How do I join the union or commit to supporting?

• Reach out via the contact form. or email coloradomusiciansunion@gmail.com.

What if I want to join but dont get enough $100 offers to make the commitment?

• We are launching a prospective members program to help make this realistic by connecting our musicians with living-wage venues/gigs, and laying out a basic commitment plan including member proffesionality, committment to non-violence, racism etc. This way we can still support each other until membership is appropriate. Also, the CMU will continue working to raise gaurantees for all musicians, unionized or not, through our collective bargaining methods.

We can’t unionize everyone.  Won’t venues find cheaper bands like they always have?

• The first risk is young up-and-comers who are not making a living off their work. After the union establishes a network of unionized venues committed to paying a living wage, young up-and-comers will view the union as the easiest source for securing a gig in the first place. Many of our first days gigging, we took any offer we could because there were so few opportunities. With a network of unionized venues, guaranteeing a living wage for its workers/musicians, we can provide early booking connections and union opportunities (similar to a label) for said groups. This will not only prevent young-guns from crossing our-picket line, becoming scabs, but will solidify the union as the easiest outlet for potential scabs to get gigs in the first place. 

• The next risk is musicians making a living off lucrative day-jobs but play as a hobby and therefore take lower offers. From our local Red Rocks headliners to our Pearl Street buskers, we love anyone performing music in Colorado. it inspires and reinforces the music climate Colorado has become known for. After building our strenghth in numbers, we can create lasting relationships with venues, where they are negotiated to pay ALL musicians and workers a living wage to hire any of our UNION musicians. We’ve developed an early relationship with reliable venues and bands to help build the solidarity needed to ensure a healthy number of venues consistently guaranteeing $100/person minimum for union members and beyond.

Can bars afford this?

• Yes. Musicians have been making around $100/night since the 1970’s. Before the era of the internet, musicians had little to no way of promoting shows. The venues on the other hand, like today, had the promotional connections (social media, newspapers, magazines, blogs, wall space, employees, capital/budget, etc.) to make a beneficial nightly investment, which according to them, have to make, one way or another. With living costs as high as they are, musicians are forced to perform around half the nights of the month to simply make ends meat. The idea some employers conceived where musicians, playing multiple nights a week to pay the bills, could bring out an audience each night to float the bar, is unrealistic, and frankly, predatory. Not only is it unrealistic, the venues ability to promote a show, dollar-for-dollar, is many times more efficient way of solving the “lack of audience or cash” flow we hear them too often complaining about. We need only look a few decades back to see a multitude of American music scenes regularly featuring packed rooms and well-paid artists, who contributed to a “golden era” of recording between 1955 - 1985. Looking at Boulder in the 90’s/early 2000’s, and the harmony DJ’s and bands eventually found, we can see how when Boulder and Denver gentrified, and venues cut their budgets for promoting, turning to less “risky” business, shows in Boulder tanked. Denver saw a massive increase in venues offering gaurantees during this time and in a few years, the entire boulder music scene packed up and moved to Denver.

• It is however certain some venues will be unwilling or less likely unable to pay our demands. We find for every venue that refuses to continue music there will be more that open up with the budget needed to reap the surplus labor to expand business. Denver is one of the fastest growing cities and bar scenes in the country. As scores of venues have closed over the last hundred years in Colorado, the music-scene, (number of musicians, fans and shows, etc.) have only grown. As this city and its relationship with the arts grows, and bars and businesses re-open from the covid pandemic, our employers will need to lock in consisitent income, why not use the thousands of music fans who live here to help do so? We must enforce our earnings and contributions to Colorado's growing economy by recognizing how much of it’s night-life is sustained on the expectation we will perform every night, regardless of our working conditions. With a union, our collective voices can stop the exploitation venue owners so regularly rely on. Before the idea of a strike emerges, we are simply asking venues for a return to the rates and business strategies provided decades ago.

Why do they keep asking me to bring an audience or play for a door deal? 

• This will change with membership growth and strength. Unless the venue can pay a $100/person guarantee that night or resides on the union-exempt venues list, they are not welcome to hire union artists. Door deals are parasitic to local artists. Demanding that bands do the promotional leg work for bars who are unable to produce crowds themselves is an unrealistic approach to maintaining a music scene.  One of our first goals is establishing a network of union-venues who are willing to pay a living wage to it’s employees, and to promoting live music in a more traditional manner. Without a band playing, who would spend the exorbinant ticket prices for a show at the Fillmore, to simply drink at a bar? A Headliner however, could perform in an alternate space if demands aren’t met. If a union exists, it’s the venue who wouldn’t have an alternate band/exploitative price to choose. If the local venue can not utilize its intrinsic means for remaining in business, ie. social media capabilities, local entertainment/press connections, good drink/food options, pleasant space/vibe, consistent talent, etc. then it does not deserve to work with Colorado Musicians Union artists. Venues will open and close as they constantly have, to say we risk losing employment implies our employment is in any way consistent or secure in the first place. 

Is $100/person/night a living wage?

• No. Collectivizing the states artists and forming solidarity under a realistic goal being a $100/person, was the first step toward obtaining much higher demands in the future, as were arguably accomplished in the1960’s/‘70’s/‘80’s, if ever. That said, ten gigs a month should cover a meager front-range rent + food budget, leaving ten days for more gigs or further lucrative pursuits, and 10 days for rest. For consideration, minimum wage, when compensated for inflation, would be $27/hr today had it remained the value it was in the 1970’s. With rent, food, gasoline, and debt reaching unprecedented amounts, we should be expecting $300/person minimum on gigs as our predecessors did, when Colorado rent was hardly a few hundred dollars a month. $100/person minimum is just a start. 

How will the quarantine impact our offers, and when will we start the wage hold-out?

• One of the first decisions we will make as a group is when we will begin our holdout together. We will need everybody’s input to determine whether we are to begin committing to $100/person today, after all gathering bans are lifted, or some point in between. This will be collectively decided during one of our publicized weekly meetings, the decision of which will mostly be impacted by how many members we can build and how quickly. 

Don’t we have to pay dues in a union?

• Not with us. This union is a wage holdout and only requires you to set a fixed minimum rate at $100/person for your affiliated acts and other stipulations mentioned on the actions page. That said, we are a fully-democratic body open to all community needs. If a committee of union members seeks to deepen member commitment level, and say, start collecting dues for an inexpensive group health insurance plan, our union is designed to help make this happen. 

Does the Colorado Musicians Union include everyone? Does the union promote equality?

• This union is a vehicle for seeing the change we want to see in our state and music-scenes. Looking at Denver’s response to the slaying of George Floyd, the overturning of the Stapleton name, the legalization of marijuana, the overwhelming victories of Bernie Sanders in the 2020 and 2016 democratic presidential primaries, and the recent election of socialists to local city councils, it’s clear Colorado is looking to back positive and progressive change. We are open to membership and partnership with anyone willing to help. That said, in order to promote an environment for genuine equality and inclusivity to marginalized people, we are specifically exclusive to fascist/rascist/sexist/classist/homophobic/transphobic/islamaphobic/anti-semetic/nationalist/ableist/dick-head etc. viewpoints. Class solidarity will never be achieved with segregationist mentalities circulating amongst our ranks. Our union will function just fine without these people. 

Don’t unions prevent freedom of contract? Aren’t unions run by the USSR?

• That’s Reagan-era red-baiting and classist rhetoric. Musicians have limited venues to choose from in the first place, even less music scenes. After decades of “pursuing the better offer” in Colorado it’s clear only a handful can perform regularly enough to make a living, even while Denver had one of the fastest growing bar scenes in the country. Not only do we view non-union musicians as protagonistic scene members, we seek to set the bar higher for all contracts in Colorado by improving the value of guarantees on a systemic level. Acknowledging there exists today a shared understanding for “appropriate” musicians wages, the existence of a union will improve the general amount of available living-wage contracts vs exploitative contracts, thus improving the amount of legitimate options or freedom in weekly business choices and overall monthly earnings. This is genuine grass-roots movement organized by radical organizers, Not only have we yet to be tainted by Soros-dollars (let us know how to get some, please), but our more radical-socialist organizers have in-fact committed to challenging centralized power within our group and beyond it, regardless of the banner it hides behind.

Did Han shoot first?

• Yes. You’re still reading this!? Go practice!