Why So Many Recording Artists Struggle to Get Health Insurance
By: Katie Kilkenny
March 7, 2025
In most label deals, artists sign as independent contractors, who do not typically enjoy standard staff benefits like employer-sponsored health insurance or a retirement plan, explains Lauren Spahn, a shareholder at Buchalter in Nashville, who works with both artists and labels. Depending on how a deal is structured, an artist might be able to put some of the advance they receive upon signing toward health insurance costs, and/or might negotiate a monthly stipend for such expenses, notes Spahn, who has seen such arrangements. Often, however, “those stipends are treated as advances, so when the artist starts making royalties, that funding has to be recouped.”
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