Hi Brad,
I don't know about Making the Band, but one of my students has a girlfriend who was on The X Factor and was in LA for a week. She didn't make the TV cut, but all her expenses were covered and she was paid about a Grand for her time for that week. I would guess most Reality Shows have paid components. Of course, all of Puffy's engineers and musicians and support people were paid. Since these interns are not Talent but support (it's not a Band, but a Singer with her sidemen) they have more in common with the backing musicians who were definitely paid.
As I later posted, I have subsequently found out that the "internship" consists of rehearsing for free with the Artist 1 or 2 days a week at SIR so she can get used to singing with a band. The going rate for that in Nashville is $25-50 an hour per Musician. The "internship" which is trying to recruit college musicians but not necessarily interns seems really exploitive to me. The is no commitment for dates, just a " you can meet some Industry Heavies and things may work out for you with this gig."
What kind of industry heavies are going to be cruising SIR to check out a band of interns helping an "artist" get used to singing with a band? Doesn't sound like a scene that's going to generate any great breakthroughs for the interns.
We've all paid dues in different ways, and when I first started playing pro in the mid '70's I did non-scale stuff. But it was in contexts below the union's radar - I never saw any business reps show up at the salsa clubs in North Philly - or doing original music in small clubs.
And my first few recording sessions were freebies, but those were projects for friends, or friends of friends, hoping to land a deal. But once I had a bit of experience, no way was I going to continue giving it away. And even on those salsa gigs, I had parity with the other players (we were all exploited together, but that was the price if that was the music you wanted to play, on an undercapitalized ethnic scene).
Meanwhile, those few freebies led to road and recording work, a good deal of it overscale, that paid for much of my college and law school education and provided some great, great times.
So I would never criticize an aspiring musician for doing a little bit of cut-rate or free stuff to get exposure, particularly if working with friends who have skin in the game and no label or management support, or on a scene where no one does it for the money, but the musical exposure is superb, and you are not undercutting other, qualified folks who would otherwise be working the gig, or subverting genuine union jurisdiction.
This Nashville thing is none of the above. There apparently is a label and a budget, and the will to invest time and money in developing the "artist." The interns will not refine their skills but so much by playing with other interns, as opposed to playing with more accomplished folks, and who knows whether the music is worth a tinker's darn (BTW, how can this intern band thing proceed without a professional MD - who's gonna guide the interns, and provide continuity when the interns get ditched, so the "artist" has a guide?) This is work that apparently is covered by union contracts, and if the label is signatory to those agreements, then it sounds like a grievance to me.
This intern thing - across industries - is interesting. Well-run corporate programs, generally linked to college programs, do indeed serve a legitimate recruitment function, and there is the mentorship angle referenced by a techie poster above. Union apprentice positions provide wages, training and a cadre of staff available to do elementary work while they train at a reduced but reasonable rate - a win/win, as I see it. OTOH, free interns often get screwed, and the film and music industries have a long history of taking advantage of folks whose hunger to get onto the scene overwhelms common sense. A few of those folks do go on to have real careers, and their example feeds the beast, but it's tawdry and exploitive.
Ultimately, I'm not going to say there is a real clear line for young musicians when it comes to playing for free, especially in the world of clubs and bedroom studios. But the situation described in this thread certainly sounds over the line. I'm curious to see how this all turns out, and hope that the potential interns are not headed down the road toward exploitation and disappointment. And if the "artist" has a professional MD working this intern thing, well, that role is not the most karmically correct thing I've heard about in the last few years.
) and his backing band. I think it was called "Making His Band". Basically a series about auditioning to play on his tour which AFAIK didn't happen. 
