#002: Recording Artists Need More Help During The COVID-19 Pandemic... Here's How They Can Survive a Future Crisis
“Music and comedy never cured a disease, but we always have needed it, so I’m not sorry”
Recording Artists need to unionize. This is the only way to provide the necessary protection for their community and to protect against pandemics and other crises in the years and decades ahead.
Across the country, recording artists, music producers and musicians are being subjected to conditions never seen in modern times. With all live music performance settings closed for over two months now and no clear end in sight, the ability for them to make money and survive is in jeopardy. Many of their jobs were the first to be shut down and will be some of the last to return. The relief funding that the government has provided has simply fallen short in reaching most. On March 25th, 2020, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act was passed in the US Congress. However, the allocation of these funds hasn’t reached many in music community for a myriad of reasons.
The distribution channels for relief funding to reach recording artists and music producers in need don’t exist in the capacity that is necessary. Many in the music community are independent contractors who combine multiple jobs to earn a living — including work-for-hire gigs, music streaming revenue, driving for Lyft/Uber and various other side hustles or part-time-jobs. The majority of these people aren’t able to file for unemployment right now and if they are, the amount received isn’t near a living wage. Los Angeles-based songwriter and performer Steven Wilkin states, “Three or four days after I filled out that unemployment information, I received a letter that said my awarded benefit was $77 a week” (1). Many times these programs are tied to payroll, which very few recording artists or producers in the music industry obtain. Jordan Bromley of Manatt Entertainment states, “We’ve gotten on the phone with some state labor secretaries and unemployment officers. They’ve basically told us their hands are tied due to the way the CARES Act is written” (2). So where are they supposed to turn?
Typically, protection for a group of workers will come in the form of a union. A union is a club, society, or association formed by people with a common interest or purpose. But is there currently a union to protect the recording artists and music producers today and fight for their right to healthcare, legal services, assistance programs and increased wages? Yes and no. SAG-AFTRA covers around 5,000 vocalists (90%+ who are major record label affiliated) and the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) covers around 70,000 instrumentalists (mostly orchestra’s, session musicians etc). To enhance the problem, Don Gorder, the Chair of Berklee’s Music Business/Management Department, states, “less than 10% of Berklee attendees know anything about either SAG-AFTRA or the AFM” (3). At the same time, there are unions to protect other adjacent creative groups within the music industry. The major Labels have the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the music publishers have the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) and the songwriters have the Songwriters Guild of America (SGA). None of these organizations are equipped to handle the recording artist and music producer community’s needs.
This leads to a clear void in the market — one that can only be addressed with the creation of a union to protect recording artists and music producers. Let’s call it the Recording Artists and Producers Federation of America (RAPFA). The first part would be to leverage the power of RAPFA to fight for all record labels (major and independents) to provide health care coverage to all of their artists if making over $1,000,000 per year, with therapy and substance abuse rehabilitation services included. But the problem is that successful artists that are self-releasing without record label support still wouldn’t be covered. So in addition to the record label coverage plan, I propose the establishment of a fund where all record labels and music distributors making over $1,000,000 per year would contribute 2% of label earnings on music sales to a fund to provide health care coverage - including mental health services, substance abuse programs, legal support services and have the leverage to negotiate for better payment terms for all of their members. Any artists who have healthcare coverage from their record label wouldn’t pull any of those expenses from the fund. In order to join RAPFA, you can’t just be a weekend bar performer who expects that to lead to those benefits. That wouldn’t be a sustainable system. So in order to qualify to be a member, you must be making between $25,000-$100,000 on music revenues in the prior calender year. With this system in place, it would provide the protection, coverage and peace of mind that the recording artist and music producer communities so desperately need, and a clear partner that could assist in the distribution of future relief funding.
The only way to achieve this result is with unity and forcefulness from the recording artist and music producer communities, backed by the songwriting community and other trade unions/associations. A rising tide lifts all boats. Recording artists and music producers that are putting in endless hours of work to achieve their dreams, and showing signs of success in that effort, should have these protections too. If there is any good to come from the COVID-19 situation, maybe it can sound that alarm for a final time for recording artists and music producers to unionize. But until then, Lady Gaga said it best, “We don’t have a union as artists. We’re just fighting for ourselves.” (4)
(1-2) Leight, E. (2020, May 06). 'It's a Clusterf-ck': Musicians Struggle to Get Pandemic Assistance. Retrieved May 19, 2020, from https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/musicians-struggle-to-get-pandemic-assistance-993437/
(3) Leight, E. (2019, May 07). There's a Musician's Union. Many Musicians Are Unaware -- or Unable to Join. Retrieved May 19, 2020, from https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/theres-a-musicians-union-many-musicians-are-unaware-or-unable-to-join-831574/
(4) Bacardi, F. (2016, March 08). Lady Gaga Continues to Defend Kesha. Retrieved May 19, 2020, from https://www.eonline.com/news/746788/lady-gaga-continues-to-defend-kesha-in-dr-luke-battle-says-she-s-being-publicly-shamed
