Category Archives: Press Releases

Musicians Kick Off Listen Up! Campaign Today

AFM President Ray Hair speaks out against film-music offshoring at the Listen Up! campaign launch in Los Angeles.

AFM President Ray Hair speaks out against film-music offshoring at the Listen Up! campaign launch in Los Angeles.

WESTWOOD (April 11, 2014) — Yesterday Los Angeles-area musicians held a press conference and rally across from the Regency Theatre in Westwood as part of a nationwide kickoff for Listen Up! – a campaign for fairness for musicians working in the motion picture and TV film industry.

The campaign calls out the motion picture-TV film industry for treating U.S. musicians unfairly by offshoring movie soundtrack recordings. Many offshored soundtrack recordings are made for films funded in part by U.S. taxpayers. At the Listen Up! kickoff event, musicians who are members of the American Federation of Musicians and its affiliated Los Angeles Local 47 were joined by representatives from the AFL-CIO, and other labor, faith, and community leaders to call on the film industry to stop offshoring film scoring work. Continue reading →

ABC Drops ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Band

 

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Feb. 6, 2014) — When “Dancing With the Stars” returns this March, the house band won’t be with it.

ABC and BBC Worldwide Productions announced this week that they will not have the 28 instrumentalists, singers, arrangers and copyists return for season 18.

The network did not announce a reason for the firings, but the American Federation of Musicians cites executive changes at ABC for the decision. The musicians union says the network put “pressure on ‘DWTS’ producer BBC Worldwide Productions to cut corners and pander to a younger viewing audience.” Continue reading →

Musicians Protest Marvel Entertainment in Cleveland

Protesters want the studio to keep jobs in the USA

CLEVELAND, OH (May 22, 2013) — Tomorrow at noon, members of the American Federation of Musicians will form an informational picket line outside a location shoot for “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” to protest Marvel Entertainment’s outsourcing of musical score work to Europe.

Musicians are outraged that rather than employ local musicians, Marvel pockets millions of taxpayer dollars from U.S. tax credits meant to keep work in the United States and instead hires foreign musicians on the cheap.
Continue reading →

Musicians to Protest Marvel Entertainment Today

Recording musicians want studio to keep jobs in the USA

HOLLYWOOD, CA (April 23, 2013) — Today at 10:30 a.m. members of American Federation of Musicians Local 47 will form an informational picket line outside the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood to speak out against Marvel Entertainment’s outsourcing of musical score work to Europe.

Recording musicians are upset that rather than employ local musicians, Marvel pockets millions of taxpayer dollars from U.S. tax credits meant to keep work in the United States and instead hires foreign musicians on the cheap. Continue reading →

Union Musicians Score Big at 85th Annual Academy Awards

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Feb. 25, 2013) — Professional Musicians, Local 47—the Los Angeles chapter of the American Federation of Musicians, the largest organization in the world representing professional union musicians—is proud to congratulate our members who composed and performed on the musical scores to a host of this year’s Oscar-winning and -nominated films.

  • Argo (7 nominations, 3 wins including Best Picture)
  • Flight (2 nominations)
  • Life of Pi (11 nominations, 4 wins including Best Original Score)
  • Lincoln (12 nominations, 2 wins)
  • Maggie Simpson in “The Longest Daycare” (1 nomination)
  • Moonrise Kingdom (1 nomination)
  • Paperman (1 nomination, 1 win for Best Short Film)
  • Snow White and the Huntsman (2 nominations)
  • Ted (1 nomination)
  • Wreck-It Ralph (1 nomination) Continue reading →

‘Ellen’ Show Signs Deal With Musicians Union

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Oct. 24, 2012) — After years of urging by Professional Musicians, Local 47 — the labor union representing musicians in Los Angeles — producers of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” this week agreed to compensate musical guest performers under American Federation of Musicians (AFM) contracts.

Musicians performing on “Ellen” previously received wages and benefits under contracts with the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and were deemed as “specialty acts” rather than musicians, a distinction disputed by Local 47. SAG-AFTRA contracts do not include the provisions for residuals and re-use payments to musicians that are covered under AFM contracts. Per labor standards, if two or more unions have overlapping jurisdiction, workers must be compensated at the higher prevailing rate. Continue reading →