“Musicians’ union executives hope to arrest the decline in work for Los Angeles studio musicians by backing the ‘Music Scoring Tax Credit Bill,’ ” reads an unsigned Tuesday (8/15) report in MusicalAmerica.com (subscription required). “Assembly Bill 1300 would offer a 30 percent tax credit to U.S. productions made in foreign countries, as well as low-budget films, that use California musicians. International Recording Musicians Association President Marc Sazer points out that L.A. musicians have lost substantial ground to London and other European cities. In 2003, nearly 60 percent of feature films were scored by American Federation of Musicians members; by 2015, that number was down to 30 percent. Only five of 33 ‘major motion pictures’ that were produced overseas were scored in the U.S. in 2015. Production companies ‘follow tax-credit money to the U.K., to Spain, Hungary, wherever, and the scoring gets done in London,’ says Sazer. On average, explains AFM Local 47 president John Acosta, ‘Each film hires anywhere between 50 and 80 unique musicians.’ … That amounts to ‘millions of dollars,’ he adds. ‘If we can get the state to invest in those projects, we can be competitive, and give composers access to the top musicians,’ concludes Sazer.”
Posted August 18, 2017
