BATON ROUGE – On June 1, the Recording Academy hosted its annual Louisiana Music Advocacy Day at the State Capitol, meeting with a number of key legislators to advocate on behalf of music creators’ value to the public and Louisiana’s economy and on other key music industry legislation. The event included Louisiana music creators, Memphis Chapter President and GRAMMY-nominee Sean Ardoin, GRAMMY-nominee Tarriona “Tank” Ball, Tavia Osbey, GRAMMY-winner Terrance Simien and Terrell Griffin.
For this year’s session, Recording Academy members rallied on behalf of House Bill 445, which would make important changes to the Sound Recording/Quality Music Company incentives first passed in the 2017 legislative session. If signed into law, this bill would remove tax credit limitations and instead would allow for a tax return for any amount in excess of the tax liability–a vital real-world-informed update to achieve the goal of growing the music industry in Louisiana.
The successful advocacy by Charles Gaspard, Justin Garner, Kate Duncan, Kate Durio, Kelly Love Jones, Michelle Colon, Paul Sammarco, Memphis Chapter Governor Quiana Lynell, Reid Wick, and Sherri McConnell, has led to H.B. 445 progressing through the legislature and going to conference. This advocacy was supported by business sponsors including IBERIABANK/First Horizon, PS Business Management, Pierson//Wells, Shepherd Entertainment and Provosty & Gankendorff, LLC.
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