Dave Matthews, Anderson .Paak and Maren Morris have united with some of the music industry’s biggest executives to form a new lobbying group that will represent artists in a number of music-related issues on a national and state level. The news was first reported by Bloomberg.
The board of the group, which is called the Music Artists Coalition, also includes artist managers Irving Azoff, Coran Capshaw and John Silva, attorney Jordan Bromley and publicist Kristen Foster.
The Music Modernization Act, which improves musicians’ royalty rates and was passed into law last fall, is just one of many music-related matters that have come before government in recent years. While organizations such as the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Music Publishers’ Association are strong lobbyists for the music industry, the Music Artists Coalition is the first one focused on artists.
“Artists don’t really have a seat at any table,” Azoff told Bloomberg. “Just the fact that we have a powerful group of people will scare everyone else to the table.”
According to the article, Azoff and his fellow board members will fund the organization and are hiring a lobbyist to represent them in Washington. Included in their initial topics of focus is the recent appeal by Spotify, Google, SiriusXM and Amazon of a ruling that will raise songwriter royalties 44% over the next several years.
Matthews said, “Emerging artists deserve the same opportunity that many of us had — to be able to make a living creating music. It’s important for today’s musicians to pave the way for those in the future.”