Today’s resource: the American Federation of Musicians. The AFM is a musician’s union that represents both classical and popular musicians. For reasons I was not able to uncover, the AFM has something called the Intellectual Property Rights Distribution Fund in cooperation with SAG-AFTRA. SAG-AFTRA is the TV and Movie performers union that I myself belong to.
It gets even more confusing but also more juicy: The AFM and SAG AFTRA Intellectual Property Rights Distribution Fund doles out royalties to ANYBODY who performed on a commercial recording, even if they were NOT union members.
Fortunately, thats’s where the confusion ends because the group has a really CLEAR, Simple website for searching to see if there are music royalties due to you or your family. You simply go to the page, which I will link you to from EasyMoneySHow.com/69 and search by last name. I took a look and there are thousands of names on the list.
If you find your name, you then fill out a 1-page form that asks for basic things like your name and address, but also information like what instruments you play and artists you have performed with. From looking at the form, it seems like the AFM-SAG-AFTRA Fund will actually conduct a further search FOR you, so my advice to prolific musicians OR their families would be to send in the form even if you did NOT find your name on the website. They just might find something. The website also provides all of the information for heirs and beneficiaries of a musician to claim royalties after their death.
Links:
Search for unclaimed money with music royalties with the American Federation of Musicians:
www.afmsagaftrafund.org/unclaimed-royalties.php
