Special Payment Fund
Special Payments Fund checks are in the mail! Distributions are made in August of each year, so be on the lookout for your check if you are a recording musician. For more information, please visit the Fund’s website at: http://www.sound-recording.org/ This year, the Fund distributed over $9.7 million to musicians, a 14 percent increase from the previous year.
Royalties without a Hit?
Perhaps a misnomer, but the outcome is the same…musicians who record under the AFM Sound Recording Labor Agreement (SRLA), in addition to any money paid as a result of their having performed on the original session, will receive additional compensation as a result of record sales. For the royalty artist, this is in addition to the royalties as provided for under the agreement with the record company. This is true whether or not the recording that the musician performed on is a “hit,” or even released.
Too good to be true? Not at all! Here’s how it works:
Every six months all of the AFM signed record companies contribute (after certain specified allowances) a small portion of their profits into this special fund. During the year, every time a musician records under the SRLA, the amount of earnings for that work is logged with the Fund. At the end of the year, the contributions made by the record industry into the Fund are divided amongst all of the musicians who recorded that year. The musicians’ pro-rata share of that amount is determined by the amount of money that was earned for that year. If the musicians never record again, they will continue to participate in that program for four more years. The amount can be quite substantial and has ranged from three to five figures.