Musicians, T in sound agreement

The agreement, which goes into effect Monday, is the result of a sometimes bitter monthlong public fight between the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and subway performers over the agency's proposed ban on all amplified music, which was said to be drowning out public safety announcements. To the performers, the new regulation threatened a Boston tradition of making music in the oldest subway system in the world.

The compromise, brokered with the help of state Senator Jarrett T. Barrios, Democrat of Cambridge, allows performers to plug in, but not to exceed an 80-decibel limit as measured from a distance of 25-feet. Sound levels will be monitored by station inspectors and other T officials, some using sound meters.

To compare, 70 decibels is roughly the noise generated by a loud radio in an average house; 80 decibels is the noise level of a road construction site or, as one T official put it yesterday, akin to positioning your ear directly over a garbage disposal while it's operating.

A loud shout or a busy city street would measure about 90 decibels and can cause hearing damage with prolonged exposure.

"Considering the fact that the platforms are 400 feet long, we were very comfortable with that level of sound, 'cause it's just about at the point where you can still hear music . . . and not interfere with the announcements," the MBTA's general manager, Michael Mulhern, said yesterday.

He added that musicians have also agreed to turn down their amplifiers when a station announcement is being made.

The T will also impose a ban on trumpets, trumpet-like instruments, and drums. Even keyboards simulating the sound of drums are not permitted. Trombones, saxophones, tubas, baritones, and French horns, all of which had been banned previously, are now allowed. Musicians will be limited to playing in authorized locations within stations, some of which are very different from prime spots they typically seek out.

For example, a popular spot for performers in the Red Line's Davis Square station, at the bottom of the main set of escalators, has reportedly been moved to a little-used area under the escalators.

The new regulations continue to require that performers pay a $25 performance fee, be "neat in appearance," and wear a photo ID issued by the T. They are prohibited from using any MBTA power source.

The new regulations take effect Monday, though musicians have until Dec. 31 to get their IDs.

The partial retreat by the T yesterday followed an unusual uprising by riders, street performers, and some of their famous brethren, including Mary Lou Lord and Tracy Chapman, who had worried that the ban on amplified music would strip away something special about Boston.

Within four days of news spreading about the restrictions, said Stephen Baird of the Subway Artists Guild, the public had offered 8,000 names online to support the performers. "It's proof positive of the personal relationship between the artists and their audience," Baird said.

The outcry led Mulhern to quietly ride around the system Friday to talk to performers about their concerns. "I came away impressed," he said.

Half an hour before yesterday's announcement, on the Park Street Red Line platform, 27-year-old Robert Rivera and 20-year-old Kenji Ota were setting up their amplifiers for Rivera's cello and Ota's guitar, a pairing that had blossomed on the platform just months before.

To them, the controversy over the new T regulations was more about communicating with their audience.

"With this issue," Rivera said, "I finally got to hear what they were thinking."