According to pitchfork.com The Union of Musicians and Allied Workers published a open letter asking for increase payment for artists who are going perform at SXSW. So far the non-profit organization has collected signatures from over 120 artists including Eve 6, Guy Picciotto, Vijay Iyer, Zola Jesus, Wednesday and more. Also the other demand is having the music festival increase its rates to pay musicians and other reforms.
In the following statement UMAW’s Joey La Neve DeFrancesco mentions how artists are being mistreated by not getting paid enough for their work.
“The cost of touring, and the overall cost of living, have soared over the past decade, but SXSW has continued to offer the same disrespectful deal to artists. The festival has continued to grow, and openly brags about the hundreds of millions of dollars it generates for Austin. Yet the artists who are the backbone of the festival continue to be mistreated.”
The letter has also claimed that over the past ten years, payment for artists based in the United States have come in the form of a one-time payment of $250 ($100 for solo acts) or the option to receive a wristband to attend the festival as a guest in place of payment; international artists are only offered the wristband. The letter noted SXSW charges more in application fees for artists hoping to play at the event, raising the price from $40 to $55.
UMAW is calling for SXSW to be committed to paying $750 to all artists who perform at the event. Also UMAW is asking the festival to give a wristband to each performer in addition to their compensation, to offer the same payment, wristband options to international artists and to remove the application fee, which has resulted in an “actual decrease in wages for SXSW‘s performers over the past decade.”
SXSW is owned in part by Penske Media Corporation, who is the same company that also owns Rolling Stone, Billboard, and Variety. “The fact that the billionaire Penske family now owns the festival makes the low payments even more insulting.” UMAW’s Joel Jerome said in a statement.
In July of last year UMAW worked with Congressional Representative Rashida Tlaib of Michigan to propose a legislation for new streaming royalty. The proposal followed protests organized by UMAW in more than 30 cities around the world demanding increased transparency from Spotify. Also the Justice at Spotify launched in 2020, which advocated for a per-stream royalty rate of at least one cent, a user-centric payment model and more.
For more information visit https://actionnetwork.org/forms/sign-our-demands-fair-pay-at-sxsw/
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