The American Federation of Musicians is integrally involved with three societies that collect and distribute royalties to musicians. Only one of these societies–the AFM and AFTRA Intellectual Property Rights Distribution Fund–is dedicated to serving the needs of session musicians. It is the organization with the longest name, the leanest staff, and the toughest mission, and it is probably the best kept secret in the AFM.
You no doubt already know about the great work of SoundExchange in collecting digital performance royalties from webcasters and satellite radio, and distributing them to featured artists. You may also be aware of the Alliance of Artists and Record Companies (AARC), which represents featured artists for the collection and distribution of US and foreign home taping royalties and record rentals in Japan. The AFM is actively involved in the Boards of both of these collection societies. But unless you are one of the more than 12,000 musicians or vocalists who has received a check from the AFM & AFTRA Fund, you may never have heard its name. And even then, you may not know how the AFM & AFTRA Fund fits into the royalty distribution picture.
The AFM & AFTRA Fund was formed as a result of an unprecedented cooperation between the AFM and the American Federation of Television and Recording Artists (AFTRA) in order to collect and distribute monies as a result of changes to the US Copyright law, as well as for royalties that became available in foreign countries. The unions and the Fund soon entered into partnerships with SoundExchange and AARC so that acting together, we could all ensure the maximum collections and most efficient distributions for musicians and vocalists. Pursuant to our agreements, we work together to try to collect foreign royalties. Then, SoundExchange distributes performance royalties to featured artists, AARC distributes home taping royalties to featured artists, and the AFM & AFTRA Fund distributes all types of royalties possible to session musicians and vocalists.
While there were minimal amounts of money available for distribution initially, the Fund has grown dramatically from approximately $300,000 in its first distribution in 2001 to nearly $75 million in its distribution in 2023.
This was an enormous undertaking involving royalties from multiple foreign organizations (IRB, SENA, and Thuiskopie), covering more than 9,000 individual sound recordings, each of which had to be thoroughly researched by the Fund’s minimal staff to determine each and every performer on each of the recordings (foreign societies and music services never identify the nonfeatured personnel on recordings). It is also noteworthy that for the first time the Fund was able to reciprocate and make payments to SENA on behalf of Dutch nonfeatured performers. Being able to make payments to foreign performers is vitally important in that it is our ability to do so that often makes it possible for us to receive these monies from the foreign collectives despite the lack of performance rights legislation in the US (often referred to as neighboring rights).
Currently, the AFM & AFTRA Fund collects nonfeatured artist royalties directly from the US Copyright Office for private home taping in the US. It collects the nonfeatured artist share of digital performance royalties (paid by webcasters, and cable TV music channels and satellite subscription services) via SoundExchange. Finally, the Fund collects home taping and record rental remuneration from CPRA/Geidankyo in Japan, and home taping and certain broadcast royalties from SENA in the Netherlands.
The AFM, AFTRA, and the Fund just reached an agreement with AIE in Spain for payment of certain nonfeatured royalties to US musicians and will be including those royalties in future distributions. Finally, we are in the final stages of negotiations with and PPL in the United Kingdom for payment of similar royalties and hope to conclude that agreement soon.
For more information about the Fund, or to see if we might have money for you, please visit our website at www.afmsagaftrafund.org.