Chappell Roan emphasizes health problems in the music industry

Chappell Roan brought the treatment of artists from the music industry to national awareness this week, while her Grammy acceptance speech for the best new artist who challenges music companies through young, developing acts better.

“Record labels have to treat their artists as valuable employees with a livable wage and health insurance and protection,” said Roan. “Labels, we have you, but do you have us?”

Roan’s comments reflect a deeply frustrating system in which many artists feel vulnerable and powerless, but the health system for musicians – as for most people in the United States – is even more difficult to navigate than suggest Roan’s comments. How does it actually work?

Roans speech could be assumed that artists from large labels do not have any access to insurance at all, but that is not necessarily the case. While the labels do not directly present their artists the way most employers do in other industries, they have agreements with SAG-Aftra, which enable their artists to use the mighty union of entertainment and industry for insurance qualify.

As the Executive Director of SAG, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, explains the admission of artists who are subject to annual income from their recordings under license fees with the big three large record companies and the Sony Music Entertainment and the Warner Music Group, annual income, as long as they are signed to the label. According to SAG’s Site, the premiums for these plans are currently $ 375 per financial quarter. Another union, the American Federation of Musicians, represents instrumentalists such as session musicians and also offers health options.

Crabtree-Ireland says that he spoke to Roan after her speech and would like to find ways to sharpen awareness in the artist class so that you can find out more about the resources available to you.

“We are trying to get the word out,” says Crabtree-Ireland. “In contrast to film and television, artists in the music industry often work independently, so that this sometimes leads to a little isolation where information is not automatically shared by humans.”

A lack of awareness of these types of trade union resources has been a topic for recording artists for years. Nevertheless, the SAG deal with the labels does not completely deal with the problems that Roan emphasized.

On the one hand, artists who are signed with a large record label only represent a small percentage of all recording artists in the shop. Artists at many independent labels are not justified for the same SAG deal, since their labels have not completed any shops with the union. The same applies to all non -signed artists who are still trying to gain a foothold in the industry.

If an artist is dropped – as Roan from the WMG Atlantic records did in 2020 – you lose your insurance authorization and must either find a plan through the Affordable Care Act or by Cobra, which can be incredibly expensive. This can be particularly difficult for artists who sign Young and have no training to enter another area, but it ultimately resembles what employees are exposed in more typical jobs when they cancel or dismiss.

Lawyers and music policy experts who are talking about languages Rab Recognize that the insurance problem goes far beyond musicians and affects every industry in this country – and they argue that the only attitude for systemic improvements comes from the federal government.

“Our system is fragmented. Changes should ideally be made at the federal level in order to involve more people at lower costs, ”says Renata Marinaro, managing director of health services at the entertainment group fund, which contributes to the fact that music and entertainment without insurance are provided.

She realizes that navigating insurance networks for artists who tours can be a challenge. “If you are a musician who is on tour and receive your reporting on the marketplace in New York City, you will not (necessarily) treat in Ohio or California,” she continues. “It is frustrating for me to tell someone that it is easier for them to travel through Europe and see various doctors with travel insurance than travel through the USA. Ultimately, we have to move away from these state silos and have an answer that is the Federal State and the insurance is more affordable. “

Most political experts Rab Speech supported for some form of a universal health system in order to offer freelancers an easily accessible cover that does not depend on an employer.

“For so many musicians, they move between employers so often. Most musicians, they have many different people who pay them – they have several labels, streaming services and every time they play a festival, ”says Joey La Neve Defrancesco, organizer at United Musicians and Allied Workers. “It is a dizzying selection of people. This is the case for many freelancers in industries. It is difficult to imagine that a situation in the United States is not used for a kind of individual payer and does not depend on health care on an employer relationship. ”

The question of health care is only part of a broader discussion about how artists are classified in the industry. While Roan Labels asked to treat artists as “valued employees”, even this statement is a bit thorny when it comes to the details. Technically speaking, label artists are not viewed as an employee at all. If this were the case, this could open the door for the labels for which you have worked to have your music 100 percent after a so -called “work for rental products”. Therefore, it is not a particularly popular movement in the industry.

Kevin Erickson, the director of the Future of Music Coalition, a non -profit music policy group in Washington, DC, contrasts with the situation with which some other types of gig workers are faced. “For example, Uber drivers have organized to try as an employee instead of independent contractors, since a W-2 employee may solve many problems for a Uber driver,” says Erickson. “There are situations for some musicians in whom a new classification is appropriate, but for a recording artist who is signed to a label who raises many questions with which independent contractors do not struggle in other parts of the economy.”

Nevertheless, Erickson and other supporters such as Defrancesco are pushing to find paths to offer artists better resources and at the same time keep their intellectual property.

Umaw, for example, worked with Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan) last year to introduce the wage wage for musicians act, a law the poor income that many artists see from their streams.

“Artists in the music industry are simply not organized enough,” says Defrancesco. “The solution for many of these topics must inevitably be to join an organization and take collective measures in order to force the industry to take artists seriously.”