How the Canadian Federation of Musicians is empowering artist-entrepreneurs

Podcast episode 72:
Whether you're a casual or career musician, or a live or recorded music consumer, you'll find this episode enlightening. Music is an industry, and being a professional musician is a trade. And, whether writing, recording or performing, musicians have rights and needs, just like other workers. Often navigating the industry on their own, many musicians experience mistreatment, poor pay and exploitation.  On this episode, we're joined by Liana White of the Canadian Federation of Musicians (https://cfmusicians.afm.org) , and Kingston musician Aruna Handa, a member of Local 518 of the Union of Professional Musicians (https://upmlocal518.org) . Together, they dispel union misperceptions; illustrate how membership keeps music fun, safe and rewarding for musicians; and answer questions, like what kind of musicians should join a union (and when)? They also detail how the Canadian Federation of Musicians and its American counterpart (https://www.afm.org) work together to help member musicians become better businesspeople, and help them travel across international borders for work.

Chapters:
00:00:20 Episode overview
00:02:40 What is the Canadian Federation of Musicians?
00:05:53 Music as a trade: Why musicians need a union
00:09:19 Keeping music fun and financially rewarding
00:11:14 Equipping musicians to counter ignorance and exploitation
00:14:13 Myth busted: Union members can't play for free
00:19:16 Proud union members: The Tragically Hip
00:21:01 Collectivism: How the union represents the voice of musicians
00:23:24 What kind of musician should join the union?
00:25:13 When should a musician join the union?
00:28:41 Does joining the union kill the fun of music?
00:35:07 Clawing back control and alleviating effort
00:37:20 How the union helps Canadian musicians work in the U.S.
00:42:01 Addressing cross-border challenges for Canadian musicians
00:47:08 How the union is helping to level the playing field
00:50:25 A vision for a better future for Canadian musicians
00:54:16 Episode credits

Host:
Rob Howard

Guests:
Liana White, Canadian Federation of Musicians
Aruna Handa, Union Of Professional Musicians AFM Local 518

Links:
Canadian Federation of Musicians https://cfmusicians.afm.org
American Federation of Musicians https://www.afm.org
Union Of Professional Musicians AFM Local 518 https://upmlocal518.org
Aruna & The Sirens https://kingstonlive.ca/arunathesirens
SOCAN http://socan.com
Recording Industry Association of America https://www.riaa.com
American Association of Independent Musicians (A2IM) https://a2im.org
Canadian Independent Musicians Association (CIMA) Canadian Independent Musicians Alliance http://cimamusic.ca
Folk Alliance International https://www.folk.org
Folk Music Canada https://www.folkmusiccanada.org
Kingston concerts and music festivals https://kingstonlive.ca/
Audio production by Soundwise https://kingstonlive.ca/resource/1191590/view


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