The New York Metropolis Council on Tuesday handed a decision endorsing federal laws that might create new royalty funds for musicians whose work generates billions in income however leaves many incomes under minimal wage.
Decision 368, launched by Council Member Shahana Hanif, helps the Dwelling Wage for Musicians Act, which might set up further streaming royalties paid on to artists on high of their present compensation. The federal invoice was initially launched by Consultant Rashida Tlaib and former Consultant Jamaal Bowman in collaboration with United Musicians and Allied Staff (UMAW).
With a coalition of unbiased music producers, songwriters and different trade staff, UMAW has taken direct purpose at main streaming platforms, organizing high-profile lobbying efforts since its 2020 inception to demand fairer compensation fashions from firms like Spotify and Apple Music. By sustained public strain and grassroots mobilization, the advocacy group has catalyzed a broader reckoning over the worth of music labor within the digital age.
“Within the music capital of the world, artists deserve honest pay and dignity,” Hanif mentioned in a press launch. “As streaming platforms pay artists lower than a 3rd of a penny per play, it is a essential step towards making our metropolis extra reasonably priced for working musicians to proceed dwelling and creating music right here.”
c/o Joey La Neve DeFrancesco
Joey La Neve DeFrancesco, a musician and UMAW organizer, known as the decision “an enormous win for NYC musicians” that demonstrates how collective motion can drive change within the trade.
“From right here, we are going to purpose to have related resolutions handed in different cities, and use this momentum to realize co-sponsors and reintroduce the invoice in Congress, and to cross it,” DeFrancesco mentioned in an emailed assertion offered to EDM.com. “We nonetheless have a variety of work to do, however passing this Decision within the largest metropolis within the US is a large step.”
The coalition’s purpose, DeFrancesco tells us, is “for the brand new royalty to equal at the very least a penny per stream, along with present royalties.”
UMAW in 2020 unsuccessfully launched a vigorous marketing campaign, “Justice at Spotify,” calling for the corporate to remit penny-per-stream payouts to artists. The group on the time organized a sequence of worldwide protests hosted outdoors Spotify workplaces in 15 cities earlier than the streaming large refused their calls for.
Spotify in late-April reported that its premium subscriber base grew by 5 million in Q1. The corporate’s earnings report additionally revealed a record-high quarterly working earnings of €509 million as its complete income ballooned 15% year-over-year to €4.2 billion. The corporate’s inventory is up a staggering 670% since late-2022, based on The Motley Idiot.
Council Member Carmen De La Rosa, who chairs the Committee on Civil Service and Labor, additional highlighted the financial disparity dealing with New York Metropolis’s estimated 14,000 musicians.
“The Dwelling Wage for Musicians Act is a lifeline for musicians who should depend on an exploitative royalty construction to make ends meet,” she mentioned, “and uplifts a vibrant workforce that deserves to be paid pretty for his or her artwork and expertise.”
