BY: JOSEPH DEBELL, OPINION EDITOR
Photo Courtesy @weareumaw on Instagram
It’s time to tune into the reality of the music industry. The melodies we love are oftentimes composed against a backdrop of economic struggle for the artists who create them.
While the Living Wage for Musicians Act may not be a silver-bullet solution to unethical payment for musicians, it’s a democratic step towards finally having hope for a music industry that has long been plagued by unfair compensation practices.
Streaming platforms such as Spotify have revolutionized music consumption. However, those same platforms have also perpetuated a system of exploitation that disproportionately benefits major music labels and streaming giants while leaving artists scraping by.
Spotify’s recent proposal to pay less in royalties to smaller, independent artists should be a slap in the face to the creative forces behind the music we enjoy.
The Living Wage for Musicians Act, championed by U.S Representative Rashida Tlaib and supported by Congressman Jamaal Bowman and the United Musicians and Allied Workers, attempts to revolutionize music streaming by ensuring that artists receive a fair and livable wage for their art by providing artists a penny per stream.
It may sound modest, but it could mean the difference between artistic survival and creative extinction for countless artists grappling with financial insecurity.
The Living Wage for Musicians Act also injects capital into an industry that has long been starved for economic justice.
James Blake, a sought-after producer, songwriter and singer with about 9.8 million monthly listeners on Spotify, warns his followers of the starved economic justice in the music industry with two posts on X, formally known as Twitter.
“Something I keep seeing is ‘if you’re lucky enough to go viral, just use the exposure to generate income some other way’. Musicians should be able to generate income via their music. Do you want good music or do you want what you paid for.” said Blake.
“If we want quality music somebody is gonna have to pay for it. Streaming services don’t pay properly, labels want a bigger cut than ever and just sit and wait for you to go viral, TikTok doesn’t pay properly, and touring is getting prohibitively expensive for most artists, ”
In these posts, Blake speaks about the music industry’s squeeze for money and time. It’s something that artists at every level of popularity have felt, even someone as successful as Blake.
If someone like Blake is feeling the pinch of the music industry, imagine how it feels for anyone starting out.
As Damon Krukowski of the Union for Musicians and Allied Workers aptly says in an article posted on Stereogum, “Streaming platforms and major labels have already had their say for more than a decade, and they have failed musicians… The Living Wage for Musicians Act presents a new, artist-centered solution to make streaming work for the many and not just the few.”
Supporting the Living Wage for Musicians Act isn’t just a matter of economic justice—it’s an act of cultural preservation. It’s a rallying cry for anyone who believes in music’s transformative power to uplift and inspire.
debelljb22@bonaventure.edu
