Could Congress...Remake the Music Industry?
In Praise of Imagination
The past few weeks have seen some genuinely exciting developments in the legislative discussion around the music industries. And those are not words we use lightly. Once again proving her mettle (or her metal—pick your poison), Congressperson Rashida Tlaib teemed up with Jamaal Bowman and the folks at the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers to sponsor the “Living Wage for Musicians Act,” an audacious attempt to remake the music industry in favor of the artists producing the…you know…music.
While that is a totally reasonable goal, what’s WILD about the bill are the tactics it adopts for doing so. In the past, UMAW has launched campaigns that go after the streaming services for larger payouts, a tactic that we’ve previously criticized as somewhat misguided given the fact that services like Spotify don’t actually tend to make all that much money (except from stock. They do OK on stock in a zero-interest-rate-typa-way.)
This bill bypasses that morass by demanding a remonetization of the musical economy via a mandatory 50% increase in all streaming fees. Yup—under the plan, your month of music would probably end up costing as much as a Manhattan cocktail. This new pot of money would be distributed AROUND the major labors, and direct to artists (breaking one of the most long-standing relationships in the biz). Even neater? While the pot would be distributed on a percentage basis, “qualifying streams” would be capped at 1,000,000 per month per track. Which means that this payout, which would likely rival, if not exceed, any financial flows from traditional streaming, could utterly reconstruct the basic calculus of the industry, pushing artists towards a set of new release strategies and (hopefully) more sustainable careers.
We dig into all of this—and a whole lot more (including an extensive discussion of Tik Tok bans, the racialization of the tech-lash, and the bi-partisan potential of large-scale shifts within the ideological structures of American life)—on our most recent episode.
And if you don’t believe us? Damon Krukowski, who helped write the thing, seemed to dig our discussion.
Just saying—if it’s good enough for Damon, it’s probably good enough for you.
You can catch that hear (Apple), hear (Spotify) ,or hear (Podbean).
In other news — EDM festival Ultra Miami was forced to cancel one of its days due to extreme weather, another example of the increasingly ugly interaction between an industry reliant on outdoor events and the unpredictability of a warming world. Neil Young bowed to the power of the platform economy, and allowed his songs back on Spotify “They will all be there” he said in a statement, “except for the full sound that we created.” Incredible dedication to the bit. (Sidebar—is Neil the last of the ‘60s musicians still making good music? Probably right?)
Department of Actual Music:
Sam: I’ve been listening to a lot of Coil drone lately. Trying to get a handle on the bands complex discography isn’t easy, but you know what they say — the miles make the magick.
Saxon: Before you laugh, consider how strange and psychedelic this track is. Lyrics are overrated.
Saxon & Sam