The performing arts is a strange business. No where else do I see a profession which requires a such a long commitment to develop the skill to play and the compensation for your work is all over the map.  

The reason I say all over the map is because i include the superstars who make millions.  There are people who have become famous and make millions for their playing.  This is a very small percentage of performers.  The vast majority who perform often make such low wages i have been embarrassed to offer them.  

Restricting the conversation to classical music, for the most part, organizations must raise money from donations.  Ticket sales are rarely over 25% of the cost of the performance for organizations like local symphonies.  

The theater world is on extreme example.  For a recent show, i was paid $55.00 for a 3 hour show.  $60 for a four hour rehearsal. Overtime was $5.00 per half hour. Now just figuring on a per hour basis, that is $18.33 per hour.  People work 40 hour work weeks for less than that for many jobs.  It still in today's dollar amount is low. My wife's hair dresser gets $60/ hour.  Some get more than that. A musician's work is not a 40 hour week however so there is a problem comparing the income to other jobs this way. The preparation time required to do a job is significant as well. This is unpaid time and can easily amount to 30% of the total time devoted to a job.

One reason which I have heard regarding the low pay for theater work is that it is generally understood smaller organizations can not pay more than this and still put on a show.  Still musicians, and good musicians, still take the job.  Partly because of the enjoyment factor.  Musicians become friends and enjoy being together. Partly because we are performers. That is what we do, we perform.  

This argument however is not applied to other professions which are called upon by the theater. If a plumber was hired to fix a plumbing problem, he is not told that for theater companies he must work for $20/hour. You simply would not find a plumber willing to do that.

So how can performers get paid enough to live on? Perhaps that is not a possibility for the majority of musicians. Typically musicians need to augment their income with teaching. Just performing alone will not generate enough income to survive.

There are a couple of reasons I can see for this problem. One reason is the attitude of people hiring musicians. Performing is not viewed as work, but rather something the performer loves and is willing to do for a very low fee. This is the supply side of the economics. Since musicians are willing to work for so little money, the supply of musicians is high. Another supply side issue is that availability of recordings. Almost any music can be heard now for little or no money simply by listening to the radio, downloading music, or sharing music with friends. Drive your car and turn the switch and you have Beethoven's 9th symphony performed very well by a highly talented orchestra. I wonder if people had to rely on other people to hear music, would the plight of the musician be as bad?

Over the last century, performers gradually acquired statutory protection of their economic and moral rights. These rights are not copyright in the legal sense but neighboring rights and until recently, they were mainly remuneration rights that are collectively administered. With the WPPT (WIPO Performers and Phonograms Treaty), performers now have individual exclusive rights for digital performances; this leads to the question: what has motivated this change – is it a change in the perception of the value of performer or a change brought about by the changing technology of copying or, indeed, a change that reflects different economic costs and benefits? The paper discusses the role of copyright law as an incentive to performers and asks if the economic role of the performer is so different from that of the author. The conclusion is that a complex interaction of the legal regulations, economic conditions and institutional arrangements for administering these new rights will determine the outcome.