Joey La Neve DeFrancesco is a musician and organizer in New York City. He performs with the band Downtown Boys and is a cofounder of United Musicians and Allied Workers (UMAW).
Live Nation–Ticketmaster controls nearly every corner of the US live music business, from ticketing to touring. In Portland, Maine, a coalition of venues, musicians, and art workers rallied the city against the industry’s most powerful monopoly.
Eighty years ago, thousands of musicians in the US launched a two-year strike against the recording industry. They won landmark gains — reminding musicians today that the best way to wrest back money from the streaming companies is to flex collective power.
The music industry is making money hand over fist, but life for average musicians remains incredibly precarious. But musicians aren’t temporarily embarrassed millionaires — they’re workers. And like any other worker, the solution to their problem is collective organizing.
This week 194 years ago, Rhode Island textile workers waged the first factory strike in US history. It was organized by young women.