[Dixielandjazz] Artist Demographics.

Thu Jun 12 12:38:41 PDT 2008

snip -There are 140,000 singers/musicians in the USA according to census
statistics.

yeah and they are all in St. Louis working for drinks..............

Speaking of that I got a call from a friend who was called by a local Big 
band.  They are working a gig in Indianapolis (248 miles).  The pay is $125. 
Now let's see how that works out.  The drive is about 4 hours one way and 
the gig is three hours.  That comes to 11 hours and maybe they will want to 
eat along the way.  So that puts us up to about 12 hours then there is 
setup.  Roughly dividing that it comes to $10 an hour.  Never mind the $100 
or so in gas money.  Let's hope they car pool.

Holy Cow, what are musicians thinking?  My advice - Get a life!!!  No wonder 
they are out beating the bushes to find subs for this gig.  The leader of 
this band is a retired Doctor.  I just can't believe that he would ask 
people to take this kind of work but then there are politicians that don't 
know how much a loaf of bread costs either.  The sad thing is that this band 
is pretty good and shouldn't have to go hat in hand begging for scraps.

My friend didn't take the gig.  I am breathlessly waiting for my call.
Larry
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Stephen G Barbone" <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
To: "Larry Walton" <larrys.bands at charter.net>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2008 8:42 AM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Artist Demographics.

There are 140,000 singers/musicians in the USA according to census
statistics.  If interested in that kind of data, see the below
article. If interested in the average income of a musician, jazz or
otherwise, and the earnings possibilities, there is an interesting
article at:
http://www.preservationrecords.com/daily/entry.asp?ENTRY_ID=176
Cheers,
Steve Barbone

www.barbonestreet.com
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband
NY TIMES - June 12, 2008 - By SAM ROBERTS
A 21st-Century Profile: Art for Art’s Sake, and for the U.S. Economy,
Too

If all the professional dancers in the United States stood shoulder to
shoulder to form a single chorus line, it would stretch from 42nd
Street for nearly the entire length of Manhattan. If every artist in
America’s work force banded together, their ranks would be double the
size of the United States Army. More Americans identify their primary
occupation as artist than as lawyer, doctor, police officer or farm
worker.

“It’s easy to talk about artists in lofty and spiritual terms,” said
Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. “Without
denying the higher purposes of the artistic vocation, it’s also
important to remember that artists play an important role in America’s
cultural vitality and economic prosperity. Artists have immense
financial and social impact as well as cultural impact.”

Drawing from the census, the endowment has compiled what it bills as
the first nationwide profile of professional artists in the 21st
century.

In 2005 nearly two million Americans said their primary employment was
in jobs that the census defines as artists’ occupations — including
architects, interior designers and window dressers. Their combined
income was about $70 billion, a median of $34,800 each. Another
300,000 said artist was their second job.

The percentage of female, black, Hispanic and Asian artists is bigger
among younger ones. Among artists under 35, writers are the only group
in which 80 percent or more are non-Hispanic white. Overall, women
outnumber men only among dancers, designers and writers. Similarly,
while 60 percent of professional photographers are men, 60 percent
under age 35 are women.

Like the population in general, the number of artists has grown
fastest in the West and the South since 1990, but New York State,
followed by California, Massachusetts, Vermont and Colorado, has the
most artists per capita.

California claims the most actors per capita, Nevada the most dancers
and entertainers, Vermont the most writers, Tennessee the most
musicians, New Mexico the most fine artists, Massachusetts the most
architects and designers (including, among others, commercial,
fashion, floral, graphic, interior designers and window dressers),
Hawaii the most photographers and North Dakota (where radio shows
abound) the most announcers. By 2005 the proportion of non-Hispanic
whites among artists had declined to 80 percent from 86 percent in
1990, but the proportion of blacks, 5 percent, remained the same.

San Francisco leads metropolitan areas in the proportion of artists in
the work force, followed by Santa Fe (which ranks first in writers and
fine artists), Los Angeles, New York and Stamford-Norwalk in suburban
Connecticut. The Top 10 also include Boulder, Colo.; Danbury, Conn.;
and Seattle.

Orlando, Fla., leads in entertainers and performers.

The “Artists in the Workforce” report, prepared by Sunil Iyengar, the
endowment’s director of research and analysis, identified 185,000
writers, 170,000 musicians and singers, nearly 150,000 photographers,
nearly 40,000 actors and 25,000 dancers. (They have the youngest
median age, 26, and the highest proportion of minority workers, 40
percent).

The only artists whose ranks declined since 1990 were, as a group,
fine artists, art directors and animators, to 216,000 from 278,000.
The number of announcers also dropped.

More than one in four artists live in California and New York, where
their sheer numbers are overwhelming compared to the artist colonies
in other states. New Mexico, Vermont, Hawaii and Montana rank first in
fine artists per capita, but they total 7,000, compared with 66,000 in
California and New York combined. Since 2000 Minnesota, New Jersey,
Rhode Island and New Mexico gained in the proportion of artists
compared to all workers.

Mr. Gioia attributed the spread of artists beyond traditional urban
clusters to the growth of cultural institutions in maturing cities in
the South and West, the mobility of the work force, technology that
enables a painter in Santa Fe to reach a broader audience and the high
cost of living in cities including Boston, New York, San Francisco and
Los Angeles.

Overall, the median income that artists reported in 2005 was $34,800 —
$42,000 for men and $27,300 for women. The median income of the 55
percent of artists who said they had worked full-time for a full year
was $45,200.

Over all, artists make more than the national median income ($30,100).
They are more highly educated but earn less than other professionals
with the same level of schooling. They are likelier to be self-
employed (about one in three and growing) and less likely to work full-
time, year-round. (Dancers have the lowest median annual income of all
artists, architects the highest — $20,000 and $58,000, respectively.)

“Many performing artists are underemployed,” Mr. Gioia said, “but one
of the stereotypes we’re trying to debunk is that artists are mostly
marginal and unemployed.”

About 13 percent of people who say their primary occupation is artist
also hold a second job — about twice the rate that other people in the
labor force work two jobs. The majority of artists work for for-profit
enterprises but 8 percent work for private, nonprofits and 3 percent
work for government.

While the number of artists doubled between 1970 and 1990 as theaters,
galleries, orchestras and university and commercial venues grew, their
ranks since 1990 have increased at about the same rate as the total
work force. They now represent 1.4 percent of the labor force, or
nearly as many people as the active and reserve armed forces.

Steve Barbone

www.barbonestreet.com
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband

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