There’s no metropolis on the planet like New York — and no sound just like the one it makes. From the smoky jazz golf equipment of Harlem to the orchestras in Lincoln Middle, from the subway buskers to Broadway pit bands, stay music is the heartbeat of our metropolis. However that heartbeat is at risk of fading.
Working musicians are important to New York Metropolis’s financial system and cultural identification. They energy our nightlife, drive our tourism, and elevate each expertise — from a romantic dinner in a restaurant to a world-class efficiency on a Broadway stage. The music business contributes billions to our native financial system and helps tens of 1000’s of jobs. However these jobs are more and more unsustainable.
The rising price of dwelling in New York has made it practically unattainable for working musicians to outlive right here. As rents skyrocket and well being care prices balloon, too many musicians — the very individuals who assist outline this metropolis — are being compelled to depart. These should not celebrities with main file offers. They’re the extremely skilled professionals who present up each night time to liven up our theaters, golf equipment, church buildings, and group occasions.
On the identical time, there’s a troubling development towards changing stay musicians with pre-recorded tracks or digital substitutes. Whether or not it’s a restaurant reducing corners by eliminating stay acts, and even reveals on Broadway seeking to cut back stay instrumentation, we should say clearly: no recording can replicate the facility of stay music performed by actual individuals.
Stay music is irreplaceable. It’s spontaneous, emotional, human. It creates connections between performers and audiences that merely can’t be downloaded or streamed. After we lose stay music, we lose one thing very important about what makes New York, New York.
And proper now, as union contracts expire and negotiations are underway, it’s extra necessary than ever that we stand with our working musicians. These negotiations aren’t nearly wages. They’re about dignity, equity, and preserving the way forward for stay efficiency in New York. The selections made on the bargaining desk can have actual penalties for the power of musicians to stay and work right here.
That’s why we’re calling for stronger help for working musicians. That features truthful contracts, protections in opposition to displacement, and funding for arts applications that embody stay music as a central element. It additionally means strengthening contributions to well being and pension advantages so musicians aren’t compelled to decide on between medical care and making artwork.
It means investing in music schooling and workforce growth to make sure the subsequent technology of musicians can prepare, develop, and discover work right here in New York.
And it means defending stay efficiency jobs, particularly on Broadway and in different venues the place there’s stress to switch union musicians with cheaper alternate options.
Lastly, we must always discover daring new concepts like housing help or a focused tax credit score for musicians — simply as we help movie and tv manufacturing — to assist artists afford to stay and create within the metropolis they maintain.
We additionally urge venues, producers, and metropolis businesses to decide to hiring stay musicians for good wages with truthful contracts and to deal with music not as background noise, however because the cultural treasure it really is.
We should additionally acknowledge that music is labor. It’s not a interest for individuals who carry out it professionally. These are staff who deserve dignity, respect, and the power to stay within the metropolis they assist make nice.
New York Metropolis is the best stage on the planet. Let’s be certain that the musicians who carry it to life can afford to remain on it.
Erik Bottcher is a New York Metropolis Council Member representing Manhattan’s District 3, which incorporates the Theater District. Robert Suttmann is the President of Native 802 AFM, the union representing skilled musicians in New York Metropolis. (President Suttmann was lately named a Labor Energy Participant on this yr’s record revealed by PoliticsNY & amNY Metro.)
