Fair Pay at SXSW Rally
On Wednesday, May 31, 2023, United Musicians and Allied Workers (UMAW), Music Workers Alliance (MWA) and others organized a rally outside the Penske Media Corporation offices requesting better pay for the musicians that perform at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, TX each year. Currently, musicians are paid only $250 to perform at the festival, or receive a wristband that gains them entry to other events during SXSW. They are also required to pay an application fee and international acts are paid nothing at all. The rally took place outside the PMC offices who own Rolling Stone, Variety, and other brands including SXSW.
Other music unions such as Bandcamp United (for workers at Bandcamp), Secretly Group Union (for workers at the Secretly Group labels such as Dead Oceans, Saddest Factory, Jagjaguwar, Numero Group, Ghostly International, and Secretly Canadian plus Secretly Publishing and Secretly Distribution), and Local 802 also spoke at the rally, along with someone from NYC-DSA. The final speaker, Sasha Stewart, a captain at the Writers Guild of America, addressed the crowd and led a march to the Paramount offices at 1515 Broadway when the SXSW rally ended. The rally featured members from various unions such as Actors Equity, the WGA, and others who are also fighting for fair compensation for their work.
The Fair Pay at SXSW Rally received some press coverage in Pitchfork and Deadline, and a few images I took can be found in the aforementioned Pitchfork piece and the above gallery.