Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/129167
Is $ money waiting for you? $there$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ SAG-AFTRA members — whether recording artists or other The Alliance of Artists and Record Companies performers — have multiple organizations, including the collects music royalties for recording artists and sound union, collecting royalties and residuals on their behalf. recording copyright owners under the Audio Home Many members don't realize these funds are waiting for Recording Act of 1992 through the sales of blank CDs them, and in most cases, searching for unclaimed residuals and personal audio devices, media centers, satellite and royalties is just a click away! radio devices and car audio systems that have recording The AFM & SAG-AFTRA Intellectual Property Rights Distribution Fund collects and distributes money capabilities. The nonprofit collects royalties in the U.S. and abroad. To join, visit wp.aarcroyalties.com. that SAG-AFTRA and the American Federation of Musicians SAG-AFTRA may be holding unclaimed funds on collect on behalf of nonfeatured singers and instrumentalists members' behalf due to incomplete or outdated information pursuant to U.S. and foreign laws. Session singers and in the union's database. Members, including professional royalty artists who sing background vocals on other artists' performers, recording artists and broadcast journalists recordings should visit the site to find out if they have money. who have worked under SAG or AFTRA TV or Theatrical Visit raroyalties.org to search. contracts, may have funds waiting for them. To search SoundExchange licenses the public performance of unclaimed residual funds for TV or theatrical sound recordings on digital channels like cable, satellite and the Internet, and collects and distributes the license productions, go to SAGAFTRA.org/search-unclaimedresiduals or call (323) 549-6535. fees. SoundExchange distributes the artist's share of You may be due foreign royalties as a performer, or as license fees directly to the featured artist. To register, a beneficiary or heir of a performer. Go to SAGAFTRA.org/ go to soundexchange.com. foreign-royalties to find out more. their living in the music business, but are not internationally famous. In fact, most of SAG-AFTRA's royalty artist members fall squarely in the middle class. Even the biggest names had to start somewhere, and that's why the union's protections are so important. SAG-AFTRA contracts require that any artist signed with a signatory label be provided union health care coverage to which the label contributes. hat can be particularly important to artists attached to a label who have yet to release an album, and thus have no income. In 2011, recording artists belonging to the union — then AFTRA — earned a total of $113 million in royalties under the Sound Recordings Code. 26 SAG-AFTRA | Spring 2013 | SAGAFTRA.org In addition, SAG-AFTRA has a number of other related contracts, including its music video, independent artist and touring agreements, as well as other agreements exclusive to the Los Angeles and Nashville markets. When you're just starting out, young and healthy with retirement the furthest thing from your mind, the beneits of the union may not be apparent. hat was the case for Gary Burr, a singer and Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee who, along with Georgia Middleman and Kenny Loggins, form the band Blue Sky Riders. "I came to town a very anti-union person," Burr said of his arrival in Nashville. "I was used to just walking in and saying, 'Give me 50 bucks and I'll [perform],' and not worrying so much about being taken advantage of. It wasn't until I was in town long enough to have my writing and producing career take of that I really saw the value of it … and to see how good it was to just have some standards and protections for everyone. "Now that I'm in the cocktail hours of my career, I look back and I say, 'hank God I was in [the union],'" Burr said, citing the pension beneits accrued over a decades-long career as a SAG-AFTRA member — something he didn't realize he was working toward at the time. His bandmate, Middleman, had an epiphany of her own, that ultimately led her to serving as a Nashville Local Board member.