What We Do (and Don't Do)

Early on, we decided to focus the organization on solo musicians. Actually, many members frequently work in bands, in addition to their solo work. It isn't a hard line; any musician who does at least some solo work can join. The key is that the focus of attention is on subjects that relate to solo musicians.

In addition to regular memberships, we also offer associate memberships for others, such as agents, who want to be listed on the web site. We are also looking at way to include and support other non-solo musicians.

We are not, nor do we strive to be, a union. We do not attempt to set pay scales. A huge range of salaries is negotiated in the solo world, including people just getting started who will work for peanuts. We also have not yet had to deal with a problem such as a club that broke an agreement with a member. We could boycott or threaten to. It hasn't come up yet.

The Network has no standards for membership, other than members working as solo musicians. Thus, just because someone is a member doesn't mean they can play well. Being on the list is not an endorsement; it is simply a convenient starting place to find what you are looking for. Many times a member is asked, “Who else would you recommend?” We try to recommend people we have heard or have it on good authority that they can do the job. We always tell players to get out there and let people hear you.

One of the wonderful things we discovered as we got to know each other is how different we all are. We each have a different repertoire, style of playing, and style of interacting with people. Each person has a different level of scores of variables that can't even begin to be listed... and certainly can't be quantified.