glossary

Potentially the best ‘ exposure’ opportunity, and 100% of the proceeds go to the musicians. See also Dysfunctional Allure, The, pdxbusk. 

Basically, an anti-community sentiment popularized in the popular post-civil war rags-to-riches  stories of Horatio Alger. The implication (at least regarding the current narrative) is that your success is entirely controlled by your own actions, and if you need anyone else to help you, you’re weak, a filthy, commie Red, or both.  It’s been so widely discredited for so long by so many social theorists that it’s practically a joke in those circles, but it remains a common and popular ideological antidote to the natural, human concept of getting together with your friends to help each other out.   Sadly, many musicians feel as if they owe nothing to anybody except themselves.    

In the patois of monetary negotiations between musicians and clubs, ‘versus’ means something like ‘whichever is greater.’ For example, option B of our Fair Trade Music agreement allows the club and band to mutually choose to pay the band a guarantee of minimum wage per hour per person, with an additional hour for travel/setup/teardown, versus 100% of the door, minimum $3 cover per person.  

Another myth like ‘ exposure.’  Venues, particularly coffeehouses and small restaurants, like to try to convince musicians that getting fed, selling merch, and the tip jar, all of which cost venues next to nothing, should be sufficient compensation. Tip jars almost never provide even minimum wage for anyone other than street performers whose skillset is primarily geared toward maximizing tips - you really have to hit the crowd over the head to get them to cough anything up.  Like exposure, hospitality, or the merch table, the tip jar is largely a myth. Don’t buy it. 

Moderately successful musicians who feel that the difference between service and hobby has to do with musical quality, talent or hard work, and therefore the minimums should remain at zero minus expenses. Furthermore, they do not understand the concepts of Fresh Meat or Solidarity.  Instead, many believe that Fair Trade Music would negate the concept of meritocracy, despite meritocracy's existence in the non-music world, where service workers' minimum wages are the law.