The International Federation of Musicians’ (FIM) 23rd Congress was held from June 25-27, at the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva, Switzerland, hosted by the Swiss Musicians’ Union (SMV-USDAM). The conference brought together delegates from musician unions from around the world. I attended on behalf of the AFM along with Vice President from Canada Allistair […]

To Canadian members: I try to avoid US-centric writing in the International Musician, but sometimes events demand it, the presentation of which I hope might be useful perspective for any musician on this continent. A smart person recently observed that a union’s main job is to build sufficient power to enable members to attain fairness […]

The CFM actively engages in government advocacy to make the lives of working musicians better, for example, improving air travel regulations for musicians with instruments, keeping the cost of work permits as low as possible, and establishing human rights protections for workers. While outcomes of advocacy don’t always give us what we want, they generally […]

As each one of our Canadian national electronic media contracts have come up for renewal, we have made it a priority to incorporate generative artificial intelligence (GAI) language in the form of side letters to protect our musicians’ work. We take the position that music content produced for film, television, or digital media is covered […]

At approximately 4:30 a.m. on July 1, the Senate voted 99-1 to defeat the proposed moratorium on states regulating artificial intelligence (AI). It was an overwhelming defeat for the measure previously included in the House-passed budget reconciliation package. How exactly we got there was anything but straightforward. The ban had backing among Congressional Republicans and […]

As we watch the dismantling of the US federal government by the current administration, it can be hard to know where to focus. This administration’s “flood the zone” approach has made it challenging—intentionally—to track the hundreds of changes, much less to estimate the impact of each on our individual lives. “Attacks on the National Labor […]