The MPG has revealed some key findings from its Know Your Worth Campaign, with the full report due to be published later this month. The study revealed that almost half of music producers and engineers have worked for free during the pandemic.
This was despite nearly two-thirds of respondents facing an income reduction due to Covid-19.
The 25-34 age group was the worst affected, with 45% saying they have worked for free since the start of the Covid pandemic, with 41% agreeing to work for free averaged across all age groups.
However, the practice of working for free had reduced slightly compared to 2019, when the MPG carried out a similar study.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, 58% of producers and engineers have reported they have been asked to work for free, which is down 30% since 2019. However, the subsequent amount agreeing to work for free has remained at 70% of those asked.
As expected, conducting work for free in personally owned facilities such as home studios was by far the most common, with 70% of respondents saying they have done it. However, 24% of those worked for free in commercial studios.The MPG found that mixing and producing still dominate the work conducted for free.
Overall, only a small percentage perceived any benefit from doing unpaid work, with only 16% saying it led to paid work and 20% saying they learned new skills. 43% reported a negative effect on their mental health.
Self-funding artists were still the most likely to ask people to work for free by a large margin, up by 8% on the last report to 85%.
Similarly to 2019, Indie labels were next; however, this has reduced by more than half since our first investigation, down to 16%, and with major labels dropping to 9%.