Music Managers Forum-US (MMF-US) is seeking graduate student support on behalf of a coalition of leading music industry organizations advocating for the proposed Protect Working Musicians Act (PWMA) and related national arts policy initiatives. As a coalition partner working alongside organizations including the Recording Academy, Artist Rights Alliance, Future of Music Coalition, Songwriters of North America (SONA), the American Federation of Musicians (AFM), and others, MMF-US is helping to coordinate this project to strengthen advocacy strategy, coalition coordination, and policy engagement efforts supporting the legislation. The coalition is seeking assistance in organizing research, messaging, coalition infrastructure, and stakeholder engagement strategies that can help advance legislative momentum and long-term policy impact.

Students will evaluate the current advocacy landscape affecting working musicians, artist protections, and music industry labor issues while helping identify opportunities to strengthen coalition building, public engagement, and policymaker outreach. The project may involve researching comparable policy initiatives, analyzing legislative pathways, identifying key stakeholder groups, mapping coalition relationships, and assessing strategies that could help align messaging and advocacy efforts across participating organizations.

In addition, students may support the development of communications materials, policy research summaries, stakeholder engagement frameworks, and advocacy support tools designed to help the coalition maintain momentum as legislation progresses through various stages of review and public discussion. This could include organizing educational materials, identifying opportunities for public awareness campaigns, evaluating grassroots engagement strategies, and recommending approaches for sustaining effective multi-organizational collaboration over time.

While MMF-US, Artist Rights Alliance, and Fan Alliance are serving as the lead organizations for this graduate student engagement, the work will directly support the broader coalition's advocacy efforts surrounding the Protect Working Musicians Act. The project is intended to strengthen the coalition's long-term advocacy infrastructure while creating a more coordinated and scalable framework for advancing policy priorities that impact working musicians nationwide. Ultimately, students will help participating organizations improve strategic alignment, policy engagement capacity, coalition coordination, and stakeholder communications as they work collectively to advance meaningful legislative and industry change. 

 Success for this project will be measured by the coalition's ability to emerge with a stronger, more coordinated, and more scalable advocacy framework that supports both the Protect Working Musicians Act and future public policy initiatives affecting music creators.

Specifically, the project will be considered successful if students deliver a comprehensive set of practical recommendations and resources that the coalition can implement, including stakeholder and coalition mapping, policy research, messaging frameworks, advocacy materials, and strategic recommendations for strengthening coalition coordination and public engagement.

Desired outcomes include identifying opportunities to improve strategic alignment among participating organizations, developing resources that help communicate the value of the Protect Working Musicians Act to policymakers and industry stakeholders, recommending approaches to expand grassroots engagement and public awareness, and creating an advocacy toolkit that coalition partners can adapt throughout the legislative process.

From an organizational perspective, success will also be measured by the extent to which the students' work strengthens the coalition's long-term advocacy infrastructure. Rather than producing recommendations that are specific only to one piece of legislation, the project should provide a sustainable framework that can support future collaborative advocacy efforts on behalf of working musicians and the broader music industry.

The ultimate goal is to equip the coalition with research, strategic insights, and practical tools that enhance its collective capacity to advocate effectively, coordinate across organizations, and engage policymakers and stakeholders in advancing meaningful legislative and industry change.