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Since the rise of digital music technology in the 1990s, royalties from online music have proved bountiful for star performers.
But back then, forward-thinking music industry executives and musicians helped make sure that non-featured performers on recordings, like session players and backup singers, could also share in digital music royalties. One of those income streams — the AFM & SAG-AFTRA Intellectual Property Rights Distribution (IPRD) Fund, which marks its 25th anniversary this year — reports paying out $650 million to date to such artists.
For the 12-month period ending March 31, 2021 — the most recent full year for which its finances are available — the nonprofit fund has distributed $57.2 million to eligible performers.
Most of the fund’s revenue comes from SoundExchange, which collects royalties for every song played on digital radio like Pandora, webcasters like iHeartRadio and satellite radio services like SiriusXM. Those royalties are split: 50% to the record label, 45% to the featured artist and 5% to non-featured performers.
Fund participants span a spectrum of musical skills and styles. They include vocalists such as Carmen Carter (who has recorded with Beyoncé, Céline Dion, Whitney Houston and Luis Miguel), Wendy Moten (Carrie Underwood, Buddy Guy, Cece Winans) and Dan Navarro (Dolly Parton, Julio Iglesias, Neil Young), as well as musicians like guitarist Michael Landau (Enrique Iglesias, Diana Ross, LeAnn Rimes), keyboardist Greg Phillinganes (Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey, Elvis Costello, Stevie Wonder) and drummer Abraham Laboriel Jr. (Paul McCartney, Sheryl Crow, Miley Cyrus), among many others.
But while collecting royalties from Sound Exchange is easy and many musicians are easy to find, tracking down every performer who should get a cut can be a challenge. Though the fund paid out royalties to some 27,000 non-featured musicians last year, many are still unaware of its existence — or that they might have royalties to be claimed, says fund CEO Stefanie Taub.
“The big thing for us is we really want to make sure that the non-featured performers are aware that we’re here and there is this money source for them,” says Taub, a 25-year AFTRA and SAG-AFTRA veteran who prior to leading the fund sat on its board of directors.
The SoundExchange royalties paid to labels and performers are the result of the Digital Performance Right in Sound Recording Act of 1995 and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, which between them amended copyright law so that, among other things, digital and satellite radio services pay royalties for recorded music. (Terrestrial radio doesn’t make any payments to record labels and performers but pays royalties to songwriters and music publishers.)
As part of the revamped copyright law, AFM (American Federation of Musicians) was designated to be the agent to pay out half, or 2.5%, of the 5% due to non-featured musicians on songs played on digital and satellite radio, while AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) was designated to oversee the other half (2.5%) of the royalties for non-featured singers.
The two unions agreed to collaborate on a single administrator to collect and pay out the royalties. Thus, the AFM & SAG-AFTRA IPRD Fund was born.
“Back then, it made sense to create this fund so they didn’t waste money with duplicate efforts,” Taub says. “So it’s very unique that these two completely separate unions came together to create this fund.”
Stefanie Taub
Courtesy of AFM SAG-AFTRA Fund
How do you view this anniversary of the fund?
We’re very proud of the fact that we paid over a half-billion dollars to non-featured performers in our 25 years. We’re in a unique space because many people are aware of how featured artists — name artists on recordings — get paid for their music. But there’s not as much awareness that our fund exists and that it pays the non-featured performers. People really don’t know we exist, especially when we first started out. Back then, we were collecting a very small amount: under $100,000 a year. Nowadays, we collect more than $50 million a year. So that is something we really want to promote: This money is there for these performers, and we are here to pay it to them.
Does a musician need to be in the union to qualify for funds?
That’s a misconception. Even though the unions created this fund, their executives sit on the board, and our name includes the unions; the fund distributes to all performers without regard to union status. We’re required by law to distribute to everyone [regardless of] status.
Where does the Screen Actors Guild, which represents and pays actors, come into the picture? Are its funds blended into what you collect?
SAG represents mostly actors but also other performers in film and TV, [so] if a singer did a song in a film, that would be represented by SAG; if they do a record, they are represented by AFTRA. But the SAG funds are completely separate, and what we collect is completely separate from anything that the unions do on their own.
Your financial statement for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2021, shows that the fund collected $63.1 million in royalties. How much came from SoundExchange?
It fluctuates, but it has been around $50 million or more for [each] of the past five or six years.
Foreign royalties also flow into the fund. What’s the source of those monies?
They are due to copyright treaties and to reciprocal agreements with collection organizations in other countries — and those royalties consist of many different things, including what they call “private copying”; in some foreign countries, they collect a royalty on devices like iPhones and iPads and things like that. Some countries do pay the U.S. [royalties] on broadcast terrestrial radio and even [on] what they call “communication to the public,” like songs played in nightclubs and restaurants. Every country is a little bit different in what royalties they pay to the U.S.
So, percentagewise, what would you say the breakout is from SoundExchange versus the other sources of income?
I would say SoundExchange is about 80% of what we collect. But we’re growing in the international space every year, and we’re hoping to increase that as time goes on. We had a very good year last year. Our financials are not showing yet for that, but we collected over $25 million internationally last year.
Are there other challenges your organization faces in paying out royalties?
When we reach out to people [eligible for payments], some don’t believe us because no one has ever gotten a secondary income stream from their recordings. Of course, we need to verify their identity and we ask for certain information. And these days, everybody’s concerned about their privacy, so they think it’s a scam sometimes. But the more we can get our message out, the more that creates awareness, so [that] people actually do sign up for us.
How do you reach musicians who might be due money?
We have a whole department called artist relations, and their only job is to either take incoming inquiries or to actively search for folks where we’ve seen their names on credits but need to find them. We use all types of resources, whether it’s the internet, social media or other publicly available information. We also try to get other participants who have been paid to let their friends know about our fund.
A big question for funds like yours is, how much of what you collect do you match with eligible recipients and pay out every year?
Our current percentage is about 82% payout, and we are reducing the unmatched number every year.
And your administrative costs are about 14% of your revenue.
We have an obligation to make sure we’re doing the right thing with other people’s money. It’s not my money, so I always look at the most efficient way to get the job done so that as much of what we collect as possible can go out the door to the performers.
What if the album credits don’t specify who played on what song?
When we get the money from SoundExchange, we do our research on a track-by-track basis and by individuals. It’s very difficult because, depending particularly on the age of the recording — or where it was done — sometimes there’s no information at all. That’s why we really encourage people to also look at the list on our website of all the recordings that we have money for. If they make a claim on a recording, then we always require proof that shows they are on the recording. That proof could be a union contract, liner notes or something printed somewhere on the internet. And we cross-check multiple sources to make sure that everything’s matching.
What if the featured artist says, “Yeah, he played on my track”?
We accept that, too. Or often there might be other side musicians on the track who vouch for the third, and we will accept that.
How many titles do you research and pay out on?
In April 2023, the fund distributed royalties on 50,000 titles. And we’re increasing that every day. But it’s very time-consuming to research non-featured artists, especially now when there is often no printed [credits] because there is no physical recording. But there’s a current drive to get more metadata to be included in a lot of [digital] tracks.
It’s the record labels that should make sure songwriters, publishers, side musicians and singers are listed.
Yes, and they’re not as driven to make sure that the non-featured artists are getting credit.
There have been some recent grievances with the fund, including a suit over $45 million in undistributed funds and another complaint about a data purchase and service fee paid to the unions. What has happened with those complaints?
The former was settled in November 2020, and the latter was resolved in March 2022. We welcome the resolution of these matters so we can focus our resources on what we do best, which is putting money into artists’ pockets.
Are there any other messages you would like to get out?
Just to let people know that they should take a look at our website and make sure that if they’ve done any non-featured work on songs, they should sign up and create an account so that we can find them and pay them. That’s the whole reason we exist — to pay performers. We want to make sure that we’re creating that awareness.
This story originally appeared in the July 15, 2023, issue of Billboard.
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Issa Rae’s hit series Rap Sh!t is returning to MAX.
The Hip-Hop show inspired by the lives of City Girls rappers Yung Miami and JT is coming back for a second season, according to Deadline.
The eight-episode second season will debut with two episodes on August 10, followed by one episode weekly, leading up to the season finale on Thursday, September 21.
The series which made a big splash last year, tells the story of two friends, Shawna (Aida Osman) and Mia (KaMillion), who were estranged after high school but reconnect to form a rap group.
Throughout the series, the girls have been forced to decide if they will stay true to themselves or conform to the demands of the music industry.
Yung Miami and JT are co-executive producers of the series, along with Kevin “Coach K” Lee and Pierre “P” Thomas for Quality Control Films, and Sara Rastogi and Jax Clark for Hoorae Rae’s Audio Everywhere Company, Raedio, handles music supervision for the series.
“We’re so excited to be back this summer!” showrunner Syreeta Singleton told Complex about the second season. “Everything is heightened. The girls are on tour, tensions are high, and they’re quickly finding out how much they’re willing to compromise for success.”
Sarah Aubrey, Max’s Head of Original Content added, “We are so excited to continue this journey with Shawna and Mia and the incredibly fun world of Rap Sh!t.”
Check out the teaser trailer:
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Longtime television personality Geraldo Rivera announced that he was no longer with Fox News, shortly after his dismissal from one of its shows.
The veteran journalist and reporter made the announcement through social media on Thursday (June 29th). In the video filmed from onboard a boat off of Jones Beach in Long Island, New York, Rivera began, “I’m not going to be on The Five. I’ve been fired from The Five.” He continued, “and as a result of that, I quit Fox,” saying he would elaborate more on Fox & Friends the next morning.
The network issued a statement after Rivera’s social media post later in the evening, saying: “We reached an amicable conclusion with Geraldo over the past few weeks and look forward to celebrating him on Fox & Friends Friday morning which will be his last appearance on the network.” Rivera has been with Fox News since 2001, primarily as a correspondent-at-large.
In his farewell on Fox & Friends on Friday (June 30th), the hosts wore fake mustaches as they played a 10-minute video honoring his time at Fox News. “I’m deeply touched, I’m honored, I love Fox, I love the people at Fox, I always will,” Rivera said afterward. “I’ll never let anyone separate us, but I am beyond grateful for this. This is so deeply affecting, I love you for it, thank you.” Rivera also took time to blast the Supreme Court for its decision to strike down affirmative action, praising those policies as the reason for his rise as a journalist.
Rivera’s departure comes as news has broken about the growing conflict between him and another of the network’s stars, Greg Gutfeld. Rivera had gone on record as saying that he had decided to leave “because there was “a growing tension that goes beyond editorial differences and personal annoyances and gripes.” A Daily Beast article revealed that Rivera has called Gutfeld an “insulting punk” and threatened to “kick him in the ass”.
One major bone of contention between the two came as Gutfeld condemned Rivera for his rebuke of former Fox News star Tucker Carlson after his firing, calling the host’s conspiracy theories concerning the January 6th insurrection “bulls—t”. The two even got into a shouting match on air during a segment on The Five a few weeks prior to Rivera’s announcement.
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HBO’s new series The Idol might not be a favorite with the critics (which is a kind understatement), but Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye can take comfort in the fact that selections from its soundtrack have become mini events each new music Friday. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news […]
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The majesty of Black culture across all genres is the focus of a new multi-part series from E!, produced by Stephen Curry and narrated by LaLa Anthony.
Announced exclusively on Thursday (May 25), Black Pop: Celebrating the Power of Black Culture is a televised series that will take place over two nights displaying the multitude of examples showing how enduring and inspiring Black culture has been and continues to be in music, sports, film, and television. The series, which will air on E!, is executive produced by NBA superstar Stephen Curry and Erick Payton of Unanimous Media in conjunction with NBC News Studios. Veteran actress LaLa Anthony is the narrator for the series.
Black Pop will explore the iconic moments that are the essence of Black culture in four episodes devoted to music, television, sports, and film. The episodes will feature appearances from a slew of celebrities including Erika Alexander, Laila Ali, Jabari Banks, Da Brat, Tamar Braxton, Dapper Dan, Erica Campbell, Stephen Curry, Nick Cannon, Misty Copeland, Laverne Cox, Victor Cruz, Dominique Dawes, Cedric the Entertainer, Scott Evans, Vivica A. Fox, Charlamagne Tha God, Tamron Hall, Kevin Hart, H.E.R., Luke James, Coco Jones, Marsai Martin, Ne-Yo, Will Packer, Nina Parker, Billy Porter, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Wendy Raquel Robinson, Amber Ruffin, Stephen A. Smith, Justin Sylvester and more.
“We’re honored to have joined forces with E! and NBC News Studios to create ‘Black Pop’ to honor and celebrate the power of Black culture in sports and entertainment,” said Erick Peyton and Stephen Curry of Unanimous Media in a statement. “This special is a testament to the strength and impact of our community, and we’re grateful to all the voices who joined us in sharing their fondest memories and inspirations from years of Black excellence in pop culture history.”
“We take pride in being able to share these important cultural milestones and conversations that have influenced pop culture,” said Rod Aissa, Executive Vice President, of Unscripted Content, NBCUniversal television and streaming. “Our collaborative partnership with E!, NBC News Studios, Stephen Curry, and Unanimous Media has brought a creative perspective to this powerful special that our viewers will enjoy.”
Black Pop: Celebrating the Power of Black Culture, will premiere on June 19th at 8 P.M. ET/PT with back-to-back episodes. Check out the trailer below.
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The life and career journey of tennis great Serena Williams will be the focus of a new documentary series to premiere on ESPN.
The news was announced on Tuesday (May 16), at the upfront presentation held by the Walt Disney Company in New York City. The series, entitled In the Arena: Serena Williams, was introduced by the superstar on stage. She told the audience that her reason for being there personally was that “you’re talking about building connections with fans and our family is super-obsessed with Disney.” Joking with the audience, she continued: “My big plan was to break my baby news at the Disney upfront, but the Met Gala got in the way of those plans.”
The series, she stated, would be “an unflinching account of my life and my 23 Grand Slam victories — not counting doubles.” It follows the highly-regarded documentary series Man in the Arena: Tom Brady, about the iconic NFL quarterback which also debuted on ESPN, going on to win the 2022 Sports Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary Series. The network will be co-producing the series along with Tom Brady’s 199 Productions and Williams’ production company she has with Caroline Currier, Nine Two Six Productions and Religion of Sports. Gotham Chopra, who was involved in Kobe Bryant’s Muse, will direct.
The series description reads in part: “Several of Serena’s most significant Grand Slam tournaments and defining personal milestones are examined and decoded in detail. The series juxtaposes Serena’s spectacular on-court achievements and cultural impact with dramatic personal challenges. Through it all, Serena fights to maintain her place atop the tennis world while juggling the transformational experience of starting a family.”
There is no date announced yet for the series. A previous multi-episode series in 2017, Being Serena, was a striking and raw look at the champion’s pregnancy and birth of her daughter Alexis Olympia Ohanian, Jr. It also gave an unflinching eye to the situation after Williams delivered her child via emergency C-section in addition to covering her marriage to tech entrepreneur Alexis Ohanian and the path back to competition in 2018.
Jenna Dewan was up for any challenge tossed her way during her Monday appearance on NBC’s That’s My Jam, but when host Jimmy Fallon prompted her to give the wheel a spin, she was left a little apprehensive when she found out she had to participate in a game of Baby Got Backup.
“Lady Gaga was supposed to be here tonight,” Fallon joked. “It was gonna be a big performance with costumes, backup dancers, props, everything. Unfortunately, she has a ‘thing’ and she can’t make it. So you’re filling in for her, OK? You have to do your best to lip-sync and keep up with the choreography and everything that she had planned for tonight.”
Dewan was tasked with singing along to Gaga’s 2009 hit “Bad Romance,” set to a prom concept. The Step Up star — who has a lot of experience in dance, thanks to serving as a backup dancer for Janet Jackson in the early 2000s — was able to match the tempo of the other dancers while lip-syncing along to the lyrics with ease.
“I want your love, and I want your revenge/ You and me could write a bad romance/ I want your love and all your lover’s revenge/ You and me could write a bad romance/ Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh/ Caught in a bad romance,” Dewan lip-synced.
“Bad Romance” was released as the lead single from Gaga’s The Fame Monster, the deluxe reissue of her debut album The Fame. The track is one of Gaga’s most recognizable to date and charted for 35 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 2.
Watch Dewan’s lip-sync performance of “Bad Romance” in the video above.
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Ice Cube and his BIG3 basketball league will be the subject of a newly announced documentary series produced by him and a veteran awards producer.
According to reports, the veteran rapper will be producing the not-yet-named documentary series through his Cube Vision production company along with Jesse Collins Entertainment. Described as “Welcome to Wrexham and Cheer meets basketball”, the series will follow one of the teams from the three-on-three basketball league in addition to giving viewers a look at Cube’s path in creating and running a sports league from the ground up.
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Dionne Harmon and Madison Merritt also will serve as executive producers on the project with Cube, Kwatinetz, and Collins. Collins is best known for his company’s work in producing awards shows and television specials which include the BET Awards and Black Girls Rock! Jesse Collins Entertainment has a multi-year agreement with ViacomCBS Cable Networks and a first-look film agreement with Paramount Players and Viacom’s other film entities.
The BIG3 first launched in the summer of 2017 after it was first announced by Ice Cube and entertainment executive Jeff Kwatinetz in January of that year. The league would captivate audiences with innovations like the 4-point shot and the inclusion of former NBA stars and legends such as Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, Julius “Dr. J” Erving, George “The Iceman” Gervin, Gary Payton, Stephen Jackson, Allen Iverson, and Clyde Drexler as players and coaches. The league also featured women greats such as Lisa Leslie and Nancy Lieberman as coaches. Drexler now serves as the league’s commissioner.
The series also promises to take a look at the league’s $1.2 billion lawsuit against Qatari investors that was filed in 2018. The suit turned into a rollercoaster situation that would see then-CEO Roger Mason Jr. fired and accused of bringing the aforementioned investors in to pay him and other executives while shortchanging the league. Mason would allege he was fired in retaliation for his own lawsuit against BIG3 claiming that Kwatinetz made racial remarks. Another wrinkle occurred when Ice Cube and the BIG3 took out a full-page ad in the New York Times asking then-President Donald Trump and his administration to side with them in their lawsuit. One investor, Ahmed al-Rumaihi, would eventually be given full diplomatic immunity that December.
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Late-night host Bill Maher is under fire for his “boneheaded and wrong” recent comments on gun violence and race in Chicago in a segment on his show.
The Real Time with Bill Maher panel segment this past Friday (April 21st) featured Maher and University of Washington professor Daniel Bessner in a discussion on race, crime, and poverty. During that discussion, Maher asked Brown University professor & economist Glenn Loury about Chicago: “Like Chicago, most of the shootings are young Black men killing other young Black men. Is that not correct?” When Loury answered in the affirmative, Maher responded: “OK, much more than what the cops do. Why doesn’t anybody talk about that? Why aren’t there a hundred giant Black celebrities, who would have the respect of those people, saying, ‘What are you doing to yourselves? Why are you killing each other?’”
Bessner responded that other factors “’ more linked to social conditions, socioeconomic conditions, the disbelief that there is anywhere to go in terms of improving your lot in society,’” had to be considered, to which Maher dismissively replied, “You sound like the Mayor-Elect,” referring to Brandon Johnson, the recently elected mayor of Chicago and Chicago Teachers Union activist considered more progressive than the previous mayor, Lori Lightfoot. Maher and Loury would then say more “moral leadership” would help the situation. Bessner disagreed, saying the change would require that Johnson “attack it at the level of socioeconomics, not culture.” Right-wing outlets including Fox News amplified Maher’s Chicago comments – ironic as his opening monologue on the show skewered the network over its $787 million defamation settlement with Dominion Voting Systems.
Maher’s comments were criticized heavily by Ben Burgis of The Daily Beast, who pointed out how Maher’s rise as someone who was antiwar in the 2000s has given way to him devolving into more conservative positions. “But that doesn’t mean he’s ever been a leftist in any deeper sense. If you want to hear old jokes about Sarah Palin reheated and served up as jokes about Marjorie Taylor Greene, watch Bill Maher. If you want to hear well-thought-out analysis of what’s wrong with our society, then — at least on nights when Daniel Bessner isn’t on Bill’s panel — you’re better off changing the channel,” he concluded.
Maher has been no stranger to making racist comments, which include his statement that using the N-word “isn’t racist.”
Chlöe and Halle Bailey were up for some sisterly competition as they went head-to-head on the Monday night episode of the Jimmy Fallon-hosted NBC game show That’s My Jam.
The sister duo was forced to battle each other in a game of Mixtape Medley Showdown, in which they were tasked with putting their own spin on several hit songs to see who could potentially out-sing the other and pull a victory for their team. Breakup songs was the theme of the game, and saw Chlöe and Halle single anthemic heartbreak hits primarily from the 2000s.
Chlöe was first up to the mic, singing a classic track from their mentor Beyoncé’s catalog: Destiny’s Child’s 2001 hit “Survivor.” The tracks seamlessly blended into one another, with Halle following with her rendition of Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated.”
Other hit songs that were featured in the medley included Nelly and Kelly Rowland’s “Dilemma” going up against Carrie Underwood’s “Before He Cheats”; Fleetwood Mac’s “Go Your Own Way” against Taylor Swift’s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”; and Olivia Rodrigo’s “Good 4 U” against Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone.”
After putting on an equally impressive vocal showcase for the audience, the score didn’t seem to matter to the competing sisters: The pair hugged it out onstage and soaked up applause from the audience.
Watch Chlöe and Halle play Mixtape Medley Showdown — as well as Slay It, Don’t Spray It — in the videos below.