Last month, members of the Calgary Musicians’ Association settled a new collective agreement with their employer, YYC Music Awards.
Otherwise known as Local 547 of the American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada, the CMA represents musicians in all aspects of music throughout southern Alberta, as well as the Columbia Valley of British Columbia.
In this case, they represent 30 or so musicians who are contracted to perform at the YYC Music Awards. The 2024 awards were held on 24 September, so this new contract was finalized after the performance.
Each contract is only a year long, and this is the first contract since at least 2018 where the contract wasn’t in place prior to the performance.
The previous contract expired at the end of last year. The new contract expires at the end of next month.
The new contract has increased the fee from last year’s $50 per musician to $60 per musician. That’s a 20% increase, and it’s the first increase they’ve received since at least 2018.
The $100 after-party fee, however, remains unchanged at $100 per musician.
In last year’s contract, any musicians contracted to perform at the music awards who weren’t members of the American Federation of Musicians were considered temporary members of the AFM for this performance and were charge 10% from their fee. That has been reduced to 5% in the new agreement.
Also in the previous contract, the YYC Music Awards had agreed to contribute the equivalent of 10% of the musician fees to the Musicians’ Pension Fund of Canada. That contribution has been reduced to just 2%.
