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Leveling The Playing Field With The Fair Play Fair Pay Act

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Daryl Friedman
Advocacy
Jun 21, 2017 - 8:14 am

Fair play, fair pay. It’s a simple concept.  And we’re finally seeing it applied in a comprehensive bill legislating pay parity for music creators.

Today representatives of The Recording Academy are standing by in New York City as Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), a longtime supporter of fair compensation for music creators and the ranking Democratic member of the House Judiciary Committee, introduces the aptly named Fair Play Fair Pay Act of 2015. This new legislation is the culmination of years of grassroots lobbying by our membership on a slate of individual issues. It also is the result of coordinated effort between The Recording Academy – which first called for a comprehensive, united approach to solving pay inequities for music professionals at GRAMMYs on the Hill in 2014 – and other music stakeholders, including SoundExchange, A2IM, the American Federation of Musicians, SAG-AFTRA, the RIAA, and many others.

As the only national membership organization to represent all music creators, The Recording Academy is particularly gratified by The Fair Play Fair Pay Act because it addresses four previously separate parity issues within one encompassing piece of legislation. First, the bill would establish a process for setting fair-market royalty rates; create a performance right for artists on terrestrial radio; close the pre-1972 loophole to see that veteran performers receive royalties; and codify royalty payments to music producers for the first time. This bill levels the playing field so that creators can get fair pay.

The timing of this bill introduction couldn’t be better. Just two days after Fair Play Fair Pay is unveiled, members of The Recording Academy from across the country will come together in Washington this Wednesday, April 15, for the 2015 GRAMMYs on the Hill Awards, where Congressman Nadler will be saluted for his dedication to championing rights for music creators alongside another intellectual property rights crusader on Capitol Hill, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte of Virginia and an artist who has also championed creators’ rights, Alicia Keys. And the day after that, 200 GRAMMY advocates from our 12 Chapters will converge on Capitol Hill in more than 70 meetings to ask lawmakers to support the Fair Play Fair Pay Act and other issues of importance to music professionals.

The Fair Play Fair Pay Act represents a welcome approach to solving the disparate copyright and royalty dilemmas that have unfairly impacted music creators. And it is thanks to the dedication of our 24,000-strong membership, and the power of The Recording Academy’s grassroots advocacy efforts, that real progress toward fair pay for all music creators will be made. 

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Letting the Air Out of New Coalitions

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Todd Dupler
Advocacy
Jun 21, 2017 - 8:14 am

Last month, this blog recounted how hundreds of music creators and Recording Academy members descended on the nation’s capital for GRAMMYs on the Hill Advocacy Day.  Hundreds more reached out to Members of Congress in their home districts last year for the inaugural GRAMMYs in My District.  And so far this year, thousands of music creators and music fans have sent emails to Congress and flooded social media through the Academy’s online tools and through our partners at the musicFIRST Coalition.

Real people, real advocacy.

Whether it’s in Washington, D.C., in local congressional districts, or online, the message is both clear and simple: all music creators deserve fair compensation whenever and wherever their work is used.  It’s not surprising that thousands of voices have risen up for basic fairness.  It’s also not surprising that those who have an interest in keeping the status quo – big corporate broadcasters and Internet giants – are unable to muster the same kind of authentic, grassroots support for their cause.  What is surprising is the lengths they’ve gone to convince us otherwise.

The newly formed Mic Coalition purports to be for a “rational, sustainable and transparent” music industry in service to the needs and wants of consumers.  In reality, it’s a manufactured interest group led by a who’s who of corporate interests – including the National Association of Broadcasters, iHeartMedia, Google, Amazon, and Pandora – that are all committed to resisting the call for fair music royalties for creators.  Under the guise of keeping music “affordable” and “accessible,” the coalition’s mission is fear-mongering, warning that modernizing music licensing laws to ensure fairness will somehow destroy their billion-dollar businesses.  The Mic Coalition has already been rightly dismissed as the “McCoalition” for its corporate underpinnings. 

The new Re:Create Coalition requires a little more effort to look behind the curtain.  On its website, the coalition states principles that sound good.  After paying lip service to creativity, the coalition espouses the principles of balance, freedom and clarity in copyright law.  But for this coalition, “balance” really means to weaken copyright law; “freedom” is about securing the freedom to use someone else’s work; and “clarity” only seeks clear limits on the rights of creators.  The Re:Create Coalition includes the Consumer Electronic Association, the Computer & Communications Industry Association, Public Knowledge, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, each an organization that counts tech giant Google as either a member or a supporter.

During World War II, a secret unit of the U.S. Army was deployed in Europe to fool the enemy about troop strength and movements.  The “Ghost Army” used inflatable tanks, special sound effects, fake radio communications, and more to convince the Germans that massive infantry and artillery units existed where there were none.  The effort was a rousing success and a testament to American ingenuity and creativity.  Perhaps inspired by history, Big Radio and Big Tech think they can fool us with their own fabricated ghost armies. 

The efforts of The Recording Academy’s 24,000-strong membership and other like-minded allies have stirred up some mighty big guns, the best that money can buy.  But like the rubber tanks that sat on the front lines in Europe 70 years ago, those guns aren’t real; they’re filled with hot air.  These fake coalitions can’t match the real voices of music creators and music fans that are committed to basic fairness.

Make sure your voice is heard too.  Take a moment right now to ask Congress to update our music laws to provide fairness for creators: grmypro.co/updatemusiclaw

 

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The Band Perry Opens New Doors for Advocacy

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Daryl Friedman
Advocacy
Jun 21, 2017 - 8:14 am

The cloakroom of the House of Representatives is generally considered one of the hallowed, exclusive spaces in Congress.  It's a special room, just off the floor of the House chamber, where Members of Congress huddle for private conversations, plan legislative strategy, or simply take short breaks during a busy day.  So imagine the surprise of many Members of Congress when they finished casting their votes on the House floor, exited into the cloakroom, and found GRAMMY-nominated group The Band Perry there waiting for them and visiting with their congressional colleagues.

This unique scene was the capstone to an eventful day in January when The Recording Academy welcomed the new 114th Congress with a special musical briefing featuring The Band Perry and congressional leaders.

The centerpiece of the day's events took place in the Capitol Visitor Center, where the normally staid Congressional Auditorium was transformed into a state-of-the-art concert venue for a special performance.  The auditorium full of congressional staff and nearly two dozen Members of Congress not only enjoyed hearing a few of The Band Perry's most popular songs, they also listened as siblings Kimberly, Neil and Reid Perry described the challenges facing music creators today.  In a discussion moderated by Daryl P. Friedman, the Academy's Chief Advocacy and Industry Relations Officer, Kimberly told the audience, "We're not only speaking out on behalf of the artists whose faces are on the cover of albums, but rather the army of people that are underneath that.  We're trying to make sure that music can be a living that we can all make -- a practical living -- and leave an artistic legacy behind."

The briefing, presented in partnership with the Recording Arts and Sciences Congressional Caucus, featured opening remarks from Reps. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), both long-standing champions for the music community.  The Band Perry was later joined on stage by the co-chairs of the caucus, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) as well as by House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). The three congressional leaders rushed over to the event from a meeting at the White House so they could personally encourage their fellow Members of Congress to join the caucus and stand up for artist rights.

Throughout the rest of the day, the 57th Annual GRAMMY Award® nominees met with congressional leaders of both parties to advance a variety of issues, including some important to them personally as well as others shared by the entire music community.  In the morning, they met with Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) and other members of the Congressional Anti-Bullying Caucus to discuss their desire to help youth struggling with this difficult issue.

In the afternoon, they met with House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and other members of the House Judiciary Committee, to discuss the committee's ongoing review of copyright law.  They even managed to fit in a brief visit with the Speaker of the House, Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio). 

By the end of the long day, as they greeted Members of Congress in the House Cloakroom, it was clear that The Band Perry's artistry and advocacy had, quite literally, opened new doors.

 

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Photo: Dilip Vishwanat/Sports Illustrated/Getty Images

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How Working Musicians Will Win When Congress Passes Radio Performance Right

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In honor of Labor Day, take a look at how music unions and the musicians who belong to them would benefit from finally getting the AM/FM performance right they deserve
Nate Hertweck
Advocacy
Aug 30, 2019 - 2:35 pm

"While radio rocks out and cashes in over Labor Day, the performers you hear get paid nothing. There's a better way…" –Conversations In Advoacay #64

Labor Day comes around each year to remind us of the precious power and intrinsic value of hard work in our culture. For working music makers, compensation for their hard work can be tricky to track down, as music permeates into so many spaces in our lives. But in the realm of broadcast radio, artists and producers still don't get paid for the performance of their music, songs they worked hard to create.

Imagine that: AM/FM radio stations can use any song ever recorded without paying the artists, performers or producers a dime. That's a lot of hard work gone unrecognized.

Now imagine this: if royalties were paid for music played on terrestrial radio, it would not only benefit the featured artist on your favorite track, but also the studio musicians and backing vocalists who performed on the track too. That’s because a portion of the royalties would flow through the AFM & SAG-AFTRA Intellectual Property Rights Distribution Fund. The fund then distributes royalties to entitled singers and musicians, and while only union members are eligible to receive foreign royalties, all U.S. royalties are paid out without regard to membership. Clearly, this would put money in the pockets of all the music makers you hear over the airwaves.

This is why AFM and SAG-AFTRA, along with the Recording Academy, are founding members of musicFIRST, which works to ensure music creators get fair pay for their work, on AM/FM and wherever and however it is played. Together we all fight to ensure music creators receive fair pay, regardless of what format utilizes their music.

So as you fire up the grill on Labor Day and dial in your favorite station, consider the hard work put in by the artists and producers you hear and contact your Members of Congress to urge them to finally establish a long overdue performance right so we can keep the music playing.

Let Your Representatives Know You Stand In Support Of Music Creators' Rights

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(L-R) The Recording Academy's Wayne Zahner and Neil Portnow, Kristin Chenoweth, Rep. David N. Cicilline, Linda Perry, Mary-Mitchell Campbell and Diane Blagman
Photo: Shannon Finney/WireImage

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GRAMMYs On The Hill 2019: Music And Politics Unite At Washington’s Largest Advocacy Event For Music

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The annual Advocacy outing put music creators such as Linda Perry and Kristin Chenoweth in the room with lawmakers to discuss issues and policy critical to the livelihood of music creators
Nate Hertweck
Advocacy
Apr 12, 2019 - 12:56 pm

"Had a great day in D.C. supporting @GRAMMYAdvocacy during #GRAMMYsOnThe Hill. The fight for fairness continues to ensure that those who make music are heard" –eight-time GRAMMY-winning engineer/mixer Manny Marroquin, Conversations In Advocacy #52

Each year, the music community rallies on Capitol Hill for the Recording Academy's GRAMMYs On the Hill to connect with Congress and express the importance of creators’ rights. This year's Advocacy Day on April 10 brought out a litany of artists, producers, songwriters, and industry members to meet with lawmakers and discuss policy that affects their livelihood every day. 

The turnout from creators was impressive, from GRAMMY winning artists such as Lzzy Hale and Joe Hottinger of Halestorm, to GRAMMY nominees Mario and Linda Perry, to Broadway superstars Brandon Victor Dixon and Kristin Chenoweth, to name just a few. On the evening before Advocacy Day, the GRAMMYs On The Hill Awards honored Chenoweth with the Philanthropist Award, as well as Yolanda Adams with the Creators Leadership Award and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) for their decisive roles in last year's Congress getting the Music Modernization Act across the finish line and signed into law.

As music emanated up the steps up the Capitol Building and into its hallways, elevators and offices, the festive spirit of creativity and talent reminded our lawmakers of the crucial role music plays in our culture, setting the perfect backdrop for a discussion on the issues closest to music creators. For the music community, Advocacy Day makes all the difference.

"GRAMMYs on the Hill clearly has an impact and makes a difference," said Recording Academy President/CEO Neil Portnow. "It is no coincidence that just one week after last year's Awards and Advocacy Day, the Music Modernization Act unanimously passed the House of Representatives, paving the way for the bill to later be signed into law. Through the continued dialogue between music creators and Congress, we are ensuring a viable future for music makers."

GRAMMYs on the Hill Advocacy Day is considered Capitol Hill's largest policy event for music, and shows the Recording Academy does so much more for the music world throughout the year beyond honoring excellence at the annual GRAMMY Awards. To learn more about the Academy's ongoing Advocacy efforts, get informed on the latest issues and policy affecting music creators and learn how you can take action to join the movement.

Inside The 2019 GRAMMYs On The Hill Awards Celebration