AFTRA, Labels Reach Sound-Recordings Deal

AFTRA, Labels Reach Sound-Recordings Deal By Daniel Holloway December 15, 2011 The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists has reached a deal with the recording industry on an extension to the union contract covering audio recordings. The Sound Recordings Code covers artists working on "recordings in all new and traditional media and all music formats, in addition to audiobooks, comedy albums, and cast albums," according to AFTRA. The existing agreement was scheduled to expire Dec. 1.The contract calls for annual 2 percent wage increasesthe same level settled upon in most recent entertainment-union negotiations, including AFTRA's just-signed Network Code extensionover the three-year life of the deal. It also calls for a one-time increase of 1 percent in employer contributions to the union's health and retirement funds. Details of the agreement were hashed out during an all-day negotiating session Wednesday between AFTRA and representatives from the Disney, EMI, Sony, UMG, and Warner labels and finalized Thursday morning."The working members of this negotiating committee confronted unique challenges in this negotiation due to the structural changes, threats from content theft, and sharp economic declines the recording business has experienced during the past decade, which are beyond anything experienced by our members working in other entertainment and media sectors," AFTRA national executive director Kim Roberts Hedgpeth said in a written statement. "The AFTRA members on the negotiating committee nonetheless succeeded in achieving critically needed increases in minimums and H&R contributions, and further bargained payment structures for digital revenue and new forms of licensing that will enable performers to better participate in evolving business structures as the recorded music industry attempts to adapt to change." AFTRA, Labels Reach Sound-Recordings Deal By Daniel Holloway December 15, 2011 The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists has reached a deal with the recording industry on an extension to the union contract covering audio recordings. The Sound Recordings Code covers artists working on "recordings in all new and traditional media and all music formats, in addition to audiobooks, comedy albums, and cast albums," according to AFTRA. The existing agreement was scheduled to expire Dec. 1.The contract calls for annual 2 percent wage increasesthe same level settled upon in most recent entertainment-union negotiations, including AFTRA's just-signed Network Code extensionover the three-year life of the deal. It also calls for a one-time increase of 1 percent in employer contributions to the union's health and retirement funds. Details of the agreement were hashed out during an all-day negotiating session Wednesday between AFTRA and representatives from the Disney, EMI, Sony, UMG, and Warner labels and finalized Thursday morning."The working members of this negotiating committee confronted unique challenges in this negotiation due to the structural changes, threats from content theft, and sharp economic declines the recording business has experienced during the past decade, which are beyond anything experienced by our members working in other entertainment and media sectors," AFTRA national executive director Kim Roberts Hedgpeth said in a written statement. "The AFTRA members on the negotiating committee nonetheless succeeded in achieving critically needed increases in minimums and H&R contributions, and further bargained payment structures for digital revenue and new forms of licensing that will enable performers to better participate in evolving business structures as the recorded music industry attempts to adapt to change."