Some artists who performed as part of the East Coast Music Association’s annual awards in Sydney, N.S., this year are speaking out over payment issues.
Global News has heard from artists who say they had to wait more than two months for payment — with some receiving less than their agreed amount and in some cases, nothing at all.
Newfoundland musician Jordan Coaker says he’s owed $155 for his ECMA showcase on May 23. As an artist and booker, he says waiting that long for payment can be challenging.
“You have to kind of plan accordingly, and there are points where it gets pretty detrimental,” he said.
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Meanwhile, Nova Scotia musician Jake Ballard says his band’s $575 payment only came after he made a social media post about it. He says he has no desire to participate in future ECMA conferences.
“It’s really frustrating as an artist to have to wait that long for something that’s government funded, and I know a lot of artists are in the same boat,” said Ballard.
In response, ECMA executive director Bob Hallett says the association was aware there could be a problem when it came to payment.
“We were aware that it was going to be challenging to pay everybody immediately after the event, and we didn’t communicate that fact as much as we could,” he said.
Many artists were told the issues stemmed from delays in receiving funding.
Hallett says that a quarter of the association’s $1.5 million annual budget is currently outstanding.
“I don’t think it’s true that (the artists weren’t prioritized), but in order to pay it out fully, I guess we would have needed a significant amount of funds available the day the event was over, which was just not the case,” said Hallett.
He tells Global News the current financial status of the association is stable and all outstanding artist payments should be paid by the end of August.
