DistroKid staff seek Union affiliation via Communications Workers Of America

[UPDATED] Staff members at digital music distributor DistroKid have elected to join the National Association of Broadcast Engineers and Technicians (NABET Local 16), a union within the Communication Workers of America.

According to the organizers, 85 of DistroKid’s 91 employees are eligible to join the union, and 50 signed the petition requesting recognition.

Founded in 2013, DistroKid distributes more than 25 million songs by 2 million artists, an estimated 30-40% of all new music globally.

“We are prepared to proceed to an NLRB election, which we will win.”

“We have collected signatures from various members of staff in the organizing departments for a letter expressing support for our decision to unionize and urging our Board of Directors to recognize it voluntarily,” the organizers said in a statement. “If our Board chooses not to recognize us voluntarily, we are prepared to proceed to an NLRB election, which we will win.”

The new union would represent staff members in Artist Relations, Content Operations, Quality Control, AMER Engineering, Product, Agile Ops, QA, Dev Ops/Sys Ops, and Database Administration, is first seeking voluntary recognition from the DistroKid Board of Directors.

The Communications Workers of America is the largest communications and media labor union in the United States, with about 700,000 members. In Canada, where Bandzoogle, which DistroKid acquired in September of last year, is based, the union has 8000 members via CWA-SCA Canada.

“We also recognize that this effort comes at a time of increased activism by workers throughout many industries,” concluded the statement from Union organizers, “and we are proud and humbled to join all of those who are advocating for themselves in their workplaces throughout the US and abroad.”

We have reached out to DistroKid for comment.

Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, President of the Skyline Artists Agency, and a Berklee College Of Music professor.