Entertainment Permit Policy May Be Needed in the Near Future

Higher paying jobs in the entertainment industry that require travel are becoming harder to find as new people enter the field and taking less money to do a job that experienced pros have been getting paid more for. The lifestyle that touring professionals in the music business are used to due to their higher salaries is more difficult to maintain. The entertainment industry is at fault with a perception of fame and wealth that is presented to the general public. This presentation to the public is directly is responsible for people desiring these types of entertainment careers and is why a professional traveler can get trapped in a lifestyle that can rarely be maintained. There are national unions in the United States for protecting copyrights for actors and musicians but there is no national union to protect the actual jobs like The American Association of Musicians and the Screen Actors Guild. However, these unions only protect the pay scale for recorded events or "gigs" as the entertainment industry calls them. There are some unions across the nation, but these are local in each city regulated by the individual state. These do not protect the careers that travel.

In 1988, the average pay for a touring guitar technician was $3,500.00 per week with a top pay of around $10,000.00 per week. Now, twenty years later in 2008, the same job in a bigger U.S. market has an average pay of only $1,125.00 per week with a top pay of around$3,500.00 per week. (Bureau) In comparison, a guitar technician that only works locally who limited to bigger cities with a good population of musicians will only earn a salary of $400 a week in 2008. These drastic changes in salary are what locks people into struggling financially and leaving no choice but to take the salary loss and continue on because the pay locally is even worse. In most careers, as an employee climbs the ladder of success, they are rewarded with raises in salaries and benefits such as health care or retirement plans. In the entertainment industry, people are rewarded with pay cuts and a saturation of lesser qualified personnel flooding the job market due to the hope of working in the entertainment business. Everywhere on television, magazines, and the Internet, the public is shown a better life that celebrities have by constantly glorifying them by showing financial gain. The public is shown exotic cars, million dollar houses, and the excess lifestyle which leads to public expectation. Flocks of people move to Los Angeles, New York City and Nashville each year with hopes of being a part of this lifestyle. Some may want to be in the spotlight, others have hopes of being the behind the scenes person. Either way, this flood of personnel into a limited job market drives the wages down and forces qualified people to take less money. Imagine if as many people that move to Nashville each year moved to Detroit instead pursuing a career in the auto manufacturing industry. Is what would happen would be the expectation of a high salary and security slowly decreasing until the auto manufacturers did not have to put up with union wage and benefit demands. The entertainment business is unique in that you can work directly with very large celebrities and make more money than you are used to quickly, but the higher lifestyle can usually not be maintained due to the income decrease pay scale. This happens with larger pay scales also and not just behind the scenes positions.

A person who becomes famous usually suffers the same financial difficulties in about eighty eight percent of celebrities who have made at least one million dollars in a year. The singing group "TLC" filed bankruptcy the same week that their first song release charted at number one on the Billboard charts in the second week of April 1996. As successful as any aspiring signer can hope for, "...TLC, one of the most popular rhythm-and-blues groups in the record industry, whose chart-topping albums have generated more than $100 million in sales for Arista's LaFace record label."(Blevins B2) Fame does not guarantee financial security in the music business.

Guitar technicians, like many other professions, experience these financial changes and witness financial struggle repeatedly. Another great example of the public, media and industry expectations leading to financial disaster is the band Cinderella. Cinderella has sold more than twelve million records since 1986 according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). In 1991, at the peak of their fame, executives from Mercury Records told Tom Keifer (lead singer of Cinderella) that Mercury Records was ending their contract and pulling all promotions related to Cinderella. The 1991 Heartbreak Station tour started out with seventeen full semi-trucks worth of equipment and ended with only three trucks. This is a great example of the expectations that are in place for the entertainment industry. The public expects to see a big concert with lots of lights and sound. When it comes down to it, the cost of having seventeen trucks of equipment is actually more expensive than all of the money brought in from ticket sales. Even after scaling down to three trucks in 1991, the Heartbreak Station tour lost over a half of a million dollars. Once the band Cinderella paid off all of their debt from having a big tour, little was left over for personal income. During the peak years of success, Cinderella was used to a higher lifestyle of living and the steady decrease of income left the entire band with little money left over. In 2008, the lifestyle of the band is decreased to a small standard of living. This is all because of the lack of future planning and education in the entertainment industry. There were no retirement plans, or even future talks. With music industry management and executive, everything is about the present and how much can be spent. In 1997 Deana Carter, a well known country singer with her song "Strawberry Wine" winning the Country Music Association award for "Song of the Year" and selling more than five million CD's made a small fortune in that year. Within a few years, Deana experienced the same financial difficulty that most do. In 2008, Deana now lives in a modest house and the extravagant lifestyle of a celebrity is over. There is no policy or protocol in place to protect the income of any entertainment person. Why should anyone help out entertainment industry people who spend large amounts of money on their own career? So why should anyone help out a failing auto industry that over-spent, over budgeted, and basically ran a poor business? But yet the Federal Government has a "Bail-Out" plan worth billions of dollars to save the industry in-spite of poor business decisions with the automakers. Likewise, the Federal Government sees fit to provide over seven hundred billion dollars to troubled mortgage lenders like American International Group, Inc. known as AIG. The same week that AIG received a portion of the Federal money ($85 billion worth), AIG executives took a vacation to a California resort costing more than four hundred thousand dollars according to ABC World news.(Ross1) These are taxpayers dollars spent on failing businesses that are owned and operated privately and it is unfair to reward these business for failing when the entertainment industry is hurting due to the fault of public expectation and the lack of financial education provided to entertainment industry personnel.

Charities around the world call on celebrities to assist in raising money. Being in the public eye and under constant scrutiny, celebrities feel obligated to help out and many are happy to help. Charities often overlook the business cost as well as actual effort by a celebrity organization to help in making money. Yes, a popular singer can perform at a charity event, but what about all of the crew that it takes to make a performance happen? They are often paid little money to help out and are the first ones to be forgotten about after any event. Once a person in the entertainment industry has financial difficulty, there are no charities or assistance that provides help to troubled industry personnel. Many employees of celebrities go without health insurance, without life insurance, and often die broke. Larry Wilson, an audio engineer died in 2007 after a severe motorcycle accident in Nashville. Larry toured with such famous acts as Brooks and Dunn, Martina McBride, and even the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). At the time of Larry's death, he did not have health insurance or life insurance and left a sixteen year old daughter with no money and left family to pick up the tab of the funeral. Todd (Bass Tech for Rascal Flatts), Nat (Pyrotechnician for Toby Keith), Gary (Monitor Engineer for George Jones) all died without a dime to their name. Some individual bands have helped their employees like when Guitar Tech Gary Smalley died in 1998 while working for Lynyrd Skynyrd. Lynyrd Skynyrd did a benefit concert and gave all of the proceeds to the Smalley family to help with their finances. This generous gesture is a rare event in the entertainment industry.

Eventually, the average wage for a travel job in the entertainment business will probably drop below the average wage for local work of the same field. At the same time, the expectation of newcomers in the business will still not change and the job market will continue to flood with new people willing to work for virtually nothing just to be associated with a celebrity. This is kind of like what happened to the music scene in Los Angeles in the mid 1980's. The club scene in the mid 1980's had a plethora of quality bands fighting over the limited gigs in Los Angeles. Most of the record labels in L.A. were signing acts to their label that were local. Musicians came from around the world to be at the doorstep of these record labels in hopes of being signed and with that much talent at your doorstep, its no wonder why the labels did not have to go outside of Los Angeles. As this became clear to people pursuing a career in music, bands were clawing at the chance to play in a local L.A. club. The nightclubs that hired bands for entertainment did figure out that these record company executives were shopping for new talent in their venue and they started reducing the wages that were paid to the bands each night. Very quickly the wages got to zero. Then the nightclubs figured out that so many bands wanted to play for free that they actually started charging bands to perform at their clubs. Yes, if you wanted to get a gig at a Los Angeles nightclub, then you were expected to pay the club for your services. This practice has not changed much since the mid 1980's and in 2008 very few nightclubs will pay for a band to perform. This is the same thing that is happening in Nashville and all areas of the entertainment business. Even for behind the scenes personnel such as a guitar tech.

In New York City in the late 1970's, taxi cabs were starting to overrun the city, so to put a cap on the traffic and to keep wages fair, the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission put a cap on the number of medallions available. A "medallion" is basically the license which gives a taxi owner permission to operate in New York City. This practice became standard practice across the nation and even in Hendersonville Tennessee the number of taxi cabs is limited by the Tennessee Department of Transportation. Currently just twelve thousand medallions in N.Y.C., a 2007 sale of an existing twenty-five year old medallion brought more than six hundred thousand dollars. (Nunez1) The N.Y.C. Taxi and Limousine Commission also regulate the fares that can be charged in order to keep competitors from slashing prices to nothing. A steep investment at $600K seems ridiculous as the amount made per year for just one taxi will not sustain this type of investment. However, the value is since the medallions are limited, the purchase of a medallion is considered equity and also has the ability to be considered a tax write off for business expense. While not a complete write off in one year, a medallion purchase is considered a write off that depreciates over seven years. (Internal)

Taking a concept that works, the "medallion" concept could be used on a national level with careers requiring travel like many do in the music business. A license could be required to do across state border commerce, or in other words, a person would need a license or permit to work in a state other than the state that they are residing in. The number of permits could be limited each year which would drive up the income of these entertainment positions. A permit that is issued could be given with a test for qualifications on any particular job. This would also make the entire entertainment industry have a higher standard of employees and contractors. It would be possible to maintain an income lifestyle and to work towards retirement in the entertainment business. Currently, people working in the entertainment industry that refer to "working towards retirement" means basically how long can they stay in the business before they have had enough.

The Occupational Outlook Handbookby The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows interesting facts about the diverse and broad spectrum of people that are affected by traveling careers. Upper class people, middle class, and lower income families all can have travel jobs as well as any race, gender or age. The United States has a large population of people that have a career that requires extensive travelling away from home. Other careers besides the entertainment industry include working in the airline industry, the military, and the trucking industry. In the United States alone, the airline industry has over two hundred thousand pilots and over fifty-five thousand flight attendants. There are over five-hundred thousand musicians, singers, or related careers in the United States. With this many people in just these few categories of careers, chances are that you or someone you know travels for a living. This affects a lot of the U.S. population as family, friends and loved ones leave home to make money. The idea of a permit to work across state borders would also benefit all of these other careers as well.

Benefits from a state to state work permit would also be local economies. The additional revenue could be put into state funds to assist in unemployment, health care, and many other uses. It would also create jobs in that a department would have to be put together by the federal and state governments to oversee the new permits.

Larry Burkett, author of "Single-Parent Statistics" concludes that in the United States, a Christian based nation, the lack of religious guidance can have a huge impact on a child as they grow up. Burkett, who is with the Assemblies of God Church, studied single parent statistics for many years and is an expert when it comes to analyzing families and religion in the American household. Burkett points out that the number of crimes in the U.S. is continuing to rise as the misguided children grow up in a broken environment. A child with a single parent is twice as likely to have a mental illness while growing up as a child with both parents present. Having a child involved in church based activities lowers the chance of problems such as school dropouts, early pregnancy and juvenile behavior. While children are greatly affected if their parent has a career that takes them away from home, a relationship with the opposite sex can suffer greatly as well. Well documented medical illness like "depression, anxiety, loneliness, and resentment can all lead to a separation, divorce, or suicide." (Burkett 104)

Currently, it is estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau that only five percent of single parents take their children to church regularly. ("Press") A 31% percentage of the remaining 95% is due to a parent having a career in travel. In 2007, there was one divorce for every two marriages in the United States. A large percentage of these divorces involved depression, loneliness or resentment on some level. These are serious implications of a travel career and can have a high emotional cost for everyone associated. (Rolett205)

With the requirement of a competency test to receive a permit, the number of people that would travel for employment would decrease resulting in more parents staying at home. This would assist in lowering the number of divorces in the U.S. Divorces often get hung up for months or even years in our legal system due to the backed up number of cases. Reducing divorces would free up the legal system to deal with issues faster. Children have probably the biggest struggle with divorce which can damage their mental stability for life. Children whose parents are divorced may have poor judgment in dealing with their feelings. The permit would contribute to a likely reduction in the common problems with children when they are missing a parent. There would be fewer teenage pregnancies and the issues associated with becoming pregnant. Lowering school dropouts would make our children have more of an education. Reducing the amount of juvenile crimes would lower crime rates across the country. Lower crime rate would stimulate economic growth in all sectors of the U.S. economy, retail, manufacturing, and service jobs would all benefit from a decreased crime rate. Reducing a crime rate would help even the small mom and pop businesses around the country. A reduced number of cases of depression and anxiety would lower the number of mental health cases and reduce the amount of anti-depressant and anti-anxiety drugs. The mental state of the nation would be healthier. The number of people that attend a Church would rise resulting in a general moral improvement. Regardless of the religion, most Churches teach children to learn right from wrong which would increase moral intelligence on many levels, perhaps even help reduce that amount of racism in America.

The entertainment business has had enough and perhaps it is time to send leaders of the industry to ask our government for a bailout plan. The mortgage business got it; the auto industry gets it, why not the music business? The entertainment industry deserves it as the whole nation looks up to it for relaxation, stress relief and enjoyment. Most people in the U.S. like watching television, going to the movies, or watching a concert. It is not fair that neglect and abuse is allowed to go on an everyone from a huge superstar down to a stage hand or guitar tech are made to suffer because of the glorification in the public eye. A "bailout" plan would not be money for free from taxpayers. Money would be needed up from to implement the program and could be repaid quickly with the revenue generated from the permits. Fast repayment would reduce the concern of taxpayers wondering if this is just more money out the window from the Federal Government. The plan would require effort by the U.S. Government to assist in the organization of a state to state permit plan would be needed to get started. A standardized competency test would have to be put together for each individual entertainment job. The number of permits to issue could be determined from data collected by the Census Bureau and the Department of Labor.

These permits are long overdue. The problem of paying to play that is experienced in the Los Angeles club scene could be extended throughout our nation if it is not fixed now. The quality of entertainment is at risk as well as the health of entertainment industries families. Everybody wants entertainment, charities call on celebrities, Americans are obsessed with shows like American Idol and the proof is in the ratings each week. Most people who like entertainment are completely unaware of the massive issues in existence and fans would be appalled to learn of the mistreatment and unfair policies put forth by an industry spinning out of control. The entertainment business would benefit greatly from work permits and when it is shown as a success, perhaps other industries could be included in these permits to benefit our nation as a whole.

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