Sumerian Records’ Ash Avildsen Matches Chappell Roan’s $25,000 Donation to Help Struggling Artists

Sumerian Records founder Ash Avildsen has stepped up to match Chappell Roan‘s recent $25,000 donation aimed at supporting struggling artists.

The initial donation came after Roan found herself in a heated exchange with industry executive Jeff Rabhan, who recently wrote a controversial piece in The Hollywood Reporter criticizing her Grammy acceptance speech. During the speech, Roan called for record labels to “treat their artists as valuable employees with a livable wage and health insurance and protection.” Rabhan responded by telling her to “put [her] money where [her] mouth is,” prompting Roan to donate $25,000 of her own money. She then challenged Rabhan to match the donation.

In a video posted by Sumerian Records, Avildsen weighed in on the conversation and announced his decision to match Roan’s contribution:

Sumerian Records is matching Chappell Roan for 25 grand and now we got a message for this major label suit who thinks he’s really profound in how he’s denounced her Grammys speech and what she stands for. Instead of telling her to shut up and sing, why don’t we talk about the real reason we’re in this mess. How about showing us the receipts for the equity deals and massive bonuses the big three got from Spotify for selling all the artists down the river. Go ahead and show us the same thing for the Youtube deal when Chen and Hurley sold it to Google. 

Instead of hiring execs who think young artists on exclusive contracts don’t deserve healthcare, maybe the industry should’ve hired actual forward-thinking people who understand technology. How many major labels ever computer programmers? Instead of Steve Jobs having to bail us out the first time with itunes, or Daniel Ek playing captain sailor bro the second time with Spotify, maybe the big three could’ve developed their own digital stores and streamers so that the digital money would just be split between the labels and the artists? But no, instead we’ve got Spotify worth more than every label put together and then across the street we’ve got Live Nation and Ticketmaster all as one company owning every meaningful aspect of the entire concert industry. 

See, the problem isn’t artists like Chappell Roan speaking up for the smaller ones, the problem is that executives like you make artists scared to speak their truth, whether it’s about the music or the state of the world. Whether it’s justice for a fair share, or justice for little innocent kids getting blown up, the machine wants everyone to shut up and sing. Imagine if every touring artist said they wouldn’t book another show until Ticketmaster lowered their service fees and stopped doing dynamic pricing. Maybe this is our cue to start a true musician’s guild with every working artist who understands that the big companies are way too greedy and way too powerful, but without people just shutting up and singing, how powerful are they? 

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