Some high powered music industry figures and recording artists that include super managers Irving Azoff and Coran Capshaw have joined forces to launch a new lobbying group that will advocate for musicians.
According to Bloomberg, the board of the group, named the Music Artists Coalition, also entertainment lawyer Jordan Bromley and publicist Kristen Foster, as well as recording artists such as Dave Matthews, Anderson.Paak, and Maren Morris.
The Coalition will focus its advocacy efforts on a number of key issues at both the state and federal level, including royalty rates, and copyright law.
“Artists don’t really have a seat at any table,” Azoff told Bloomberg in an interview. “Just the fact that we have a powerful group of people will scare everyone else to the table.”
The Music Artists Coalition joins an increasingly crowded slate of industry trade groups that includes The Recording Industry Association of America, the National Music Publishers’ Association and the National Association of Broadcasters reps radio stations, but is the first to directly claim to represent artists.
Azoff, who played a key role in organizing the group, is no stranger to public advocacy and previously helped to found the Recording Artists Coalition, but, as Bloomberg noted, the group’s efforts slowed after the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences took a leadership role.
“Emerging artists deserve the same opportunity that many of us had — to be able to make a living creating music,” Matthews said in a statement to Bloomberg. “It’s important for today’s musicians to pave the way for those in the future.”