Music Artists Coalition (MAC) is a new organization made up of musicians, songwriters and other artists, along with a collection of their representatives, that will work to advocate for the rights of artists in various aspects of the music business.
Along with the head trio of managers Irving Azoff, Coran Capshaw and John Silva, the initial MAC board includes musicians like Dave Matthews, Don Henley, Maren Morris, Anderson .Paak, Shane McAnally and Meghan Trainor.
“Artists decide their musical fate every time they write a song or step on stage," Henley says in a press release. "Their true fate—the ability to protect their music—is being decided by others…bureaucrats, government legislators, and the powerful digital gatekeepers. We are forming the Music Artists Coalition (MAC) to ensure that there is an organization whose sole mission is to protect the rights of music artists—performers and songwriters.”
“Emerging artists deserve the same opportunity that many of us had—to be able to make a living creating music," Matthews adds. "It’s important for today’s musicians to pave the way for those in the future.”
According to the release, MAC's overall goad is “to address the complex issues facing artists today in a rapidly changing digital landscape, and to give artists an uncompromised voice in all debates which impact today’s artists and the artists of tomorrow.” Some of the issues the organization plans to take on include the Copyright Royalty Board, the Music Modernization Act's Mechanical Licensing Collective, legislative reform of policies affecting major streaming services and more.
“There is no music business without the artists," says Azoff. "We have a responsibility to protect the people who write the songs and create the music. MAC will be the voice and defender for all music creators.”
