LOS ANGELES, CA (Oct. 11, 2019) — Today musicians who score for television and films performed live music outside the Variety 2019 Power of Women luncheon calling on honoree Dana Walden, chairman of Disney Television Studios and ABC Entertainment, to pay musicians fairly for their work on streaming movies and TV shows. Continue reading
Hollywood musicians, those foot soldiers who bring the work of celebrated composers such as John Williams (“Star Wars”), James Horner (“Titanic”) and Hans Zimmer (“Dunkirk”) to life, have faced a mound of professional challenges in recent years.
Producers record their film scores in London or other overseas locations to avoid paying union scale, digital recordings have eaten away at opportunities for live players, and studios penny-pinch on music in countless ways even though their recording budgets are typically a tiny piece of a project’s budget — a $100-million project might spend less than $400,000 on musicians’ pay.
But now the musicians are facing a threat that some call potentially an “extinction-level event.” It’s the takeover of the entertainment industry by streaming video services.
More than 80 AFM Local 47 musicians marched in solidarity alongside friends from SAG-AFTRA, Actors’ Equity and many other local unions at the 40th annual Labor Day Parade at Banning Park on Monday.
Musicians proudly spent a day of solidarity with 3,000 members of the Southern California labor movement including actors, broadcasters, teachers, longshoremen, firefighters, teamsters, carpenters and more. Attendees of this year’s event, hosted by the Los Angeles/Long Beach Harbor Labor Coalition, also included Congressmembers Nanette Barragan and Gil Cisneros, and former U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, who now serves as an L.A. County Supervisor.
We are all stronger together, and musicians appreciate the overwhelming solidarity and support shown by our union sisters and brothers for our #BandTogether campaign. Together, we win!
View the photo gallery at bandtogetherafm.org
ANAHEIM, CA (August 26, 2019) — Musicians who record the scores for major motion pictures and television shows spent this weekend at the D23 Expo engaging with Disney fans, performing live music and sharing information about their grassroots #BandTogether campaign to win a fair contract for new media. Continue reading
SHERMAN OAKS, CA (June 27, 2019) — Today more than 100 professional musicians who work in film and television held a press conference and delivered stacks of petition signatures to the entertainment industry’s major producers demanding a fair contract, including residuals, for new media.
Musicians marched to the front doors of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers to hand-deliver hundreds of petitions signed by musicians who work in the industry, where studio representatives denied them entrance. “They are in this building and they are willing to deny us behind closed doors, but they will not do it in the open,” said musician and organizing committee member Jason Poss. “They will receive these petitions, even though they don’t want to receive them today. This is a victory. We have shown what is going on and they cannot hide from us any longer. This is just the beginning.” Continue reading