Music Performance Trust Fund

Description

Peter Barnes:

"In the 1930s when radio stations started playing pre-recorded music on the air, musicians had reason to worry. Not only were their individual livelihoods threatened, so was the entire future of live performance. After a strike in which many artists refused to record, the musicians’ union and the record industry created the Musical Performance Trust Fund. For every recording sold, record companies pay a small royalty into the trust, which uses the money to sponsor free performances. The fund pays musicians to perform as many as10,000 free concerts in parks, schools and hospitals across the country." (http://onthecommons.org/magazine/commons-based-ideas-support-artists)

More Information

• The San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund is a similar idea that since 1961 has underwritten hundreds of community arts institutions from the symphony orchestra to the politically-charged San Francisco Mime Troupe. - See more at: http://onthecommons.org/magazine/commons-based-ideas-support-artists