US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and Congressman Jamaal Bowman have introduced the Living Wage for Musicians Act, aimed at increasing streaming royalties paid to artists. The United Musicians and Allied Workers Union (UMAW) are responsible for the bill that intends to establish a minimum payment for musicians, starting from a “one cent per stream” rate. The proposed bill advocates changes to protect artists who have been “directly impacted by a lack of oversight in the music industry”, calling for equitable renumeration in the streaming industry.
The Artist Compensation Roality Fund is proposed to serve as the “minimum wage” for artists and would exist as a separate payment system for such artists. The fund would allow total payments to be capped after a song has reached 1 million streams or $10,000 per month. Additional charges are to be made on subscription fees to streaming services, constituting about 50% of subscription fees from users of streaming services and ranging from $4 to $10 per user.
Spotify currently pays artists around $0.003-$0.005 per stream, to make $15 hourly wages, and exceed the monthly streams by 800,000. The introduction of the Living Wage for Musicians Act aimed at protecting underserved music artists in the industry: “Streaming has changed the music industry, but it’s leaving countless artists struggling to make ends meet behind.” Congresswoman Tlaib argued. With the digital streaming of music making up 85% of music consumption in the UK, artists continually point to economic inequality in the industry.
Although Billboard has predicted that the proposed changes in the bill may not be supported by streaming services, with the greatest streaming music brand Spotify’s reluctance to raise subscription fees in the past, the bill has proposed that 10% of non-subscription revenue, which includes advertising revenue, will be included in the royalty fund. As the proposed bill targets the improvement of revenue for underserved artists, it hopes to establish a fair pay movement and protect artists so that they can continue producing music without hindrances.
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