Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 12:00 am
New York, NY (July 22, 2008) – Some food for thought. Yahoo! ran an interesting piece on Sunday about why you never hear about music unions and how ineffective, if underused, they’ve been in negotiating the pitfalls of the music industry for the very artists they represent:
…There are unions for music artists today, such as AFM (the American Federation of Musicians) and AFTRA (the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists). Instrumentalists are covered under AFM, while vocalists, including rap artists, are covered by AFTRA. Artists signed to a major label are automatically enrolled in one or the other, sometimes both.
These unions use collective bargaining to negotiate contracts between recording artists and their labels, which apply to every major-label deal. However, union contracts are largely limited to basic provisions covering minimal payments, health insurance and other benefits. Big-ticket items like royalty rates, advances and digital rights are left to separate contracts negotiated individually between artist and label.
To date, the bulk of artist-label disputes have centered on details contained in individual contracts, leaving artists with few options to engage their union for support.
"The only existing recourse for artists is to take on the record companies on an individual level," says attorney Mark Passin, who is representing Poison in a royalties dispute with EMI. "Artists need to get together as a group, as a joint force, to negotiate for better agreements and fairer treatment."
It looks like things are at least on the road to change, with the unions talking about stepping up their efforts in these instances when their contracts are renegotiated in 2010. It raises the interesting point that, if artists wish to see a future of music in a stable industry, they are going to have to work together.
In hip-hop, there’s a mountain of evidence that says that can’t happen. Beef, bickering, gossip, guns, lawsuits, viral videos, mixtapes, envy, jealousy… hip-hop is often a microcosm of the world’s ills shaking to a fat bass line. Changing that stereotype – that state of mind – is going to be challenging, and I think the first part of that is to build an educated community, willing to root for one another and push each other to the top, either as fans or artists. When that happens, you see the level of achievement rise in those wishing to be a part of that, as well as an increased output of dynamic, creative ideas (i.e. good music).
That is the premise behind Loud.com. And we expect to see our users bring that attitude off-line, out into the culture and world from which we draw our inspiration to create. Clearly, the only way to succeed in today’s world – business, social, political or otherwise – is together.
