They Should Change Their Name To Unfairfax

Content Is Not King With Fairfax

It's been pissing me off for a few days so I'm going to have to jus get it out there.
A band - Black Bird Hum - were asked play at the Sydney Night Noodle Markets. They were told that they wouldn't get paid to play, but they should because of the exposure they would get. As any right thinking professional would, the band declined and put it out to the world that Fairfax (who own and run the Nigh Noodle Markets) would do such a thing as to ask a band to play for free.

Black Bird Hum declined the offer, which they received via an agent representing Fairfax. “We’re flattered to be on the radar of a company with an annual ‘Total Group Revenue of $1,867.2 million‘ (FY2016),” the band wrote on Facebook. 

“We have, however, decided to decline the invitation to perform at the event on account of you deciding not to pay us.” The band noted how they have been paid for all of their upcoming tour dates, much like those who would’ve worked on Fairfax’s event. 

“We’re guessing that the sound tech who ran the PA on the night was paid; as were the graphic designers and marketing companies that did the event website, promo and marketing material; and the companies that supplied the lighting, tables, chairs and umbrellas; and the cleaners,” they wrote. 

But despite a Fairfax representative insisting to Crikey that they will “look at how we are engaging with everyone to ensure we are showing RESPECT”, they apparently still haven’t quite grasped the message. 

In an article published earlier this week in The Advocate, a Tasmanian paper printed by Fairfax Regional Media, musicians are taken to task for their ungrateful entitlement, i.e. expecting to be paid for performing live.

And so things just got a bit more nasty. If you go to the Advocate, you will find one Elanor Watt writing:

The real question is, how strong is your passion and what are you willing to do to achieve your goals.

I assume most musicians love making and performing music, it is not one of those jobs that you simply decide to do as you don’t have any other choice, it is considerably passion related much like writing or sports.

If someone was really passionate about getting their music out there, and enjoyed performing then they would take up any opportunity given to them, especially if it means expanding their audiences, drawing in a larger fan base, because we have all seen the movies, anything can happen.

The next issue is worth. Some bands have explicitly implied taking the previous approach insists that artists, well some, do not need to be paid. Are they not worth payment, are the countless hours put into practicing not worth payment.


I consider this issue similar to one that many other people face.

The trade industry for example. My grandmother told me she worked for several years training to be a hairdresser, she was the one who paid for cutting people’s hair, cleaning up, like any employee, but she was paying to do this, to further her skills.

The same goes for university students, yes we pay to learn but we are churning out word after word, some people go on to write thesis’ and contribute to academic literature which is all unpaid.
These people all share the same desire to pursue their goals. They all do this to get ahead, musicians should be no different.In response to these comments, the argument they make completely rules out many other people who are in a similar situation as mentioned previously.

The band seems ungrateful to a potentially amazing opportunity that has been given to them. Dismissing events like this makes me wonder where this band will be in several years time, if they consistently have in their heads they are too good to be even approached for an unpaid gig, what has made them so entitled.

Hundreds of people would be honoured to play at such an event that draws in thousands of people, but hey. obviously royalties are more important to some people.

And so she goes. Where do you start? If a band played a live set at the Night Noodle Markets, clearly it's situation where the corporation is hiring a band to play. If they don't want to pay for it, they should say it's open mic and invite people who want to play for "exposure". Watch all the crazies come out of the woodwork with their banjos and ukuleles and glockenspiels. Of course, they won't do that because they want to ensure a certain standard of entertainment - which is kind of why they would have to pay for the band. It's just a standard business transaction. 

If you have a stage with lights and a PA, and you have crew running around already, it's understandable that it's no big leap to think you can make it better by having a band. Except as the band point out, the lights and the stage and the audio techs are paid. Why on earth wouldn't Fairfax pay for the band? What possible reason could there be but outright disrespect for band musicians? Well, let's look at it in some more detail. 

Fairfax are doing all these Night Noodle Market numbers in order to transition out of just being a print media company. I also know for a fact that they keep their budgets tight and hardly raise them year after year but expect more from their suppliers every year; I know that they charge a shit ton of money for these stall holders to participate; I know this results in stupendous prices when you go to the Night Noodle Markets. In that context, it surprises me none whatsoever that they don't want to pay musicians.  They don't want to pay because it comes out of their margin - that's it. It's not profound; it's not some kind misunderstanding; it's not really difficult to understand.

Fairfax have conjured up an event where they charge stall holders money in exchange for providing an event space. They spend a portion of that money and squeeze out as much as possible from the production company so that they provide infrastructure such as power, lighting, staging, audio and assorted decorations. And the rest of it is their margin. It's a business, so you wouldn't do it if you didn't have a margin. The question then follows, if you're willing to have the infrastructure of a band performance and pay for it, why the hell wouldn't you want to pay for the band? 

It really goes to the core of what Fairfax thinks is its content. Presumably they think it's the food and therefore not the band playing music. What really is staggering is that the people who produce this event think the band should come free in exchange for 'exposure', because that would suit Fairfax just fine. All this says is that Fairfax doesn't want to spend the money because it's greedy. There's nothing excusable about it or anything that can be misconstrued as a misunderstanding. 

You know what's really crazy about all this? They've always been happy to pay some DJ in the past. Yes, a fucking DJ. Don't let anybody fool you that the Fairfax corporation has any "RESPECT" for musicians, or content. 

No TPP Deal Please

They Keep It A Secret Because They Know It Will Piss Us Off

Pleaides sent in this article couple of days ago.

A key section of the secret Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement has been leaked to the public. The New York Times has a major story on the contents of the leaked chapter and it’s as bad as many of us feared. 

Now we know why the corporations and the Obama administration want TPP, a huge “trade” agreement being negotiated between the United States and 11 other countries, kept secret from the public until it’s too late to stop it.

And so it begins. This TPP Business has been lurking fora while and in most part it's been able to lurk because it's shrouded in secrecy. Making things worse, it's the roll-over-for-the-USA Abbott government doing the negotiations, headed up by Andrew Robb, who is probably going to give everything America wants and not even come back with magic beans from the trade.

The New York Times is taking a leaf out of the Wikileaks article, and running with the story (as it should!).

The Trans-Pacific Partnership — a cornerstone of Mr. Obama’s remaining economic agenda — would grant broad powers to multinational companies operating in North America, South America and Asia. Under the accord, still under negotiation but nearing completion, companies and investors would be empowered to challenge regulations, rules, government actions and court rulings — federal, state or local — before tribunals organized under the World Bank or the United Nations. 

Backers of the emerging trade accord, which is supported by a wide variety of business groups and favored by most Republicans, say that it is in line with previous agreements that contain similar provisions. But critics, including many Democrats in Congress, argue that the planned deal widens the opening for multinationals to sue in the United States and elsewhere, giving greater priority to protecting corporate interests than promoting free trade and competition that benefits consumers.

If they don't like it in America, you can count on the fact that we won't like it any one bit when corporations can sue governments. 

Basically, it's a crap deal for everybody except the corporations. It's an agreement to suspend whatever laws we might have in our country or their country favour what the corporations want. That might mean outing minimum wage to overtime penalty rates to Medicare to WH&S regulations or environmental protections. In short, it seems like an agreement for all the signatory governments to give up their sovereignty and short change their citizens for a few dollars more so that corporations can have legal framework to get by with murder. 

The most disturbing thing about the TPP from our end in Australia is that the ALP isn't kicking up a stink; it's largely been collusive with the Abbott government in ushering this stuff through. Otherwise we would be hearing about this every day. It seems entirely out of character that the party that fought so hard against Work Choices would be allowing this crappy deal to go through without public scrutiny. Just what the hell is going on there? 

The Great Depression Part II?

'Small Government' You Say?

Here's something I don't get. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae essentially gave out huge amounts of bad loans to people it shouldn't have handed such loans. That's why they're called bad loans. It's not like there's a special, different definition for 'bad' in this case. It's just awful decision making on the part of management. Then, when the credit crunch comes, they go running to the government and the government bails them out.

So much for all that laissez-faire small government talk - they just simply throw tax payer's money at those people. In turn, the bosses of these firms leave these companies with their golden parachutes worth $13m and $8m respectively. Hang a minute, I think to myself, isn't that money from the public purse that they're taking as their golden parachute? Why doesn't the American public get more angry about this stuff?
It's ethically and morally fucked up, but nobody seems to give a shit. It's astounding. It's also pathetic to see that all that grand talk about the power of capitalism comes down to the Federal Reserve bailing out these crippled mortgage giants.

Don't Look Now, But There Goes The Banking Neighborhood

Lehamn Bros. has decalred bankruptcy. The Federal Reserve got together with a bunch of banks to create a $700b fund to shore up the hole being left by the imploding Lehman Bros. What's worse, the Fed is swapping out Treasury Bonds for the next-to-worthless mortgages. Isn't this a little bit like swapping dollar notes out in exchange for bits of used toilet paper?

Anyway, the estimated global exposure of the financial sector to the Lehman Bros collapse is estimated to be in the order of $850billion. Got that? That's US$85,000,000,000.00. Naturally, the ASX told people to stop trading with Lehman Bros. in Australia sometime this morning and the rest of it is a major meltdown of the financial sector.

Meanwhile the Bank of America acquired Merrill Lynch amid the deepening crisis. The Federal Reserve is stepping in actively to shore up the financial sector because the price of not doing so would be a rerun of the Great Depression - and nobody in their right mind wants that. The question that naturally follows is, are they too late? You certainly hope not, but you get the feeling the horse of the credit crunch bolted a good 14months ago.
So just where are we on this alleged economic cycle?