Living Wage for Musicians Act Would Impact Hudson Valley Musicians

The Living Wages for Musicians Act would help musicians receive increased revenue for streaming- including Hudson Valley musicians. Photo via Cottonbro Studio via Pexels

It may only be worth a penny, but musicians in the Hudson Valley who rely on streaming revenue understand the value one cent per stream may bring.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan introduced the Living Wage for Musicians Act in partnership with Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York. This legislation aims to increase the revenue that musicians make from streaming platforms by making companies pay musicians one cent per stream — a jump from the percentage of a cent artists make.

As reported by Consequence of Sound, musicians who have their music on Spotify will only receive between 0.003 to 0.005 dollars per stream, meaning musicians are making minimal profit from streams. As part of a statement by Tlaib on March 6, this legislation would aim to increase the revenue generated by streams for artists seeking fair compensation for their work. 

As said in the statement, the Living Wage for Musicians Act would make streaming services like Spotify “pass their taxed revenues and royalties to a non-profit collection and distribution fund, that would in turn pay artists in proportion to their monthly streams.” This would amount to a capped dollar amount per track that is streamed monthly to offer artists a more steady income from streaming revenue that covers a diverse swath of artists on streaming services. 

Available data shows that Spotify pays between $0.003 to $0.005 per song streamed, as the statement cites. For artists, this only amounts to a few dollars per hundreds or thousands of streaming, leaving artists with little profit from streaming revenue. 

United Musicians and Allied Workers, a union representing musicians and workers in the music industry, has expressed its support and is working closely with Congress to pass this bill, per the union’s Instagram page. As part of their “Make Streaming Pay” campaign to bolster support for the bill, UMAW has a petition to Congress with over 13,000 signatures thus far and a 25,600 goal. 

Damon Krukowski is a writer, poet and former member of the dream-pop band Galaxie 500 who has been working with UMAW to advocate for fairer treatment of working creatives. Part of his optimism for the bill comes from the legislative trend following music and the arts. “If you look back at bills that have passed Congress for music, they always pass unanimously,” he said. “There’s a tradition for that.”

Thus far, several congressional representatives from across the U.S. have shown their support for the bill, with Krukowski pointing out Rep. Bennie Thompson, Rep. Andrea Ocastio-Cortez and Rep. Delia Rameriez co-sponsoring the bill. 

Although Krukowski anticipates this bill taking time to pass, the support from the current Congress and those who have signed onto the “Make Streaming Pay” campaign signals something larger about musicians' access to the fruits of their labor. 

“The primary goal is to increase the value of recorded music across the board. If we can make it clear that recorded music has value, I think it’ll reverberate across the music industry,” Krukowski said. “It’ll reaffirm that recorded music has value with musicians — even recording studios and everyone who handles it.”

This national legislation would have tangible impacts on local musicians in the Hudson Valley, such as Lina Tornese, an indie singer-songwriter and Marist College student who goes by Lina Tort on all streaming platforms.

Her most streamed song has over 1,000 streams, since being released in March 2021. Tornese has three songs formally released, and she has only made a few dollars from the streams. “I have made $16 in total from all of my work in releasing, as of what I know. I have not checked it recently, but last I did it was $16, which is not much,” she said.

Although she has made money from her streams, Tornese cannot access the funds through her music distributor. “I cannot even receive that money because the music distributor I use only allows money transfers over $20, so I have not even received that money from three years of having songs out,” she added.

Although Tornese is not in the process of making music her career, she still wishes her hard work was properly compensated and that she’d finally have access to the funds she has made from steaming. “It would make me proud to say that I had made some money off of doing something I love so much,” Tornese said. 

Ian Lockwood, who goes by “Elwood” professionally, is a singer-songwriter based in Woodstock, New York. Their music is streamed on all major platforms, through DistroKid as the distributor, with their top song on Spotify boasting over 5,000 streams and 4,800 streams on Apple Music.

These numbers may seem reflective of a larger income from streams, but Lockwood has only made $170 from streaming and Bandcamp sales since 2021. “I’d love to make music for a career, but I am not even close to making enough to support myself on that alone,” Lockwood said.

Lockwood does feel that a legislative move to increase steaming revenue would benefit them, “especially as I continue to put music out and expand my audience.” Lockwood admits that they joke that a streaming revenue increase would also help them pay rent to move out on their own and transition into a creative career, as it is a reality for musicians who want a career in what they love. 

In the Hudson Valley, rent prices have skyrocketed, and the cost of living has increased drastically for many. Despite the region being a hotbed for musical talent and music creation, a music career feasible as an artist requires steady, consistent income for the hours of labor put into the work, which is not a reality for most.

Even for musicians who have been able to create a career in the Hudson Valley, this issue is still impacting them. The Bobby Lees are a band from Woodstock, New York with over 42,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. Although The Bobby Lees has not yet responded to a request for comment, the band stated in November that they are taking a hiatus “because of the current state of the music industry.”

“It is set up in a way that makes it almost impossible for bands like us to economically sustain,” the statement reads, citing issues with streaming platforms like Spotify and listening algorithms. They played their last show in December 2023 and have not announced new tour dates.

Despite the hiatus, the group posted on Instagram showing support for the Living Wage for Musicians Act by thanking Tlaib and Bowman for their support of the act, along with UMAW. The goals of this legislation would be to assist artists like The Bobby Lees to sustain their music careers by addressing the issue of miniscule streaming revenues.

Artists should have access to the money they make from the work they release. Accessibility and sustainability is another part of this issue that Jaime Sanin, founder of Celebrate845, which advocates for Hudson Valley creatives, puts forward. “[Spotify] is the most convenient and not necessarily the most accessible,” Sanin said. 

This convenience comes from a user's ability to download Spotify and stream for free with subscription options, resulting in the current structure where artists are poorly compensated for the streams they get through a free app and from a company worth billions. “Where it’s troubling for me is it’s where the mega CEOs are making so much money and the artists are getting nothing,” Sanin said.

To combat this issue, she puts forward the idea of taking into account what would best support Hudson Valley musicians when it comes to streaming like using Bandcamp or putting more trust into their communities that they can support them by other means. “I'd love to see artists be brave to break the cycle,” she added.
At the core of what the Living Wage for Musicians Act is seeking to promote is placing value on labor in creative fields. With streaming being the primary means of accessing music in today’s world, affirming that each stream of a song is valuable, and that musicians and those associated with the release of music should be fairly compensated, is of paramount importance.