Fair Pay for Musicians

On Tuesday, April 27, American Federation of Musicians (AFM) President Thomas F. Lee joined AFTRA President Roberta Reardon, AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka, House Committee on Education and Labor Chairman George Miller (D-CA), House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-MI), House Representative Bob Brady (D-PA), and musician and composer Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary at the Committee on Education and Labor Hearing Room to outline a new mobilization effort aimed at building support for workers’ rights for performers.

The primary goal of the mobilization effort is to pass the Performance Rights Act, H.R. 848. This bipartisan legislation, introduced by Chairman John Conyers and House Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA), and endorsed by both the Obama and Bush administrations, would close the 80-year-old loophole that allows publicly owned radio stations to evade paying middle-income recording artists, session singers, and legacy artists for use of their work.

As part of the musicFIRST Coalition, the AFM is one of the leading organizations promoting the Performance Rights Act. “Musicians have the right to be compensated fairly for their work,” states AFM International President Thomas F. Lee. “We must put an end to the corporate greed of the radio stations who deny them this right, in order to allow thousands of hard-working musicians to earn a fair wage, and provide for themselves and their families.”

For more information on the Performance Rights Act, or to sign the petition, visit: www.musicfirstcoalition.org.