Why This Indie Musician Isn’t Scared of California’s AB-5 Law ‘Crashing’ the Music Business | PRO Insight

The Southern California music community entered freak-out mode last month after an influential music business blogger and entertainment lawyer sounded an apocalyptic alarm about Assembly Bill 5 — a new law, spearheaded by Assembly member Lorena Gonzalez, that goes into effect on January 1, 2020, and may impact independent contractors across all industries in the state. The purpose of the legislation, which passed an Assembly vote in Sacramento and was signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom last September, is to protect workers from being taken advantage of by companies that misclassify them as independent contractors, instead of employees, to avoid providing employment benefits. But according to Ari Herstand, an indie singer-songwriter and author of “How to Make It in the New Music Business,” AB-5 is poised to destroy California’s booming music industry. After attending a presentation from attorney Ned Menoyo of EEM Law, Herstand published a blog post declaring, “California’s Music Economy Is About to Crash,” which was widely shared with major concern in musician and songwriter social media groups just before the Thanksgiving holiday. Well, I’m an independent musician regularly gigging all over the state and hiring other players for gigs and recording sessions, so I read the...

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