Support the Living Wage for Musicians Act today!
Now's your chance to support a piece of legislation that's a strong first step in returning the value our musical culture brings to society back to the people who make our music.
Support the reintroduction of the Living Wage for Musicians Act today!
For those in the Washington, DC area, there's a show to celebrate as well!
Artist payouts in the age of music streaming
Payment structures for music streaming are deliberately made opaque to the average music consumer, but in a very oversimplified manner, we can say that the streaming music revenue pie is currently divided something like this:
50% of revenue goes to multinational tech firms (and their Wall Street shareholders).
49% goes to legacy major labels (and their Wall Street shareholders).
1% goes to the artists who write the music you hear every day.
So, most of your monthly streaming bill is currently being paid to middlemen and entrenched interests: not the artists you love.
You can't trust Big Tech and the major labels to have your best interests in mind when it comes to our musical culture. Especially as they've allowed AI-generated music slop to take over their platforms, in an attempt to save money.
The Living Wage for Musicians Act
United Musicians and Allied Workers, with the support of Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Rep. Jamaal Bowman, are reintroducing the Living Wage for Musicians Act. This would create a new streaming royalty, distributed directly to artists by a non-profit administrator, and funded by an additional 10% streaming subscription fee.
This might add about $1 to your average monthly streaming bill, which is pretty darn reasonable considering you get fingertip access to our entire canon of recorded music, as well as everything new that's constantly being created.
A similar direct payment fund already exists for compensating artists working in satellite radio (and other industries): this bill would simply apply the same structure to music streaming for the first time.
If you love music, now's your chance to stand up and make a difference.
