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District Advocate Day 2020

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District Advocate Day 2020: Music Creators Take Their Advocacy Online

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Check out how political and star power came together this year during the 7th annual District Advocate Day
Advocacy
Aug 17, 2020 - 4:04 pm

This year has had its challenges but last week brought empowerment and hope to music creators across the country as Recording Academy members spoke with elected leaders about issues affecting their community during District Advocate Day on Aug. 12. The Recording Academy's seventh-year organizing the event brought forth almost 2,000 Recording Academy members in over 250 gatherings with Members of Congress. 

Among creators using their voice to bring awareness was GRAMMY-winning singer/songwriter and Recording Academy Trustee John Legend who had some facetime with the Chair of the House Democratic Caucus, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.)

House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana) sat down with GRAMMY winning singer/songwriter and Recording Academy Trustee PJ Morton to discuss how certain pieces of legislation could help creators financially recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, including the RESTART Act and the HITS Act.

Yolanda Adams, Victoria Monét, Offset, and José Feliciano were other recognizable names who joined in on the day. The event gave hundreds of Members of Congress insight into what's happening on the ground—from artists who take the big stage to producers and engineers in the recording studio.

From Texas to Delaware, California to Florida, lawmakers heard the passionate pleas of the music-making community, who gave a local face to the pandemic’s impacts on the creative workforce and small businesses.

Missed the event? Check out the tweets below and take action to continue to amplify our call on Congress to pass creator-friendly legislation. 

District Advocate Day Unites Music Makers & Lawmakers Toward Pandemic Relief

GRAMMYs

District Advocate Day 2020

 

Courtesy Photo: GRAMMY Advocacy

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District Advocate Day Unites Music Makers & Lawmakers Toward Pandemic Relief

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Nearly 2,000 Recording Academy members – including GRAMMY winners and nominees – took part in over 250 meetings today in the year's largest grassroots music advocacy movement
Advocacy
Aug 12, 2020 - 9:39 am

Worlds collided today, as across the country the Recording Academy's seventh annual District Advocate day brought together the professionals who make the music we love and the members of Congress who make the laws affecting their livelihoods. Academy members engaged in a series of virtual meetings with their elected officials to discuss pressing issues impacting the music community, such as providing pandemic-related relief and assistance to the creative community, pushing for equitable treatment and social justice reforms, and ensuring that the rights of all creators are always protected.

District Advocate Day participants included GRAMMY winners Yolanda Adams, Brandy Clark, José Feliciano, John Legend and Ziggy Marley and GRAMMY nominees Victoria Monét and Offset, plus nearly 2,000 other music professionals.

The event marked the crescendo of the Academy's "Summer of Advocacy," an ongoing effort to help provide pandemic relief for music creators, to support survival of music businesses and to promote positive social change through legislation.

And it’s working. Earlier this year, Academy members helped secure important provisions in the CARES Act that provided critical support for the music community dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Today's conversations between Academy members and their Senators and Congressional Representatives took the next big step to ensure the music community is heard at a critical time for legislative support.

"District Advocate Day has always been an important initiative for music advocacy and it's especially true now," said Harvey Mason jr., Chair and Interim President/CEO of the Recording Academy. "Creators are among the hardest hit and first out of work, yet music is what brings the world together in hard times — and for many, it brings hope. Today, we raise our voices to remind legislators of the vital role music plays during this pandemic and, equally as imperative, the creators behind it who are struggling and desperately needing a helping hand from this country's leaders."

With District Advocate day, the Academy continues to amplify the voices of creators and small businesses, while also endorsing and developing additional legislation to deliver aid to creators. For instance, developed and endorsed by the Recording Academy alongside Rep. Linda T. Sánchez (D-Calif.) and Rep. Ron Estes (R-Kansas), the Help Independent Tracks Succeed (HITS) Act would allow individuals to fully expense the cost of new studio recordings on their taxes, up to $150,000, within the same year of production. Academy members encouraged their representatives to co-sponsor the HITS Act during today's meetings.

Members also advocated for passage of the Reviving the Economy Sustainably Towards a Recovery in Twenty-twenty (RESTART) Act, a loan program that would provide funding to cover six months of payroll, benefits, and fixed operating expenses for businesses that have taken a substantial revenue hit during the COVID-19 pandemic. For independent workers with mixed-income types, a category which includes many music creators across the country, the Mixed Earner Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Act proposed a solution to ensure unemployment relief and assist freelance workers unable to receive just unemployment aid. 

Members discussed these key issues and more today in year's largest grassroots music advocacy movement. District Advocate, along with the Recording Academy's annual GRAMMYs on the Hill in April, which is on hiatus this year due to COVID-19, are the Recording Academy's premiere advocacy events, and are credited by bipartisan legislators with helping to pass the Music Modernization Act into law — the largest update to music legislation in the past 40 years. 

For more information about District Advocate Day and Recording Academy advocacy initiatives, visit www.grammy.com/districtadvocate.

Take Action Today: Learn About The Key Issues Facing Creators And How You Can Help

Covid-19 Vaccine

Photo: Gerardo Vieyra/NurPhoto via Getty Images

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How The Recording Academy & the Dept. of Health And Human Services Teamed Up To Address COVID-19 Vaccines and a Return to Live Music

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In a candid panel spearheaded by the Recording Academy and the Dept. of Health and Human Services, Valeisha Butterfield Jones and Dr. Cameron Webb discussed vaccine acceptance among Black communities and a return to live music
Morgan Enos
Advocacy
Jun 17, 2021 - 12:00 pm

On June 11, the Recording Academy and the Department of Health and Human Services partnered on a We Can Do This LIVE Twitter Spaces discussion on vaccines, safety, and a return to live music. The Recording Academy’s Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer Valeisha Butterfield Jones hosted the event, which also featured White House Senior Policy Advisor for COVID-19 Equity Dr. Cameron Webb, who represented the Biden Administration.

As part of Black Music Month and the White House’s Month of Action in June, this event was geared specifically to Black Americans with a focus on the under-40 demographic. The goal was to host an open forum offering authentic and transparent expertise, personal perspective, and highlight a path forward to resume live music following nearly 18 months of shuttered venues and canceled tours.

The panel focused on the positive side of vaccines and their role in getting “back to normal,” particularly when it comes to live music—vaccines are the best way to defeat the virus and get back to safely attending concerts, gathering with family and friends, indoor dining, weddings, sporting events, and travel. Webb, who treated COVID-19 patients throughout the pandemic, broke down in layman’s terms the science behind the vaccines, how they work, what they do inside your body, and their effectiveness in combatting the virus. 

Webb also acknowledged, without judgment, many Black Americans’ trepidation about getting the shot, especially with still-fresh memories of experimental medical procedures inflicted on these communities throughout American history. (To say nothing of the fact that COVID-19 disproportionately affected people of color.)

“The scars of that are very visible, and there are contemporary injustices in places all over this country,” Webb noted, citing racist atrocities like the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, which withheld lifesaving treatment for Black men. “I want to be very clear: People are right to say, ‘Hey, it hasn’t been fair for Black bodies here in the United States when it comes to health.’ That is a verifiable truth.”

While Webb expressed deep compassion about these concerns, he tried to steer listeners’ perception of the COVID-19 vaccines as being an agent to stop the next Tuskegee Syphilis Study, not bring it on again. “One of the things that’s a way for us to prevent COVID is the vaccines,” he said.

“That’s something that we want to make sure isn’t withheld from us. It’s so important that we have access,” Webb continued. “That’s the legacy of what we’ve learned from Tuskegee, is that we won’t stand by and watch our community have lifesaving interventions withheld from our community the way it happened in Tuskegee. That’s why we’re fighting for folks to have access to vaccines.”

Furthermore, Webb noted the Black representation in the development of the vaccines—not only in the (voluntary) test subjects, but in the pool of researchers who developed them and the members of the Food and Drug Administration who approved them. “If you look at how representative the trials were, more than 10% of the participants were Black,” he said. “In some studies, up to 40% were from communities of color.”

And because of their willingness to serve the cause of science, the vaccines developed by Moderna, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and other companies have caused deaths in communities of color to plummet.

“They are creating a pathway back toward normalcy,” Webb said. “They’re allowing grandparents to survive this pandemic, to see their grandbabies grow up, and that’s what we want to see through this … If communities of color are less vaccinated today, they will see more deaths tomorrow, as this pandemic goes on.”

For the music community, the pathway back toward normalcy depends on vaccine rates and acceptance—the more people who get vaccinated, the faster we can get back to seeing concerts, which are already trickling back. Owner and developer of D.C.’s famed Howard Theatre Roy “Chip” Ellis, also spoke during the We Can Do This LIVE event, in which he enthused that times have been rocky over the past year and change—but they can’t wait to open their doors again.

Many venues, like the Howard, struggled without audiences for the duration of the pandemic, but hope is on the horizon with vaccinated audiences and a resumption of live music. Additionally, billions of dollars in federal support are beginning to trickle out to venues in need as part of the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program—an unprecedented relief program that the Recording Academy helped pass into law at the end of 2020.

With vaccine numbers continue to increase and concert calendars filling up for later this summer and into the fall, Webb and Butterfield Jones wrapped the Twitter Spaces on an optimistic note as they reminisced about the best concert they’ve attended (Jay-Z in Chicago for Webb), and named their personal “bucket lists” for shows they can’t wait to see in a post-COVID future (Usher in Vegas for Butterfield Jones).

Shuttered Venue Operators Grant Update: Don’t Forget To Apply Before Funds Run Out

John Legend & Hakeem Jeffries

L-R: Hakeem Jeffries, John Legend

Photo: Recording Academy

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Celebrating GRAMMY Nominees Who Advocated For Creators' Rights

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Ahead of Sunday’s 63rd GRAMMY Awards, we want to acknowledge those nominees who have helped advance the agenda of music creators during this trying year
Matthew Bango
Advocacy
Mar 10, 2021 - 4:01 pm

Daryl Friedman, Chief Advocacy Officer of the Recording Academy, spoke with Billboard about the important role Academy members played in pushing Congress to include creator-friendly provisions in the recent COVID-19 stimulus package. "Much to the chagrin of our in-house lobbyists, I always say our best lobbyists are our members because they really can tell the story in a compelling way," noted Friedman.

This year, the Academy has repeatedly called on our members to ask their elected officials to support many provisions that would yield positive results for the struggling music ecosystem, including passage of the HITS Act and support for solutions to mitigate the pandemics’ enduring impact. Ahead of Sunday’s 63rd GRAMMY Awards, we want to acknowledge those nominees who answered the call and helped advance the agenda of music creators during this trying year:

Brandi Carlile

A 5-time GRAMMY Award winner, Brandi Carlile is no stranger to using her voice to create change. Carlile spoke with a crowd of music advocates during last year’s GRAMMY Week in support of the GRAMMY Fund for Music Creators. This year, Carlile is nominated for Best Country Song and Best Song Written For Visual Media.

Brandi Carlile | 2021 | Advocacy

Brandi Carlile speaks to a crowd of advocates during GRAMMY Week in 2020.

Brandy Clark

Brandy Clark is nominated for Best Country Solo Performance and Best Country Album. Clark has a long track record as a music advocate, including representing the Nashville Chapter as chair of their Advocacy Committee and serving as a District Advocate leader for last year’s meeting with Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.).

Dave Haywood

While balancing a busy tour and recording schedule as a member of the band Lady A, Dave Haywood, a seven-time GRAMMY winner, has found time to call on legislators to support and enact meaningful reform to better the entire music ecosystem. Along with the rest of Lady A, Haywood was honored at the GRAMMYs On The Hill Awards in 2014 and is a regular participant in District Advocate. He currently serves as the Vice President of the Academy’s Nashville Chapter Board. This year, Lady A’s Ocean is nominated for Best Country Duo/Group Performance.

Rodney Jerkins

Rodney Jerkins, a legendary producer and two-time GRAMMY winner, has become a mainstay at the Academy’s advocacy initiatives. Most recently, Jerkins participated in the GRAMMY Week Congressional Briefing in 2020. Jerkins showcased his work with emerging artist Jac Ross and shared firsthand testimony of the difficulties faced when launching a career in the creative workforce. Jerkins’ Come Together is nominated for Best Gospel Performance/Song.

Rodney Jerkins

A group of lawmakers and music makers at the Recording Academy’s Congressional briefing on January 25, 2020, in Beverly Hills, CA (L to R) Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), Jac Ross, Cyndi Lauper, Rep. Norma Torres (D-Calif.), Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.), Rodney Jerkins, Rep. Linda Sánchez (D-Calif.), and Rep. Billy Long (R-Mo.) 

Emily Lazar 

An accomplished mastering engineer, Emily Lazar has three nominations in the Album Of The Year category for her work on Coldplay’s Everyday Life, Jacob Collier’s Djesse Vol.3, and HAIM’s Women In Music Pt. III. Between recording sessions, Lazar serves as a member of the Academy’s National Advocacy Committee, which is comprised of prominent music creators and determines the Academy’s legislative priorities.

Ledisi

As a member of the Los Angeles Chapter Board, Ledisi has long supported the Academy’s legislative priorities. In a recent “Profile in Advocacy,” Ledisi discussed the importance of using your voice to create meaningful change, noting that, “The most important work for any creator is not merely to create, but to also be of service beyond one's self, and our collective future depends on that.” This year, Ledisi’s Anything For You is nominated for Best Traditional R&B Performance. 

John Legend

An eleven-time GRAMMY winner, John Legend has used his talents to bring joy to the world, and his voice to advocate for change. During District Advocate day in 2020, Legend spoke with Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) about how to best help the music ecosystem overcome the pandemic’s impact. Legend also serves as a Recording Academy National Trustee and as an Honorary Chair of the Black Music Collective, which officially launched last year. Legend is nominated for Best R&B Performance and Best R&B Album.

John Legend & Hakeem Jeffries

John Legend meets with Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries during the Academy’s virtual District Advocate day in 2020. (L to R): Chairman Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and John Legend (Photo by Recording Academy)

Julia Michaels

Julia Michaels joined the Recording Academy’s Advocacy team for a holiday reception commemorating the opening of the Academy’s new Washington, D.C. office in 2018. Joined by a bipartisan and bicameral group of elected officials, Michaels shared insight into the importance of supporting music priorities and celebrated the recent passage of the Music Modernization Act. Michaels’ and JP Saxe’s If The World Was Ending is nominated for Song Of The Year. 

G ADV Opening

Policymakers and music creators mark the opening of the Advocacy team’s new office with a ribbon cutting ceremony in 2018 (L to R) Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), National Trustee Tracy Hamlin, Julia Michaels, Daryl Friedman, Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), and Rep. Ron Estes (R-Kan.)

PJ Morton

From attending GRAMMYs On The Hill to Zoom-ing with legislators, PJ Morton is a familiar face on Capitol Hill and in the Louisiana State Capitol due to his long history of championing music policies. When describing his virtual District Advocate day meeting, Morton stressed to Billboard the importance of reaching out to policymakers to raise awareness of a legislative solution. “It’s a slow process to change. But I think once you see it work, once you see your voice can matter, you can be a little more invested in it.” A two-time GRAMMY winner, Morton’s Gospel According To PJ is nominated for Best Gospel Album. 

Bobby Rush

From District Advocate to GRAMMYs on the Hill, GRAMMY winner Bobby Rush has joined music advocates over the years on their mission to directly lobby Congress on the importance of fair compensation for creators. Rush’s Rawer Than Raw is nominated for Best Traditional Blues Album. 

We thank all of the nominees who helped enact change during this incredibly difficult year! Without your overwhelming support, the Academy would not have been able to accomplish the tremendous and historic legislative victories in our fight against the COVID-19 pandemic  

Be sure to join us for the 63rd GRAMMY Awards on Sunday, March 15, 2021, at 8:00 p.m. ET/5:00 p.m. PT.

Read More: Billboard: How The Recording Academy And Its Allies Scored Big Wins In COVID Relief Package

Grammys Newsletter

U.S. Capitol

U.S. Capitol

 

Photo: SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images

 
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Bipartisan Package Brings New COVID Relief And More

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In the waning days of the 116th Congress, a bipartisan package includes new COVID relief and more
Advocacy
Dec 21, 2020 - 3:19 pm

After months of shifting negotiations and perpetuating stalemates, Congress reached a deal to provide the American public with additional COVID-19 relief. Congressional leadership, comprised of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), announced an agreement on Sunday, December 20 to attach the relief to an end-of-year government spending bill to be voted on Monday, December 21 and signed into law by the president. 

Recording Academy Chair & Interim President/CEO Harvey Mason jr. praised Congressional leadership on the new stimulus package, a welcomed sign for many struggling music creators. "The Recording Academy is pleased that Congress heard the call of thousands of music creators and included protections for the music community in the omnibus bill. In addition to extended and improved unemployment benefits and small business loans for freelance creators, the package includes several bills which the Recording Academy, its members, and the larger music community advocated for. From the Save Our Stages Act, which provides a lifeline to performance venues and promoters, to the CASE Act, which creates an avenue for smaller creators to defend their copyrighted works, Congress has ensured that both music creators and those who act behind the scenes to bring music to life are given the support they need during this difficult time." 

The package includes $900 billion in COVID-19 relief that will fund many critical provisions to assist struggling creators to survive the enduring financial hardship inflicted by the pandemic: 

Pandemic Unemployment Assistance

Under the agreement, Congress will extend the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program to April 2021, ensuring that self-employed music professionals, gig workers, and freelancers can continue to receive unemployment benefits as long as they are out-of-work. For many music makers with mixed income (a combination of W2/1099 wages), Congress has authorized a new $100 per week bonus payment to offset some of the eligibility complications encountered earlier this year. 

In the agreement, Congress also re-imagined the popular Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) program and funded it at $300 in additional unemployment benefits per week. The bonus payments will go to all individuals receiving unemployment assistance until mid-March. Finally, the stimulus legislation also includes direct payments of $600 per worker earning less than $75k annually ($150k for a couple).

Small Business Loans

The relief package appropriates $284 billion for both first and second rounds of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans. The program, which proved to be wildly popular under the CARES Act, is intended to tether workers to their places of employment, allowing for a quick recovery once regular business operations can resume at pre-pandemic levels. Updated guidance on the PPP program and application is expected to be unveiled soon.  

Additionally, the Emergency Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program will be replenished with $20 billion in new funding, a tool which self-employed workers and small business owners can leverage to pay for expenses. The bill attempts to address the uneven impact of COVID-19 felt by minority-owned businesses and underserved communities by appropriating $3B for Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) and Minority Depository Institutions (MDIs).

Venue Relief

Styled after the Save Our Stages (SOS) Act, the legislation includes $15 billion to support live event venues and other cultural institutions, including museums. This new program, to be administered by the Small Business Administration, will help independent venues survive the enduring impact of the pandemic and ensure live music can return to the stage safely in the future. While the guidance for this program has yet to be published, the Recording Academy will continue to communicate with its members on how to best leverage these programs to assist with immediate needs in the music ecosystem. 

End-Of-Year Spending Deal: CASE Act And More

The comprehensive package also have provisions for creators beyond the COVID relief sections.  

As part of the omnibus spending deal to fund the government for Fiscal Year 2021, Congressional leaders agreed to include the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement (CASE) Act. The bipartisan and bicameral legislation, which already passed the House of Representatives and out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, will improve the currently unfair copyright enforcement system by establishing a small claims court for copyright cases through a three-"judge" tribunal within the U.S. Copyright Office. A big win for creators, the CASE Act levels the playing field by driving down the high cost of federal litigation. The bill also increases funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and includes a new provision to treat commercial, large-scale illicit streaming as a felony—helping crack down on rampant online copyright infringement operations like stream-ripping websites. 

Before this funding deal was solidified, many crucial programs in the CARES Act were on track to sunset at the conclusion of the calendar year. Aware of the burden this would cause on creators, the Recording Academy launched a campaign to call on Congress to pass additional financial relief for creators and small businesses before the holiday recess. The activation has already resulted in thousands of letters and hundreds of calls being sent to elected officials.

This new compromised solution is a step in the right direction for creators, but Congress' work on COVID-19 is not done. Once the legislative body returns in January to start the 117th Congress, focus must be shifted to establishing long-term solutions to ensure a full recovery once the lockdowns are lifted. These long-term solutions include the passage of the RESTART and HITS Acts, implementation of critical DMCA reform, and establishment of a performance right for sound recordings broadcast by terrestrial (AM/FM) radio.

Take Action: Urge Congress To Pass COVID Relief For Music