6 Ways Music Advocacy Benefits Everyone — Not Just Music Creators

If you love music - whether you're in the crowd, on the stage, or just singing along in the car - advocacy affects you.

But for all its power and influence, music can't advocate for itself. It needs people and institutions - fans, critics, creators - willing to speak up when it's under threat, underfunded, or undervalued. Because when music suffers, everyone feels the loss.

That's where music advocacy comes in. At its core, music advocacy has played a central role in protecting creators' rights, shaping music-centric policies, and championing issues impacting the music ecosystem.

Music advocacy remains a core pillarat the Recording Academy year-round. Through its Advocacy & Public Policydepartment, based in Washington, D.C., the Academy fights to advance pro-music policy and helps pass critical legislation at the state and federal levels. The ongoing advocacy work has paid off: The Recording Academy has helped secure numerous winsfor the music community throughout the years, including the passing of the Help Independent Tracks Succeed (HITS) Act, which was just signed into lawin July after years of activism from the Academy.

On Thursday, Sept. 25, music advocacy will take center stage during Music Advocacy Day 2025. As the nation's largest grassroots music advocacy initiative, the annual Music Advocacy Day brings together over 2,000 Recording Academy membersfor impactful, in-person meetings with their congressional representatives to address issues vital to the music community.

Celebrating its 11th year, Music Advocacy Day 2025 will focus on safeguarding creators from the misuse of artificial intelligence (AI)through legislation such as the NO FAKES Actand continuing to invest in the arts through federal funding for the NEA.

To prepare for Music Advocacy Day 2025, here are six examples that demonstrate why music advocacy matters to all of us.

Music Advocacy Day 2025 Returns Sept. 25: Register

Protecting Venues Protects Music

A venue is more than four walls and a stage - it's a place where strangers become fans, where careers launch, and where communities gather. When a venue closes, the community loses more than a stage - it loses part of its culture, history, and future.

Without the power of advocacy, the COVID-19 pandemic would have wiped out more than 90 percent of independent music venues. The Save Our Stages Actprevented that catastrophe, allocating $15 billionto venues and arts organizations nationwide.

That money saved more than businesses - it preserved the heartbeat of local music scenes. Advocacy keeps these doors open because every closed venue is a loss for the entire neighborhood.

Music Class & Arts Funding Help Kids Succeed

Music education isn't just about teaching kids major and minor keys or inspiring them to be the next Kendrick Lamaror Taylor Swift. Music has repeatedly helped people of all ages build confidence, connection, and self-awareness.

When schools lack music education, the consequences are clear. Today, more than 3.6 million American students still lack accessto music education. Schools with music programs graduate 90.2% of their students, compared to 72.9% at schools without music programs.

Music Advocacy Day 2025 will spotlight funding for the arts as a critical issue. Like music education, arts funding benefits the entire music community, from students and educators to future artists and music creators.

Advocacy ensures that, from the classroom to the studio, every aspiring person has the opportunity to benefit from the educational, social, and cultural power of music and the arts.

Key Issues & Policies All Creators Should Know

Songwriters And Creators Deserve Credit AndProtection

Every lyric, hook, and song starts with a songwriter. Yet even chart-topping creators often struggle to make a living off their art. The Recording Academy fought for the Music Modernization Act, which led to the Mechanical Licensing Collective distributing more than $1.5 billion in royalties- a major step, even if challenges remain.

But fair pay isn't enough without freedom of creative expression. That's why the Academy supports the Restoring Artistic Protection (RAP) Act, which would prevent prosecutors from using song lyrics - often rap lyrics - as evidence in trials. Lyrics are art, not confessions, and treating them otherwise threatens both creativity and free speech. Advocacy means protecting music makers' livelihoods as well as their right to create without fear.

The Impact OfArtificial Intelligence Spans Far Beyond Music & Creators

Rapidly growing artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have, especially over the last few years, disrupted nearly every single fact of life, and music is no exception. That's why the Recording Academy remains committed to safeguarding human creativityand helping creators navigate the use of AI.

Throughout the years, the Recording Academy has championed pro-music policy that would benefit music creators nationwide, including the NO FAKES Act. Most recently, at the 2025 GRAMMYs on the Hill Advocacy Day, for example, the Recording Academy spearheaded the reintroduction of the NO FAKES Act, alongside Senators Chris Coons (D-DE), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and other key leaders.

If passed, the NO FAKES Act would create the first-ever federal protections for artists' voice, likeness, and image from unauthorized, AI-generated deepfakes. The bill would set a national standard to hold platforms and individuals accountable for digital impersonations.

But the NO FAKES Act would also protect all individualsfrom unauthorized recreations from generative AI and other technologies - not just musicians and creators. If passed, the NO FAKES Act would protect the voice and likeness of all Americans while combating the proliferation of AI deepfakes nationwide.

At the GRAMMYs on the Hill Advocacy Day in April, Recording Academy President Panos A. Panay spoke about the wide-ranging protections the NO FAKES Act would offer beyond the music industry.

"I think it's relatable to everybody. Ultimately, nobody wants their voice [or] their face to be manipulated, to be stolen, and to fool people in terms of the intention or the representation of who you are," he said. "I think, unlike a lot of other bills that are about creatives that maybe some people have a hard time relating to, this is something that everybody can understand. You don't want your child's face or voice to be manipulated. You don't want your parents', your grandparents' voice to be manipulated to trick you.

"I want to see these bills passed and for an ethical framework for the responsible use of AI to be enacted as law," Panay continued. "I think it's time."

At Music Advocacy Day 2025, later this month, the Recording Academy will continue to push for legislation, such as the NO FAKES Act, that safeguards creators from the harmful aspects of artificial intelligence.

Learn More About Artificial Intelligence At The Recording Academy

Musicians Are People First

Behind every performance is a person carrying real pressures such as illness, addiction, financial hardship, or burnout, and it doesn't stop when the music does. Stronger safety nets are essential for the people who make the music we all love.

Since its founding in 1989, the Recording Academy's MusiCareshas become the leading music charity supporting the health and wellness of music professionals, providing more than $118 million in direct assistanceto people from every music profession, genre, and U.S. state for essentials ranging from rent and groceries to medical care.

Advocacy ensures that when life interrupts art, the artist is not left behind. Protecting music means protecting the humans who carry it, from headliners to stagehands, from composers to community choirs.

Without Fans, There's No Future

Taylor Swift's Eras Tourgeneratedbillions in ticket sales, boosted local economies, and created memories fans will never forget. But when tickets first went on sale, even "verified" fans with money to spend found themselves shut out. Within an hour, $150 seats were reselling for thousands on secondary markets. Swift saidit was "excruciating" watching her fans struggle to purchase tickets for her tour, and the fiasco forced lawmakers to confront a broken ticketing system.

The Recording Academy has helped turn that outrage into action. Through ongoing advocacy, coalition building, and testimony before Congress, the Academy pushed forward ticketing reforms. The TICKET Actpassed the House of Representatives with broad bipartisan support in 2024. The Recording Academy has also supported and developed the Fans First Actand collaborated with the Fix the Tix coalition, uniting more than 30 music organizations and 65,000 artists and fansto demand a better and fairer ticketing experience for all.

Advocacy ensures the concert experience works for the people who sustain it. When fans are priced out, misled, or shut out, the entire music ecosystem suffers. Fighting for fans is fighting for music's future.

With additional reporting from John Ochoa.

Learn More About Music Advocacy Day