Work Not Play Campaign

The Musicians’ Union has launched the Work Not Play Campaign.

• The purpose of the campaign is to raise public awareness about the growing trend of professional musicians not being paid for their work. As well as being a place where musicians can share their stories and experiences, we are also encouraging people to sign up for updates.

• This means that next time there is a situation like Café Rouge getting musicians to work for free, we will be able to send an email out to all supporters – who will then be able to start tweeting about the offending venue/organisation.

• That, coupled with the ‘name and shame’ section on the website, is aimed at putting pressure on those who don’t pay musicians a fair wage.

• Since the Olympics lots of MU members have been asking us to tackle the non payment issues – and the hope is that this website and twitter campaign will provide more of a useful hub for this issue that the various facebook pages that have sprung up recently.

The FAQs might be helpful in answering any queries:

http://www.worknotplay.co.uk/faqs/

Live Music Act 2012

The Live Music Act was implemented in England and Wales from 1st October 2012 meaning that venues hosting live music to audiences of 200 or fewer between 8am and 11pm did not need an entertainment provision on their licence. In the case of unamplified music the audience number is unlimited. This change in the law has been campaigned for by entertainment unions Equity and the Musicians’ Union as well as UK Music and was much welcomed. The Live Music Bill was originally a private members’ bill put forward by Lord Clement-Jones.

Beer Duty Escalator

The Beer Duty Escalator is due to be debated by MP’s in November due to the e-petition calling for it to be scrapped receiving more than 100,000 signatures. Figures from the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) show that, since the introduction of the beer duty escalator in March 2008, beer duty has increased by 42% and beer sales have fallen by 15%. Around 6,000 pubs closed over the same period.