Welcome to the Electronic Media Services Focus Issue

September 1, 2024

John Painting  -  AFM Electronic Media Services Division Assistant Director

It is my pleasure to welcome you to this year’s International Musician issue focused on electronic media and the Electronic Media Services Division (EMSD). This division serves and protects the interests of nonsymphonic recording musicians. The AFM Symphonic Services Division represents symphony, opera, ballet, and chamber orchestra electronic media projects.

Last December, EMSD hired Rebecca Gurnee as assistant director. She previously worked in electronic media at Local 47 (Los Angeles, CA) for four years. Her depth of knowledge about contracts, as well as her work ethic, are highly valuable to the division, especially as we continue to maneuver through major national contract negotiations. We are thrilled to have her on board.

During 2024, EMSD focused heavily on film and television agreements. After dual strikes engaged by the Writers’ Guild of America (WGA) and Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) in the summer and fall of 2023, in January the AFM entered negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) for a successor set of motion picture agreements. I’m pleased to report that the Federation achieved a successor agreement that includes a number of key victories. Gurnee recaps the achievements in an article on page 16.

Looking forward, the AFM is on the eve of negotiations for television agreements on both sides of the border, for the Television Videotape Agreement in the US and the CBC Agreement in Canada.

Our collective bargaining agreements are living documents and the parameters of recording and exhibition of musicians’ material are ever-changing. This is especially true with internet streaming agreements. An updated version of the article and chart that ran last year can be found on page 17, including references to two agreements that are new this year.

As for our other agreements, to make sure you know what questions to ask a potential producer to identify the correct agreement (as well as what all the possible agreements are), check out our annual EMSD 101 feature on page 22.

To make identifying the correct agreement even easier, I am proud to announce the launch of the EMSD’s new Resource Center on the AFM.org website. Designed to help producers, musicians, and local officers through the often complicated process of recording contracts, the Resource Center seeks to steer the user directly to the information they need. For more information, see the article below.

A special thank you to the Recording Musicians Association (RMA) for their continued assistance and guidance with organizing, contract negotiations, and administration. Thank you to RMA President Marc Sazer, as well, for his piece on contract research and coalition building on page 6.

I would like to thank the hardworking EMSD staff on both coasts for their dedication to their roles in enforcing our agreements. An updated list of our staff and their functions is available on page 20. We would not be able to accomplish the high-level of work that this department does without the input of each of them.

I am also proud of the work the electronic media staff in our Canadian Office performs under the direction of Vice President from Canada Allistair Elliott and Executive Director Liana White. I look forward to working with the Canadian Office as we approach CBC negotiations in the fall.

Finally, I would like to thank in-house counsels Jennifer Garner and Russ Naymark for their efforts assisting in negotiations, contract enforcement, resolving outstanding claims, and lending their wealth of knowledge to the many agreements that this division covers for the benefit of our working musicians. Their assistance is invaluable when we deal with tricky or controversial situations.

I hope you find this issue to be full of useful information. Do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.

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Introducing the EMSD Resource Center: Your Guide to Agreements

It is no secret that Electronic Media Services Division (EMSD) contracts are not simple to understand. And that’s even if you have a background using them! If you’re a prospective employer, a young musician doing your first union gig, or a new local officer who has never had to process a recording contract before, the details can seem impossible to comprehend.

That’s why we’ve developed the EMSD Resource Center, a public-facing section of AFM.org to guide you to the exact information you’re looking for regarding our national collective bargaining agreements.

Because EMSD agreements correspond to the medium through which the recorded content is exhibited, the Resource Center starts at the top level with 10 generalized categories of exhibition, including commercials, film and television, internet/streaming, sound recordings, and more. The logic is that a new employer likely knows what they are trying to make but isn’t going to know exactly what agreement they need to use.

From there, secondary links lead the visitor to more specific information about different contract areas and agreements. Those secondary links include a compendium of resources: scale summary sheets, agreement books, toolkits, project checklists, explanatory documents, and more. Over time, we expect to expand the number of available resources.

Say, for example, you are budgeting a project for an artist who intends to film a live concert for distribution, but you don’t know what the actual distribution medium will be. From the Resource Center, you can utilize the drop-down menus for all the potential media you are considering, make your way to scale summary documents, and calculate generalized costs with less concern that you have used the wrong information.

In the past, scale summary documents for agreements that were in an indefinite extension for several years may have caused visitors to question whether the document is still correct, or if a newer version exists. Through the Resource Center, it will be clearer to a newcomer that these documents are, in fact, still current.

If you have questions about the Resource Center or suggestions about information to include, please reach out to the EMSD at emsd@afm.org.

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