FUND'S MAIN ANNUAL DISTRIBUTION FOR 2023 IS $8,546,000
08/01/2023, V. Robert DiPaola - Fund Administrator,
(Below is a copy of this year's main annual distribution letter, which contains details related to the distribution and other information about the Fund.)
August 1, 2023
Dear Participating Musician:
We are pleased to enclose a check for your portion of the distribution from the Sound Recording Special Payments Fund (“Fund”) for the fiscal year ended April 30, 2023. Also enclosed, for your reference, is a statement of your reported scale wages, if any, for calendar year 2022. Please note, the check is only valid for ninety days from the issuance date, so you must cash or deposit it by October 29, 2023.
We are also pleased to report that the distribution has again increased this year due largely to continued increases in contributions on streamed sound recordings. Last year’s distribution was 20% above the prior-year distribution. This year, the distribution has increased another 8%, to $8,546,000.i Contributions on streamed sound recordings represented over 80% of contributions this year, while the remainder were on physical sales, digital downloads and sound recordings licensed for new use in other media.
We expect the contributions to the Fund—and, consequently, the Fund’s annual distribution—to stay relatively stable for the next several years assuming streamed sound recordings continue to grow at around 5%, as forecastii. This is because the amount of contributions due the Fund on streamed sound recordings is based on provisions of the Sound Recording Labor Agreement1 (“SRLA”). The SRLA in effect for this year’s distribution and the two previous years’ distributions provides that contributions on streamed sound recordings are due the Fund only to the extent they exceed a threshold of $6 million. The new SRLA increases that $6 million threshold to $7.0, $7.5 and $8.0 million for distribution years 2024, 2025 and 2026, respectively. Contributions up to the applicable threshold are payable to the American Federation of Musicians and Employers’ Pension Fund.
As always, I encourage you to visit the Fund’s website, www.sound-recording.org, and to sign up as a registered user if you haven’t already. Once registered, you can update your address, designate beneficiaries and submit direct deposit account information (U.S. banks only). The website also remains the best place to get important information about the Fund and answers to your frequently asked questions.
Please also be sure to visit our “Do We Have Money For You?” webpage. There, you can search for your or your fellow musicians’ names to find out if you, or they, have unclaimed payments from any of the Fund’s three distributions (i.e. Main-annual, Traditional Music Video and Sampling).
Warmest regards,
V. Robert DiPaola
V. Robert DiPaola
Fund Administrator
1 The collective bargaining agreement between the American Federation of Musicians and record companies.
i Below is a summary comparison of financial information related to the annual distributions for the fiscal years ended April 30, 2023 and 2022:
| 2023 | 2022 | ||
| Contributions | $ 10,701,000 | $ 10,601,000 | |
| Compliance audit collections | 368,000 | - | |
| Interest and investment income | 278,000 | 80,000 | |
| Unclaimed distributions | 177,000 | 120,000 | |
| Total | 11,524,000 | 10,801,000 | |
| | | | |
| General and administrative expenses | 1,809,000 | 1,857,000 | |
| Employer share of payroll taxes | 934,000 | 826,000 | |
| Reserves for capital expenditures | 235,000 | 203,000 | |
| Total | 2,978,000 | 2,886,000 | |
| Total distribution | $ 8,546,000 | $ 7,915,000 | |
| | | | |
| Total participants | 13,000 | 13,300 |
ii Per Statistica.com’s “Music Streaming – Worldwide | Statistica Market Overview” dated June 2023 (projecting annual increases in streamed sound recordings of 5.13% per year through 2027).