Pay almost every musician; this is not charity.
principle — attributed to Mark Johnson
Johnson's payment discipline is operational. Playing for Change pays almost every musician on the project. The only musicians who do not get paid are the successful ones who insist on donating their time. The reasoning is structural. The project demonstrates that making music can be the basis of a business that rewards musicians, not a charity that uses them. The Zulu choir from Stand by Me used their payment to start a microloan business in their township. The discipline matters because cross-cultural projects often default to extracting performances without compensating the performers, on the assumption that exposure is enough. Johnson's version pays. The exposure follows the payment, not the other way around.
For cross-cultural project leaders, documentary filmmakers, and producers working with musicians or artisans whose work could be extracted rather than compensated. The principle is most useful as a corrective when the project budget has skipped artist compensation.
payment, dignity, music-as-business, zulu-choir