<\/p>\n
\n\tWhen Chappell Roan<\/a> took the Grammys stage on Feb. 2 to accept the award for best new artist, the 27-year-old singer was glammed to the nines. Yet her speech raised a markedly un-sexy issue: health insurance accessibility for recording artists.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cRecord labels need to treat their artists as valuable employees with a livable wage and health insurance and protection,\u201d she said. \u201cLabels, we got you, but do you got us?\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMusic<\/a> industry lifers, like veteran executives of the major label system, knew the dilemma: theirs is an advance-against-services business in which they invest in an artist and even help develop an act\u2019s sound, but musicians generally aren\u2019t classified in their record label deals as employees, with the usual accompanying benefits.<\/p>\n \n\tMeanwhile, advocates saw the moment as a major win for raising awareness of a long festering issue that rarely gets national attention. \u201cI was jumping up and down on my couch, squealing,\u201d says Music Health Alliance founder and CEO Tatum Allsep, whose organization helps music professionals navigate the healthcare system. \u201cIt\u2019s something we\u2019ve got to talk about more.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI think she was speaking for everybody in the gig workspace, including performing artists who navigate one work assignment to another without any real job security and no benefits,\u201d adds Michael LeRoy, a professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign\u2019s School of Labor<\/a> and Employment Relations.<\/p>\n \n\tThough it may come as a surprise to music fans perplexed by why this is so, consider that recording artists often encounter the same patchwork of options that many self-employed people in America do when it comes to health insurance. And unlike in the film and television industry, where workers who jump from set to set on major projects tend to flock to health plans co-governed by their unions, use of labor group-administered insurance among recording artists is spottier. \u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tIn most label deals, artists sign as independent contractors, who do not typically enjoy standard staff benefits like employer-sponsored health insurance or a retirement plan, explains Lauren Spahn, a shareholder at Buchalter in Nashville, who works with both artists and labels. Depending on how a deal is structured, an artist might be able to put some of the advance they receive upon signing toward health insurance costs, and\/or might negotiate a monthly stipend for such expenses, notes Spahn, who has seen such arrangements. Often, however, \u201cthose stipends are treated as advances, so when the artist starts making royalties, that funding has to be recouped.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWithout the perk of employer-sponsored health insurance, recording artists generally have two options: going through a union or the open market. Though perhaps best known as the labor group for movie and television actors, SAG-AFTRA counts around 3,500 recording artist members among its ranks. Vocalists signed to royalty deals at any of the three major label groups (Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group<\/a>) and Walt Disney Records can gain access to the well-regarded union-administered health plan if they meet eligibility requirements, even if they aren\u2019t members. Recording artists signed by subsidiaries of these labels are also able to join the plan, but not always those signed to indie labels distributed by any of these companies.<\/p>\n \n\tStill, the artist must generally make enough in covered earnings \u2014 currently the threshold is $27,540 \u2014 during a given year to qualify (roster artists, though, can get one extra year of coverage even if their income doesn\u2019t qualify as long as they\u2019re actively recording). This earnings minimum \u201cseems like it\u2019s not a lot, but that\u2019s a lot for some new artists,\u201d says Sally Velazquez, the founder and a partner at Empower Business Management whose clients include 21 Savage and Tinashe.<\/p>\n \n\tIn her speech Roan requested that labels aid struggling artists \u2014 as she considered herself after a previous deal with WMG\u2019s Atlantic Records went south (she later signed with UMG\u2019s Island Records and went on to gain more than 46 million monthly listeners on Spotify).<\/p>\n \n\tInstrumentalists, meanwhile, can join the American Federation of Musicians, whose major-market Locals each offer their own individual multi-employer-funded health plans. But not everyone is aware that they can even join a union. \u201cMost recording artists don\u2019t realize that they can get it or even have it,\u201d says Manatt partner Jordan Bromley, who leads the firm\u2019s entertainment practice and whose clients include the Eagles and ODESZA. \u201cI think there needs to be a better job done to promote and distribute accurate information so that folks know how it works.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tDuncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG-AFTRA\u2019s national executive director, admits that overall awareness of the union option is an issue in a business where many artists are somewhat isolated from one another. \u201cIt has been a challenge for us as a union to really bring this to people\u2019s attention because\u00a0often\u00a0it\u2019s dealt with by a business manager,\u00a0accountant,\u00a0lawyer or somebody like that for [artists].\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIndeed, Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic, responding to Roan\u2019s Grammy night appeal, shared that the band was tipped off early to the pre-AFTRA SAG health plan due to an accountant. \u201cWe did [join SAG] and I have had great health insurance for 35 years,\u201d he wrote<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n \n\tBeyond the unions, musicians can try other routes for the self-employed, like buying insurance through state or federal marketplaces or directly from insurance companies, if coverage via a spouse or side job is not available. \u201cThe best way is through the Affordable Care Act,\u201d says the Music Health Alliance\u2019s Allsep. \u201cIt\u2019s just without someone [helping] you, it\u2019s almost impossible to navigate episodic income\u201d \u2014 like when an artist makes a certain amount of earnings on tour versus at their time off the road. (Also, if an artist has employees, like many superstars do, their own company can set up a health insurance plan, Velazquez notes.)<\/p>\n \n\tCasual Grammys viewers may be surprised to learn the numbers of those working in music who are insured. MusiCares, a nonprofit affiliate of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, through internal data and its annual Wellness in Music survey, found that around 87 to 90 percent of music workers have some sort of coverage, compared with 92 percent in the general U.S. population. The major concern for Theresa Wolters, the organization\u2019s vice president of health and human services, is the quality of that care. \u201cMany people we support do have health insurance. The problem is that it doesn\u2019t cover, or they can\u2019t afford the out-of-pocket cost for their preventive care services or their mental health services,\u201d or regular or emergency services or prescription drugs, she notes.<\/p>\n