Guest Post: Musician Travel Problem Solving

When I first started using Twitter, I was drawn to musicians. I didn’t understand this new platform, but I had learned from experience with Facebook in college that it would take time to understand how best to use emerging social media platforms to promote the organizations I was working with. In the meantime, I knew that I loved music, and wanted to learn more about what was going on in the world.

Over time, a pattern emerged. Among the other themes that concerned people – economic changes, cultural trends, etc – one problem kept repeating itself: musicians’ instruments being mis-handled or badly damaged when flying. This is a problem that deeply troubles people: I read accounts of extra gear purchased, bargaining with flight crews, long wait times with insurance reps, and saw videos spread like wildfire. In the years since, I’ve noted the frequency with which industry publications report these problems, and what kinds of responses have come from the leading advocacy efforts on this issue.

As I began to investigate this issue in earnest last year, I realized that a different kind of data and approach would be needed to motivate airlines at the level where they do business. As a result, I’ve designed a survey to ask working musicians about their experiences flying and performing, and am hoping to reach as many people as possible, so we can get actionable data. There are fewer than 25 questions, and the data from the anonymous responses will be used to develop new options for musicians’ air travel:

[ilink url=” http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/1630817/Instrument-Travel” style=”note”] http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/1630817/Instrument-Travel[/ilink]

If you take a few minutes to fill this out, your input will add to this effort to design real solutions. Please note that this is an independent project, and not sponsored by any organization.