Governments around the world are starting to announce how they’ll support self-employed people amid the COVID-19 pandemic – measures that will be relevant to many freelancers in and around the music industry.
Now a group of authors’ organisations (including ECSA from the music industry) have got together to issue a joint statement with their requests for emergency measures. They include: immediate access to full sick pay including isolation periods for freelance workers; allowing authors (songwriters and composers included) to be covered by public health insurance during the crisis and the aftermath; adjusting unemployment schemes when they’re available to ensure continued access; immediate access to guaranteed basic income such as welfare benefits aimed at people without any income who do not have rights to unemployment benefits; options for replacement income for the period of this crisis; deferment or support for living costs like rent, mortgages and loans; and tax relief.
“We welcome the announcements of emergency social funds from collective management organisations,” added the groups, referring to collecting societies, “and encourage the use of non-distributable funds, private copying levies or cultural deductions to support authors during this unprecedented crisis”.
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