President's Message

Game Noise, Game Over; Update on Relocation; and IMA Negotiations

December 29, 2014

Last month, I promised to report on discussions I had in London with representatives of the British Musicians’ Union (BMU), prior to heading to Budapest for the first International Conference on Music Streaming.

CFM, a Year-in-Review

December 1, 2014

The year 2014 has been a turbulent one for the Canadian Federation of Musicians (CFM). However, to start on a positive, February saw the removal of rules about unionization votes from proposed Bill C-525. The deleted rules were completely biased against unions. At a December 2013 general meeting of Local 406 (Montreal, PQ), a motion […]

Year-End Happenings

December 1, 2014

While I was using some personal time, not at Federation’s expense, I recently found myself in Phoenix with friends. Many of them were in attendance at a marvelous gig, which was held in a jet airplane hangar dressed out like a dude ranch. The almost unbelievable interior was transformed by the Emmy award winning set […]

The Budapest Conference: A Campaign for Fairness in Music Streaming?

December 1, 2014

I am writing this month’s column while flying back to AFM headquarters after a week of informative meetings November 17 through 21 in London with our counterparts from the British Musicians Union on electronic media issues, and in Budapest, Hungary, where the Hungarian Musicians Union and the International Federation of Musicians (FIM) convened the first […]

Check Out Your Health Insurance Choices on November 15!

November 1, 2014

On November 15, the second open enrollment period will begin, allowing you to enroll in health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). If you don’t have health insurance, this is the time to sign up; if you do have coverage, it’s important to re-evaluate your health care needs.

Relocation, Part Two: Temporarily Postponed, but Very Much Alive

November 1, 2014

As previously reported in this column in July, Secretary-Treasurer Sam Folio and I, as fully authorized by your International Executive Board (IEB), opted to negotiate an agreement to purchase an office condo located in the financial district of lower Manhattan to serve as the AFM’s new home. In my June column, I also provided a […]

Time to Be a Union

November 1, 2014

by Bruce Fife, AFM International Executive Board Member and President of Local 99 (Portland, OR) We are the union. It’s our union, and it works on a pretty simple premise that, when put into practice, can be used to create amazing outcomes. People try to make it more complicated than that, but the basis couldn’t be […]

The Underachieving Tariff 8 and Other Scary Stuff

November 1, 2014

As consumers of music shift toward the “all you can eat” digital streaming services as the preferred platform, that should create more revenue for musicians, right? Musicians don’t need to be signed to a major label to distribute their recordings, and that means more airplay/streams and therefore more earnings, correct?  In a word, no.

Need Health Insurance? Check Out the Working America Health Care Program

October 1, 2014

Did you know an unexpected trip to the hospital could cost you and your family nearly $2,000 a day? The hefty price tag does not even include prescription drugs or medical procedures, which easily can add up to tens of thousands of dollars. It’s no joke. Roughly 62% of all bankruptcies in the US are […]

The Too Much Information Age

October 1, 2014

The downside of the information age is that far too often there is just simply too much information. The constant barrage of images, data, and noise coming at us from every angle makes it an ongoing challenge to extract the meaningful from the trivial, but that is exactly why music, art, and creativity still matter.