Local 47 (Los Angeles, CA) member Neil Diamond gave an unexpected performance for firefighters who battled a blaze near his home in Colorado. The 77-year-old sang “Sweet Caroline” for dozens of firefighters at their command post near Basalt. About 450 people battled the fire that has burned about 20 square miles, destroying three homes. Diamond abruptly retired from touring in January after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
Tag Archives: recent news
Documentary to Celebrate Woodstock
A two-hour documentary on Woodstock will air on PBS in 2019 to recognize the 50th anniversary of the festival. It will examine the events that led up to the three-day festival that was one of the defining moments of the tumultuous ’60s.
The Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, located at the site of the festival, is planning special commemorative events throughout the year. The Museum at Bethel Woods employs vibrant, interactive exhibits and programs to celebrate the entire decade that the 1969 Woodstock Music and Art Fair came to represent.
Composer Declines Gender-Biased Commission
Irish Composer Siobhán Cleary declined a lucrative Arts Council commission because she was offered 20% less than her male colleagues in the last four years, for the same commission. An accomplished composer, Cleary has long decried the lack of recognition for women composers.
Among her many achievements, she has composed several scores for feature films and documentaries. Her orchestral works include, Alchemy (2001) and Cokaygne (2009), commissioned by RTÉ and performed by the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra. She was a featured composer in the Composers’ Choice concert series at the National Concert Hall (2003) and was elected to Ireland’s state-sponsored academy of creative artists, Aosdána, in 2008. In 2010 she was awarded a three-month residency in the Culturel Centre Irlandais in Paris. Recently, she composed the opera Vampirella, based on the Angela Carter stories.
Disneyland Offers Nonunion Employees $15.75
Disneyland announced they are raising starting salary for nonunion employees to $15.75 an hour—slightly more than the $15 it recently negotiated with Disney’s four labor unions. It is a 30% increase from the union-negotiated boost, which raised the union starting salary to $15 and non-union to $13.90 (and then $15 in 2019). The new wages will impact 7,000 of the 30,000 nonunion employees at the Anaheim, California, park.
Employees at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, are also in a wage dispute. Local unions are fighting to raise their minimum wage from $10 per hour to $15 per hour by 2021.
British Executive Salary Dwarfs Worker Pay
A study from The High Pay Center showed that British executive pay rose six times higher than pay for the average worker from 2016 to 2017. Median pay for bosses of FTSE 100 companies (the 100 with the highest market capitalism on the London Stock Exchange) rose 11% to £3.9 million while salaries of median workers barely keep up with inflation. An employee with a median salary of £23,474 would have to work 167 years to make what a FTSE 100 boss on median pay makes in a year. Meanwhile, recent statistics show British wage growth is at its weakest in 43 years.
American Guitar Industry Making Comeback
Despite some bad news for several key sellers in the last couple years, guitar manufacturers and sellers say demand for American-made guitars is strong. The National Association for Music Merchants (NAMM) says year-over-year sales are increasing by 7.03%. Total retail value of guitars sold in 2017 was $1.3 billion.
While Gibson Brands filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this year, it also reported that sales of electric guitars grew 10.5% to $122 million in 2017. Fender reports that fretted instrument sales have been growing for five years, and though the nation’s largest retailer, Guitar Center, is $1 billion in debt, it says “guitar sales over the past year have been the strongest we’ve seen in our history.”
Some in the industry are crediting streaming services as creating an all-time high interest in music. Last year about 125 million people paid for streaming services and 86 million attended Live Nation Concerts. Audiences are getting younger and many makers have introduced more affordable models. Also, social media allows makers to use prominent artists to create brand awareness.
Canadian Transportation Agency Calls for Public Consultation
Since December 2014, the Canadian Federation of Musicians (CFM) has been lobbying to ensure safe carriage of musical instruments on Canadian airline carriers. On May 24, the Canadian Transportation Act (CTA) received Royal Assent. The Canadian Transport Agency has since announced the dates for public consultations, as part of the process to develop regulations in air passenger protection, including musical instruments.
The CFM was effective in ensuring that this legislation passed in the House of Commons and the Senate, and will make a formal submission in Ottawa on July 4. However, comments from our professional musicians are also vital to ensure that the regulations truly reflect the needs of all musicians. We encourage musicians to send in thoughts and experiences through the CTA website http://www.airpassengerprotection.ca/instruments (French: https://www.protectionpassagersaeriens.ca/instruments-de-musique). If you do join this effort by sending your individual submission, we ask that you also mention that you are an AFM/CFM member who supports the CFM’s initiative to make “musical instruments as carry-on regulations for Canada harmonize with regulations in the US.” Alternatively, if you feel more comfortable in doing so, please feel free to instead send your thoughts to AFM/CFM International Representative Allistair Elliott (aelliott@afm.org) who will be presenting the submissions for CFM and who will be appearing in the interest of all Canadian musicians.
For more information about the Canadian Transportation Act (CTA) websites: http://www.airpassengerprotection.ca/. (French: https://www.protectionpassagersaeriens.ca/)
La nouvelle Loi sur les transports au Canada (LTC) a reçu la sanction royale le jeudi 24 mai 2018. L’Office des transports du Canada a annoncé depuis les dates prévues pour la consultation publique dans le cadre du processus visant à l’élaboration des règlements pour la protection des passagers aériens, ce qui comprend les dispositions régissant le transport des instruments de musique.
La FCM a déployé beaucoup d’efforts afin de veiller à ce que la législation soit adoptée à la Chambre des communes et au Sénat. Pour la suite des choses, nous présenterons un mémoire officiel le 4 juillet 2018 à Ottawa. À cet égard, les commentaires des musiciens professionnels joueront un rôle crucial afin de faire en sorte que les règlements adoptés répondent vraiment aux besoins de tous les musiciens. Nous vous encourageons par conséquent à faire part de vos idées, commentaires et expériences par le biais du site Web de l’Office des transports du Canada : https://www.protectionpassagersaeriens.ca/instruments-de-musique (anglais : http://www.airpassengerprotection.ca/instruments).
Si vous décidez de vous joindre à cet effort et d’envoyer une soumission écrite à l’OTC, nous vous demandons de mentionner que vous êtes membre de la FCM/FAM et que vous appuyez l’initiative de la FCM pour que « les règlements du Canada concernant le transport des instruments de musique comme bagage de cabine soient harmonisés avec ceux des États-Unis ». Si cela vous convient mieux, vous pouvez plutôt envoyer vos idées et commentaires à notre représentant international Allistair Elliott (aelliott@afm.org), qui déposera les soumissions pour le compte de la FCM et qui fera les représentations au nom de tous les musiciens.
Vous trouverez ci-dessous la liste de questions de l’Office des transports du Canada pour la consultation publique sur la protection des passagers aériens.
Pour plus de renseignements, vous pouvez consulter le site Web de l’OTC à ce sujet : https://www.protectionpassagersaeriens.ca/
(anglais : http://www.airpassengerprotection.ca/)
Local 145 Member Eli Bennett Wins Award Over His Father
Local 145 (Vancouver, BC) member Eli Bennett was just nine years old when his father Daryl Bennett won the first ever Leo Award for Best Musical Score in a Feature Length Drama. This June both father and son were up for that same award and Eli took home the prize. Eli was nominated for his musical score to Believe: The True Story of Real Bearded Santas and Daryl for In the Spirit of Reconciliation in a Day.
The Leo Awards celebrate the best of British Columbia’s film and television industry. This was the first time in Leo Awards 20-year history that a father and son were contenders in the same category.
CFM Presents List of Copyright Reform Recommendations House of Commons
Caption: CFM representatives appeared before the Standing Committee on Industry, Science, and Technology to outline their recommendations for amendments to the Copyright Act (L to R) are: AFM/CFM Vice President from Canada Alan Willaert, Canada Music Publishers Association Executive Director Margaret McGuffin, and Local 406 (Montreal, PQ) Secretary-Treasurer Eric Lefebvre. (Photo credit: Isabel Metcalf)
June 5, 2018—Yesterday, representatives of the Canadian Federation of Musicians (CFM) appeared before the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology to outline recommendations for much-needed amendments to the Copyright Act. The consultation follows a presentation made to the Heritage Committee on May 29. In their statements, AFM/CFM Vice President from Canada Alan Willaert and Local 406 (Montreal, PQ) Secretary-Treasurer Eric Lefebvre called on the committee to lay the foundation for regulatory and policy tools and provide the financial support needed to ensure that Canadian professional musicians thrive in the digital environment now and for the years ahead.
“Our government must respect the contributions of our creative communities, and the indelible mark that recording artists and professional musicians have made on our cultural identity,” says Willaert. “The amendments we strongly urge the committee to adopt would increase revenue streams to musicians, create sustainable employment, and help to preserve arts and culture in our country.”
Among the list of recommendations, CFM identified changes to the definition of sound recording, eliminating the exemption for radio advertising, and expanding the definition of private copying to include new media devices to be its top priorities.
“Professional musicians are losing a significant part of their livelihood to streaming. Many can no longer support themselves solely through their music career and are living in poverty,” adds Lefebvre. “Changes to the Copyright Act are critical to the long-term success of all content creators in this digital, globalized world”.
Singer-songwriter Damhnait Doyle of Local 820 (St. John’s, NL), urges the committee to look at the issues on the table and make the amendments that will give the creative community the opportunity to make the choice to continue to be musicians in this country. “Throughout my 25 years as a longstanding and proud member of Local 820 of the Musician’s union, I have only seen the standard of living decrease for those of us who have chosen to make this our profession,” she says. “We are being hammered from every angle, from piracy to streaming, to being at the losing end of exemptions to broadcasters and losing our royalties for our work in film and TV because the definition of “sound recording” needing be redefined, while our American counterparts do get paid for their efforts. Meanwhile the cost of living is continually rising and our middle class has been eviscerated.”
National Symphony of Cuba Forced to Cancel US Tour
The National Symphony of Cuba announced that its 2019 US tour is canceled due to difficulties in obtaining visas for its artists. Last month, the US announced the withdrawal of 60% of its Cuban diplomats is now permanent. They were originally withdrawn following mysterious “health attacks” in Havana, which harmed at least 24 Americans.
In October 2017 the US State Department ordered the withdrawal of all nonessential embassy personnel. Due to lack of employees, the US Embassy in Cuba was forced to halt visa processing. Now, Cubans hoping to travel to the US must seek visas through US embassies in other countries. The downsizing of the staff, combined with a Travel Advisory issued by the US State Department warning Americans to reconsider travel to the island, have had a significant effect on Cuba’s economy as well.