Keeping the Score: The Impact of Recapturing North American Film and Television Sound Recording Work

Governments across the U.S. and around the world are investing billions of dollars in the film and television industry in an effort to create and retain the high-quality jobs attached to the industry. Yet musicians – the highly-trained and highly-talented women and men who record the scores for movies and television shows – are being left behind. This report shines a light on this oft-overlooked segment of the industry by examining the trends and forces contributing to a dramatic decline in domestic employment for recording musicians working at the industry standard.

This report concludes that by increasingly offshoring recording work, Hollywood studios and production companies are saving relatively small amounts of money. These savings, however, have disproportionate costs for musicians, taxpayers, and the broader economy. Hollywood can easily afford to meet the top employment standards for musicians, thereby not only providing ample quality employment, but strengthening domestic economies.