A Songwriter’s Strike?
The Writers Guild of America - which represents scriptwriters interests - is currently on strike. The guild is made up of 11,500 television writers who are seeking to establish a minimum number of scribes per writer’s room, regulation of artificial intelligence, more upfront compensation for writers, and a new calculus for how residuals are made in the streaming era. It is this last point that is the most salient. As “new media” - think Netflix, HBO Max, and other streamers - have proliferated, writer’s residuals have steadily declined. The writer’s demands would increase compensation to guild members by 500 million dollars.
It is important to remember that the WGA also went on strike in 2007, causing a 1.5 billion dollar loss to the Los Angeles economy and significant disruption in the quality of television. The strike ended with streamers capitulating to a few of the writer’s demands. As this is unfolding, I’d like songwriters to consider the power of unions and the lack of one that represents us.
Songwriters work for free most days. Day rates are non-standard. Labels refuse to include songwriters in master payout, denying most of us even a single point. Sync fees are delivered on extreme delay - sometimes a year or more after the airing of an advertisement or tv release. Streaming giants severely underpay writers on the publishing side of songs. Labels, streamers, and television execs undermine the songwriter’s ability to cobble together a livable wage and yet their business models are only successful because of our contributions.
We must then ask what could our gains be if we unionized? What could happen if we stopped writing and releasing songs all together? What if songwriters went on strike? In the event of songwriters withholding their labor, victory would be imminent and some of these wrongs would be rectified. At least that is what I choose to believe.
I hope that all creatives have their eyes on the Writer’s Strike. I believe that in the coming weeks - as late night comes to a halt and the quality of television diminishes - the writers will win against the streamers. And if they do, I hope that that inspires songwriters to advocate for their dues as well.
