Citywide census confirms it: Minneapolis musicians are underpaid and unhappy

As if singing along to a familiar hit song, the crowd inside the Woman’s Club of Minneapolis on Wednesday let out a chorus of “mmm-hmm’s” to affirm a statement made about the state of the local music scene.

“Minneapolis has one of the lowest gig pays of any city,” said Don Pitts, president of Texas-based company Sound Music Cities.

Pitts came to Minneapolis to present data collected by his team in the Minneapolis Music Census.

Launched in April at the behest of the city’s new Arts & Cultural Affairs Department, the anonymous online census was modeled after similar projects in other cities including Nashville, Cleveland, New Orleans and Sacramento, Calif. It polled 2,258 musicians or music-related professionals on everything from their personal backgrounds and living arrangements to where, when and how they work and what their major concerns are.

The results proved — in the words of one of Wednesday’s speakers at the Woman’s Club — that many are “striving and not thriving” in the music community.

“I am so inspired in our ability to acknowledge our pain points and see what we can change,” dance-pop artist and record label operator Symone Wilson, aka SYM1, said on a panel that followed the data presentation.

The big ouch was the pay data: Minneapolis musicians who took part in the census reported an average earning of $231 total for them and their bandmates per performance, among the lowest payouts in the 17 cities where Pitts’ team has conducted its research.

Nashville’s census, by comparison, reported a $333 average for gig pay. Washington, D.C.’s pay topped all others with a $446 average.

Nadirah McGill of the popular grunge-pop band Gully Boys broke down how much their quintet would earn per show with that $231 average: $6.90 per hour, counting load-in and sound-check time and parking costs — but not counting months of rehearsal and promotion that went into the gig.

“That is below Minneapolis minimum wage,” McGill flatly pointed out.

A majority of Minneapolis’ overall respondents (57%-61%) also complained of sexism, ageism and elitism in the poll, and 63% said they have public safety concerns related to nighttime work. Among respondents of color or LGBTQ status, a majority also said they have suffered racism or homophobia within the music scene.

Some of the other findings in the Minneapolis census:

• Musicians made up the bulk of the respondents at 75%, over venue staff/promoters (8%) and other industry workers (17%). The latter rate is lower than in most other cities and suggests a need for more nonperformer jobs.

• Respondents spend an average of $4,589 annually on “creative expenses” related to music, amounting to $8 million per year in mostly local spending.

• Overall, the music community here is older than in most other cities, with 84% citing more than 10 years of experience in the industry. There are upsides to this, but it also hints at a need to foster younger up-and-comers, Pitts said.

• Music work is not the only source of income for 61% of the respondents, 85% of whom rely on other jobs as their primary source.

• Nearly 85% of venue operators rent rather than own their property. That’s also more than in many other cities and a sign of economic instability within the scene.

• Despite the bad news, a majority of the respondents said they planned to continue to pursue music as a profession.

Concerns were raised at Wednesday’s event that the census did not offer an accurate representation of the diversity in the scene, because 84% of respondents were white (above the state’s 73%). Some musicians also took umbrage to the fact that a majority in the census listed themselves as homeowners, which they contended is unrealistic for most of them in Minneapolis.

Also, only 4% of the respondents fell in the 18-24 age group — which might have been a shortcoming by the census takers in reaching that age group, or a result of lowered music education opportunities, including the closing of local schools such as McNally Smith College of Music and the Institute of Production and Recording.

Pitts, however, contended that the lack of respondents under 25 is not just an issue seen in Minneapolis: “The pandemic showed them that music really wasn’t a path forward for them,” he said, pointing to how badly COVID-19 damaged the live music industry.

Younger audience members also are paying less for live music and buying less alcohol than previous generations, Wednesday’s panelists noted. Alcohol sales are traditionally where music venues make the bulk of their revenue.

“I think it’s a good thing people are drinking less,” said Sean McPherson, bassist in the hip-hop band Heiruspecs and music director at Jazz88.FM, “but it’s treacherous for [our business].”

Wednesday’s event — organized by city staff with the nonprofit Minnesota Independent Venues Association (MNIVA) — mostly confirmed what many of the attendees already seemed to know. Thanks to the work of Pitts’ team, though, city officials and other civic and arts organization leaders also will now know the issues raised by the census.

Minneapolis City Council Member Katie Cashman, of Ward 7, and Mayor Jacob Frey made brief appearances at the event to pledge resources and planning based on the census findings.

“Do we really need another study?” Frey asked. “The answer is a massive yes. We don’t even know about all the assets we have here.”

“There will not be a comeback for Minneapolis without arts … without all of you,” Frey added, gesturing to Wednesday’s attendees.

In other cities where similar censuses were conducted, results included creating committees to lobby governments, implementing music education and music journalism programs, and starting partnerships with business and tourism bureaus.

Participants on the panel threw out ideas for Minneapolis city leaders to consider. Gully Boys drummer/co-vocalist McGill — who also has worked as a talent booker for venues — suggested the city throw out or lower its 3% entertainment tax on tickets and/or licensing fees, which would unburden venues enough to pay musicians more.

“That pits us all against each other when we’re all starving for scraps,” McGill said. “We need more money in the system.”

The full Minneapolis Music Census report can be viewed online at mplsartsandculture.org.