Advocacy

This week, Ari is joined by Katie Tucker, Founder of Sharp Edges Records, to discuss advocacy and inclusion in the music industry.

Did you know that there is a law on the books in California that states a company cannot bind someone to a personal services agreement for longer than 7 calendar years - unless they are a RECORDING ARTIST?! That’s right, in 1987 the slimy, slippery, soulless major record labels successfully lobbied the California legislature to add an amendment to exempt recording artists from this law meant to protect people from long-term, predatory contracts. But finally, California might have a chance to right these historic wrongs with the new Bill AB-2926 (Kalra) that has been introduced.

If you’ve ever played on a recording as a hired gun, you are entitled to more than just the check you got for the session. You are guaranteed (up to) 5% of all the performance royalties that recording ever makes....

Most music companies around America participated in #TheShowMustBePaused movement and gave their employees the day off to do THE WORK. But some did not.  Last Saturday I attended the Black Lives Matter peaceful protest in Los Angeles. It was very inspiring. For the first hour in Pan Pacific Park right by CBS studios and The Grove (and Canter’s Deli - my favorite), we listened to speeches by black community members. Namely, we heard from family members of people who had been killed by the LAPD and have yet to see justice. We all said their names together over and over again. There were so many names I didn’t know. 

Last month musicians and other independent contractors got a HUGE win by getting included in the CARES Act benefits program. Independent contractors were promised at least $600/week from this stimulus package. However what ended up happening, in many cases, was...

Well ladies and gentlemen, seven months after Governor Newsom signed into law the “gig worker” bill AB5, which sent the California music industry into a complete panic, we finally have some relief. Today, the music industry, along with Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez and Assemb...

I just left Senate Majority Leader of California, Robert Hertzberg’s office in Van Nuys. We were awarded this meeting based on the petition (started by Alicia Spillias and Adrianne Duncan) which now has over 30,000 signatures. SIGN IT!! If you've been out of the loop about the...

Yesterday morning 5 musicians and I piled into my car at 7am (!!) and we made the excursion down to San Diego to Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez’s office to discuss the effects of California’s new law AB5 on the music community. If you’ve been living under a rock the past cou...

Photo: Paul Kitagaki Jr./The Sacramento Bee California is on fire. But this economic blaze will ignite abruptly on January 1st and will affect the California music industry so drastically that it could completely burn it down. As the fifth largest economy in the world and the...