Today, I joined fellow members of The Recording Academy to participate in the advocacy division’s GRAMMYs in My District initiative, which organized hundreds of music creators and industry professionals across the United States to speak with their Congressional rep about music rights.

Here at Burbank City Hall to meet with @repadamschiff with fellow @thegrammys members to talk music rights. #GIMD #SupportMusic pic.twitter.com/SxznLqsqs5

— Dae Bogan (@daeboganmusic) October 26, 2016

I had the pleasure of meeting and speaking with my rep, Congressman Adam Schiff of California’s 28th District. Representative Schiff has the unique pleasure 🙂 of representing a district whose constituents include many creators, possibly the most content creators in the United States. As an attorney and friend of many creators, Representative Schiff stands as a politician who supports the rights of music creators.

I am happy to say that Representative Schiff already sponsors the Songwriter Equity Act, the Fair Play Fair Pay Act, and the Allocation for Music Producers Act (AMP Act) and will be doing what he can to get other congressional representatives on board. This is not an easy task. Big Media such as the National Association of Broadcasters strongly oppose and lobby against progress that would ensure artists are being fairly compensated for the use of their music on terrestrial radio.

The music community has to work together to fight for changes to push legislation that will given music creators the rights and control over their music, the way any working professional maintains control over the products and services that he/she puts into the marketplace.

We need copyright reform. We need these bills to become laws. We need multi-billion dollar corporations to stop subsidizing the salaries of their executives and their operational costs at the expense of music creators.