Studio Beat
A Changing Recording Landscape – Where Does the AFM Fit In?
We’ve all heard the alarming news about illegal downloading. Unpaid peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing threatens the very existence of the companies that have provided musicians with lucrative employment for years. As a result, session musicians have experienced a downturn in major label work.
But in the midst of this crisis, a new landscape is evolving. During the past several years, while major record labels and recording studios have struggled to survive, more CDs were produced in more studios than at any time in history. Many of these projects are self-produced by artists and musicians. We now have more affordable ways to record, market, and distribute our music than ever before.
There are a lot of great reasons to make your own CDs. You can use them as part of a promotional package to get more live work. It’s easy to sell CDs at gigs and on the Internet with sites such as CDbaby.com or by using PayPal. A CD can help propel your group to a different level.
So how does the AFM fit in when you make your own CD? What if the budget is low? Let’s say you’re a musician and you want to make your own CD by yourself or with some other musicians. What follows is the step by step procedure of what you need to do:
1. Your company becomes an AFM signatory. If you have a corporation it’s easy. If not, it requires an extra step. Either way, you sign the Sound Recording Labor Agreement, which is the same agreement that all of the major labels have signed with the AFM. It’s easy; I’ll walk you through it.
2. Produce the CD. If you need help with this part, contact me to find studios, producers, engineers, and musicians. I can also help you deal with copyright.
3. Fill out and submit the B-4 session report forms. This part is kind of confusing at first, but as a member of South Florida Musicians, we help you do this the first few times until you get the hang of it. That’s one of the services we provide to our members.
4. Pay the musicians their wages. Ideally, you will pay the appropriate wages and Health & Welfare at the session. When the musicians are in the same group or are friends, they sometimes agree to “give the check back”. Contact me for more information about this part.
5. Pay the musicians’ pension. This is a crucial and required step, and is one of the best reasons to go through this process. Sum the pension for the entire project (currently 10% of wages) and submit one check to the fund. This step gives a pension contribution to each musician. It also entitles them to Special Payments Fund royalties for five years. The pension and Special Payments money is a way to reward musicians (and yourself) in a deferred way that a non-union recording never could.
6. Pay the work dues. This is required for each musician. It’s a nice gesture to pay the musicians’ work dues for them (currently 3.5% of wages) especially when they’re accepting low budget rates.
With today’s music business, we need to make sure we maximize every potential revenue stream. Making your CD through the AFM is one of the best ways to do that.
When you get called to record on an independent CD, please share this information with the person hiring you. If they are a musician, they stand to benefit as much as anyone from making it a union CD.
Please feel free to contact me about this process. I look forward to hearing from you!
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