66% of American music listeners listen to music from foreign artists according to a new Music 360 report by Luminate. Millennials and Gen Z are found to be the top generations who actively listen to more music from artists originating outside the country according to the study.
Even with this increasing demand for overseas acts by young people, the cost of the P, O1 and O2 work visas that allow artists to work and move freely in the U.S. is set to increase if efforts by music lobby groups to keep them low are not successful. Just today music industry leaders in the U.K. called on the government to apply pressure to the U.S. to prevent the “deeply damaging” increase in visa fees.
The new fee structure for acts to enter the U.S. will see the most popular U.K., Jamaican and Nigerian and other acts from around the world paying 251% more for the temporary P visas from US$460 to US$1,615 and the O visas will increase by 260% from US$460 to US$1,655.
UK Music Chief Executive Jamie Njoku-Goodwin denounced the move by the U.S. government in a statement March 30, 2022 saying, “these plans must be scrapped.”
“America is one of the most important global markets for British musicians, and breaking into the States can be critical to a musician or band’s career – but this increase in visa fees risks making a US tour unaffordable for emerging acts. These deeply damaging proposals would be catastrophic, both for UK artists and for their American audiences who have a huge appetite for British music,” he continued.
He called on the U.K. ministers to “urgently raise this issue with their US counterparts” to avoid an outcome that would be “mutually detrimental to both our countries.”
His call came a month after Adam Gross, President of Ineffable Music expressed a similar sentiment that the US immigration services fees will have adverse effects on tours for artists who are non-U.S. residents or citizens.
Adam also agrees. “for the overwhelming majority of artists this(fee increase) makes touring impossible, you already have to pay for all these flights, you already have to pay to get your crew around for a bus, or some sort of vehicle, for hotels, you have to pay 30% withholding tax, so when you get paid for show they have to withhold 30% to the U.S. government,” Adam says frustratingly.
“The Department of Homeland Security needs to find a way to fund itself in a different way, it is absolutely insane, it completely makes it impossible for non-Americans to tour in the U.S.,” he concludes in the post.
First on the chopping block was the annual Best Of The Best showcase in Miami which was postponed due to artist not having visas. Event promoter Jabba posted the information on his Instagram account stating, “We Love You All…. See You All Next Year…. Sunday May 26 2024‼️ Reason Lots Of Artist You All Want To See DONT HAVE WORK VISA‼️ NO ARTIST NO SHOW‼️”
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cp3i1DaOMCT/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Best Of The Best will make room this year for the first installation of the 2 day Afronation festival on Memorial Weekend May 27 and 28th which features a slew of popular Afrobeats artists such as Burna Boy, Wizkid, Asake and Rema. Also on the bill is Jamaican dancehall singjay Mavado who lives in the US and Beenie Man whose visa is yet to be granted for the event.
