Products and Services

Job Referral Service - We publish in the West Michigan Guide to Live Music, both in printed form and on our website. This is a complete listing of all of our members who are actively looking for performance gigs from bands to chamber ensembles to soloists. We advertise this service in the Yellow Pages and the Grand Rapids Press and receive 40- 50 calls per month from people and places looking for live music.

Internet Exposure - One website (www.livemusicgr.org) lists all of our members groups with links to your own email and website. In the near future, we hope to be able to offer members a web page of their own as well.

Convention Listings - We have a listing of all of the convention activity coming up in the Kent County area over the next 3 years so that members can market themselves directly to these groups.

Membership Directory - Members are listed alphabetically and by instrument. Band leaders looking for subs or permanent replacements use the directory to find the musicians they need.

Union Affiliation - Many touring shows that perform here use local bands or musicians. Those touring under union contracts use local union musicians.

About Grand Rapids Federation Of Musicians

Musicians Celebrate 100 Years of Unity

The Grand Rapids Federation of Musicians is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2005. It was chartered as Local 56 of the American Federation of Musicians of the U.S. and Canada on Sept. 5, 1905. The goals were to unite instrumental musicians "for the better protection of [their] interests in general, and the establishment of a minimum rate of prices to be charged for their professional services and the enforcement of good faith and fair dealing between its members."

We do this through advertising public relations and our free Party Planner's Guide To Live Music. This booklet contains a list of all bands and single entertainers in our membership and is sent to all restaurants, hotels, clubs, and businesses in the Kent County area as well as to brides, party hosts, etc. who call our office asking for a copy.

In addition, we administer the Recording Industries Music Performance Trust Funds, which help fund free concerts at malls, parks, festivals, schools, nursing homes, and other public events. Our members made almost $44,000 last year utilizing these funds.
We also have contracts that cover every aspect of recordings, videos, radio, TV, and concert tours; from the local to the national level.