Anyone with a passion for music knows that it takes a lot more than just a foot in the door to gain entrance into the music industry.
The "it's-who-you-know" nature of business has led companies to take advantage of the seemingly endless amount of students and recent graduates looking to gain experience and connections within this coveted industry. But for employers taking advantage of those who are eager to enter the music biz, the tables are beginning to turn. Plenty of unpaid interns are finally fighting back after being unfairly compensated.
Warner Music was the first to be hit with a class action lawsuit to recover unpaid minimum and overtime wages. But now Sean "Diddy" Combs, the rap mogul worth a reported $580 million, is up next. A former intern just slapped his record label Bad Boy Entertainment and parent company Universal Music Group with a class-action lawsuit.
So, what's the deal with music industry interns going without pay? It's time to fight the common misconception that experience is compensation enough. Here are just a few of the damaging effects of bringing on unpaid interns in your company:
It's Not Legal
Far too many employers are simply calling a role an internship and using it to bring on a free set of hands. In fact, a recent InternMatch survey found that 36.9 percent of companies still offer unpaid internships or internships that pay less than minimum wage. Creating an internship program comes with numerous legalities and certainly isn't for the faint of heart. When was the last time you reviewed internship laws?
By law, you're only able to offer an unpaid internship if it's in accordance with the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division standards. To put it briefly, these guidelines state that in order to be unpaid, an internship must be highly educational -- as close as possible to the educational experience students are receiving in college. The employer providing the internship must also derive no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern or have duties that displace a regular employee.
Educational Duties vs. Noneducation Duties
Being a professional coffee fetcher, filer, or phone-answerer isn't anything close to educational. Bad Boy Entertainment interns were known for undertaking such duties as decorating the office and running errands. Not only can music industry employers afford to pay their interns at least minimum wage for any type of task, they can certainly drum up enough projects and immersive experiences to provide a more educational internship.
For instance, record label interns should be given completely relevant tasks alongside a full-time employee in a similar role. If you have an intern working directly with an artist and repertoire (A&R) scout, then it's important that the intern is taking on bite-sized, manageable duties that directly align with this role, like attending shows, drumming up research reports, reviewing demo submissions, and developing relationships with artists. They may not be going out to directly scout out talent with you every day, but that doesn't mean they can't have a hand in the behind-the-scenes processes that take place.
The Economy Is Paying The Price
It's no secret that the job market is looking less than shiny as of late. Offering an unpaid internship is actually working against the hope for positive change in the job market. In fact, the millions of unpaid internships in the U.S. every year are costing hundreds of thousands of jobs.
Paid internships turn into a job 60 percent of the time.
While on the other hand, unpaid internship experience offers a measly one percent bump over no internship experience at all (37 percent vs. 36 percent). The data-supported realization that unpaid internships have only a one percent impact on employment should sound an alarm for everyone touting the "pay your dues and reap the benefits later" argument.
No Pay = Damaged Reputations
A PR catastrophe isn't something any employer wants to deal with. But by providing interns with an unpaid, under-educational experience, you're putting your professional image at stake.
Employers are just now waking up to the fact that creating a paid internship program is actually good for business. Paid internships allow employers to bring in better intern candidates (paid positions on InternMatch get 2.7 times as many applications as unpaid roles), increase conversion of interns to full-time hires, and create more buy-in from students during their internship. Not to mention, providing them with real work can actually positively affect your company's bottom line.
Allowing interns to go without pay doesn't just put debt-ridden students in an awkward and financially unstable situation, it also damages the economy and the reputations of employers.
What do you think? Should the music industry pay their interns?
Thumbnail Courtesy of TonyHall; Flickr
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