance one member who had raised funding for an exceptional soloist to perform with them, at a cost of £20,000.

Professional means different things to different people in different contexts. A future MU agreement would seek to recommend rates for:

• The full-time musician earning their entire living from performing
• The part-time musician earning part of their living from performing (e.g. music teacher or part-time worker in music industry)

But ‘professional’ might also encompass – and attract varying levels of payment for

• The professionally trained musician who now has a full-time job doing something else (e.g. full-time music teacher, working in other role in music industry, became an accountant instead)
• The full time music or peripatetic teacher who does not perform professionally but likes to still play, and does so in an amateur orchestra
• The amateur who has come up through the ranks and plays/sings/conducts well enough to be in demand
• The recent music college graduate who is trying to build up a career
• The current (pre) music college student trying to build up experience.

Central range – where this is referenced, we have based this initially on 60% of respondents to a particular question; however, because in many cases so many answers are the same either side of the central range, this means the central range does vary from question to question, and is often much larger than 60%, but it is always at least 60% of respondents.

We asked about soloists, choristers, orchestral musicians (percussionists/harpists separately), musical directors/conductors, accompanists, orchestral leaders, and section leaders. Below are the results. Some notes:

• The range always starts at £0, for all roles
• By comparison with the last Association of British Orchestras/MU agreement that Making Music was party to, Making Music members often pay more, particularly when engaging entire ensembles, probably through ignorance of the terms of the agreement (17% of respondents were unaware of the agreement, only 5% used it)
• Over 50% of respondents offered additional benefits to the musicians they engaged, from flowers or bottles of wine to food, free tickets etc.

How are rates determined by groups?

Groups will most frequently (86%) decide how much they can spend and then negotiate accordingly. Groups tend to take advice from their conductor or from fixers/agents.

Comments throughout the survey suggest that if professional musicians cannot be engaged for fees the group can afford, groups generally change their programme. What also comes through is that groups appreciate the skill of professional musicians and their need to make a living, and are keen to ‘do the right thing’ where they can.

The overall picture is one of amateur music groups engaging a huge variety of professional musicians in a range of roles, for differing lengths of time, on one-off or regular contracts. Unsurprisingly, therefore, the range of fees is vast, too.