Labor Day 2025 found me preparing for a push in Washington DC this month to reintroduce the Living Wage for Musicians Act (LWMA), which will require streaming platforms to pay recording musicians directly for the first time. Why are we not already paid directly for use of our work by streaming platforms, you might ask, when we are paid directly by other digital audio platforms like satellite radio, internet broadcast, and even proto-streamer Pandora? The answer is that fifteen years ago, the three major record labels cut an ownership deal with Spotify which let it enter the US market without making any such direct payments to artists. The LWMA would finally stop this abuse of musicians’ labor and intellectual property. (Please write your elected representatives and urge them to support it.)
Meanwhile, those same major labels have sued and are now negotiating with AI-music generating platforms Suno and Udio… in order to similarly take a piece of the AI action, rather than protecting art…
