#009: US Government Funding for Music is a Joke
“Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without”
Music is the soundtrack for life. But in the eyes of the US government, there isn’t much value for that. As of 2019, the government only put forward .00016%. of the National Budget — only $8 million USD total — for music funding programs (1). In a country that has always undervalued the power of music for social good, the Trump administration has brought about new lows.
There are two primary organizations who handle the government funding for music grants and programs — the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Even in their best days, the NEA funding topped out at $176 million in 1992 (with a majority of that funding allocated for non-music programs) (2). But as of 2019, the total funding for the NEA dropped to $29 million. But as if this wasn’t bad enough, the Trump administration stated that was “sufficient funding for orderly termination of all operations over two years”. So this $29 million was only put in place to effectively kill the programs for the future. Luckily, the House, in a rare moment of bipartisanship in the same week that Donald Trump became the third president in US history to be impeached by that same body, ended up approving a $162 million budget for the NEA. Yet even with this funding, a measly $8 million USD were allocated to music programs (3).
In comparison, France allocated $307 million for music programs. Even though they have 20% of the US population, this is 38x the amount of funding. Similarly, the UK allocated $227 million for music funding, even though they only have 16% of the US population, they put forth 28x the funding. The UK also contributed another $2 billion total for COVID relief for the Arts — including recording artists, music venues, museums and beyond. As Mark Davyd from Music Venues Trust states, “This fund provides the opportunity to stabilize and protect our vibrant and vital networks of venues and gives us the time we need to create a plan to safely reopen live music” (4). In a most shocking comparison, Norway allocated $46.7 million for music programs, 6x the funding of the US, while only having 1.6% of the US population. In addition to the stark differences in capital funding, many countries — including Canada and France — also have programs in place to ensure that 50% of the music played on their radio stations comes from local artists. This is a large part of why so many Canadian artists thrive in the US music industry, including Justin Bieber, The Weeknd and Drake. But in addition to the radio support, and early in his career in August 2013, The Weeknd received $150,000 from FACTOR, a public-private partnership geared toward advancing the Canadian music industry and heavily backed by the Canadian government. And in 2005, South Korea created a $1 billion investment fund for its K-pop industry, leading to the global hit by PSY, “Gangnam Style” (5).
Despite the lack of government support, US artists continue to dominate the global charts of the music business. Imagine what this could look like with a country behind them. This is an issue directly tied to the grave socio-economic issues that exist in all major US cities, including gun violence and the rise in substance abuse. A young child finding and falling in love with music, with a clear path of how that can become a living, is a transformative change. I can speak upon this on a first hand account. But today, these efforts fall short simply due to the lack of funding. In the current state of America, and with calls for shifting the allocation of funding for the police, music is a piece of education that should be in the conversation to receive a piece of the pie. But this change must come from the Power of the People, a change of priorities and very likely only with a change of leadership in the 2020 US Election.
(1) Hogan, M. (2017, June 26). How Countries Around the World Fund Music-and Why It Matters. Retrieved July 06, 2020, from https://pitchfork.com/features/article/how-countries-around-the-world-fund-musicand-why-it-matters/
(2) Boucher, B. (2020, February 06). The House Just Gave the National Endowment for the Arts Its Largest Funding Bump in a Decade, Despite Trump's Threats to Squash It. Retrieved July 06, 2020, from https://news.artnet.com/art-world/national-endowment-arts-budget-1741353
(3) Cascone, S. (2019, March 20). Trump's 2020 Budget Is the Largest in Federal History-and It Would Entirely Eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts. Retrieved July 06, 2020, from https://news.artnet.com/art-world/trump-budget-national-endowment-arts-1490917
(4) Ingham, T. (2020, July 05). UK government announces $2bn funding package for the arts – including music venues. Retrieved July 06, 2020, from https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/uk-government-announces-2bn-funding-package-for-the-arts-including-concert-venues/
(5) Hogan, M. (2017, June 26). How Countries Around the World Fund Music-and Why It Matters. Retrieved July 06, 2020, from https://pitchfork.com/features/article/how-countries-around-the-world-fund-musicand-why-it-matters/
