Protect California's Entertainment Industry

The Valley Industry and Commerce Association (VICA) opposes Assembly Bill 983 (Kalra), which would prohibit exclusivity provisions in musicians’ contracts, radically upending nearly a century of business practices and legal principles that have benefited employers and employees alike. This bill would also destabilize California’s music business, cut opportunities for working artists, and weaken the state’s economic recovery. 
 
The bill would upend longstanding business practices that have made California home to a vibrant music industry, undermine collective bargaining, and harm the industry that has created a robust middle class of entertainment workers. An exclusivity clause provides an artist with generous compensation for their exclusive commitment to a production, often from creation through exhibition. With artist participation assured, the producer-employer is afforded the stability necessary to finance, insure, and arrange all the other elements for the production to move forward. This is a quintessential topic for negotiations between private parties, who can craft detailed, nuanced exclusivity provisions that consider the specific needs the parties may have on the particular project—not for a one-size-fits-all “solution” like AB 983 
 
Through their unions, workers in the music industry negotiate collective bargaining agreements every few years. The terms of those agreements have been refined and developed through years of bargaining to balance the needs of workers and the industry. By abandoning this strong, well-working framework and freezing deal terms in inflexible statutory text, AB 983 will reduce advances for all but the biggest superstars. It will make it harder for new artists to get signed and divert time, resources and funding needed to break new acts to those who have already made it. Further, it will erect new obstacles for diverse, innovative, and less commercial voices and genres. It will undermine California’s economic recovery by eliminating high-wage recording, touring, and other music-related jobs. The music industry contributes nearly $40 billion every year to California’s GDP, and supports over 430,000 jobs and 72,000 venues.  
 
Passage of AB 983 will upend one of California’s signature industries and harm record companies, artists, and the thousands of businesses that benefit from the economic activity generated by the music industry.  Lastly, it would cause irreparable disruption by harming the music industry across all platforms, and the tens of thousands of Californians who earn their livelihood working in entertainment.