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GRAMMYs On The Hill

Play Fair was the message that hundreds of musicians took to Washington for Advocacy Day on The Hill, preceded by The Recording Academy®‘s GRAMMYs on the Hill the night before that honored three time GRAMMY winners Zac Brown Band, Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Thomas J. Rooney (R-Fla.) at The Hamilton. The spectacular blowout musical event is considered Washington’s most interesting mix of music and politics geared to improving the cultural condition and quality of life for music and its makers. The Academy’s Advocacy & Public Policy office serves as policymakers’ go-to representative of the collective world of recording professionals — performers, songwriters and studio professionals.

“With the advent of what’s going on online – people downloading your music for free – it’s almost like putting you into bankruptcy,” GRAMMY winner Smokey Robinson told Hollywood on the Potomac. “What your work is, they get it for free. It’s like if you went out and all the cab drivers, all the bus drivers and all the people that work in the building were doing it for free. People put their lives and their efforts into music, so they should be compensated for that.”