Musicians' unions stay out of digital debate

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080721/media_nm/digital_dc

By Antony Bruno Sun Jul 20, 11:59 PM ET

DENVER (Billboard) - Will the music industry ever get organized?

With digital distribution of entertainment as the focal point, the TV/film and music industries are embroiled in several disputes between those who create the content and those who distribute it. But while those disputes in Hollywood are well-documented -- with powerful unions like the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild staging high-profile negotiations and, in some cases, strikes -- the perception in the music industry is that artists are largely left to themselves to fight for whatever they can get on their own.

In fact, there are unions for music artists today, such as AFM (the American Federation of Musicians) and AFTRA (the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists). Instrumentalists are covered under AFM, while vocalists, including rap artists, are covered by AFTRA. Artists signed to a major label are automatically enrolled in one or the other, sometimes both.

These unions use collective bargaining to negotiate contracts between recording artists and their labels, which apply to every major-label deal. However, union contracts are largely limited to basic provisions covering minimal payments, health insurance and other benefits. Big-ticket items like royalty rates, advances and digital rights are left to separate contracts negotiated individually between artist and label.

To date, the bulk of artist-label disputes have centered on details contained in individual contracts, leaving artists with few options to engage their union for support.

"The only existing recourse for artists is to take on the record companies on an individual level," says attorney Mark Passin, who is representing Poison in a royalties dispute with EMI. "Artists need to get together as a group, as a joint force, to negotiate for better agreements and fairer treatment."

Take the revenue split for digital downloads. The standard practice is that labels pay artists the same cut they get under their contract for CD sales -- around 15% after recoupable costs. However, many artists, managers and their lawyers argue digital sales should be treated as a third-party license, in which case they would get 50% of digital revenue.

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