A musicians union split its AI fight across two contracts

The shot

The American Federation of Musicians represents session and scoring musicians who record for film and television, and its own announcements describe AI terms in two tracks: the ratified Basic Theatrical and Television Motion Picture Agreements, and the Sound Recording Labor Agreement, currently under negotiation.

What the documents show

The AFM's own April 2024 announcement states its members ratified the Basic Theatrical and Basic Television Motion Picture Agreements, listing among the gains "AI Protections: The contract incorporates new protections to safeguard against the encroachment of generative artificial intelligence (AI), providing compensation for musicians when their performances are used in conjunction with AI tools, and ensuring human creativity remains at the heart of the industry." AFM President Tino Gagliardi calls the deal "a monumental victory for musicians who have long been under-compensated for their work in the digital age." Separately, the AFM's own March 2026 rally announcement, covering the still-unresolved Sound Recording Labor Agreement talks with Sony, Universal, Hollywood Records, and Warner, states the union's top priority is "Protecting Human Artistry from AI Displacement: Securing 'Consent, Compensation, and Credit' regarding the use of musicians' work in machine learning and generative AI." Both are the union's own accounts of its bargaining aims, not independently verified contract text.

The workflow

Under the ratified motion-picture agreements, the union frames the AI protection as compensation triggered when a musician's recorded performance is used "in conjunction with AI tools" on a scored production, layered onto the contract's new streaming residuals and healthcare contributions. For the still-open recording agreement, the rally materials describe a "Consent, Compensation, and Credit" framework as the goal for any future use of a session musician's recorded work to train or prompt a machine-learning or generative-AI system, a standard the union says it is negotiating for, not one yet secured as of March 2026.

What the tool does not change

Neither document specifies a compensation formula, defines a performance used "in conjunction with" AI, or gives a musician a way to learn whether their work trained a model; the March 2026 materials describe these as open priorities, not settled terms. The rally FAQ states negotiations "began in Los Angeles on January 13-15, with a second round of negotiations beginning March 10th," meaning the consent-compensation-credit framework, on the union's own account, remained a demand rather than a ratified clause as of that date.

• Has the recording agreement been ratified since March 2026, and does its final text include the consent, compensation, and credit framework the union sought?
• What counts, under the ratified motion-picture agreements, as a performance used in conjunction with an AI tool, and who determines it?
• Does a given scoring session musician know whether their recorded work is being used to train a machine-learning model, absent the transparency the union is still negotiating for?

The AFM's own record shows a union that secured AI-related compensation language in its 2024 motion-picture agreements while still negotiating, as of its own March 2026 statements, a broader consent, compensation, and credit standard for recorded music used in machine learning through the Sound Recording Labor Agreement, two tracks, two stages, on the union's own telling.