The contract talks lastly reached the handshake level at 3 a.m. PT on Feb. 23. However the true breakthrough within the negotiation between the American Federation of Musicians and Hollywood’s main studios got here within the afternoon of Feb. 22 — after AFM president Tino Gagliardi referred to as in reinforcements to the convention rooms at AMPTP headquarters, famously situated on the previous website of the Sherman Oaks Galleria.

“I used to be beginning to do one thing rash,” Gagliardi informed Selection. “Once I was getting the sign that they weren’t going to budge, I contacted my negotiating committee to inform them we wanted to organize for a strike authorization vote. I obtained about 60 to 65 individuals within the room on the Galleria. It had an affect.”

The edges had been dealing with an April 30 expiration of AFM’s present settlement. The union had already granted the Alliance of Movement Image and Tv Producers a number of extensions of the prior contract. Gagliardi had made it clear there have been could be no extra extensions. The AFM has about 60,000 members within the U.S. and Canada. About 2,000 of these members work beneath the Primary Theatrical Movement Image and Primary Tv Movement Image contracts. After final 12 months’s lengthy strikes by SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild of America, the trade has been warily watching the AFM negotiations as a precursor to contract talks later this 12 months with IATSE and Hollywood Teamsters. AMPTP representatives declined to touch upon this story.

For AFM, the most important hurdle to beat was getting AMPTP corporations to grant musicians a residual cost for his or her work on scores and soundtracks for TV packages and films produced for streaming platforms. The AFM contract’s lack of protection for streaming originals grew to become an enormous drawback for musicians as streaming content material grew to become the dominant supply of employment for musicians who deal with TV and movie.

The motion that introduced the perimeters collectively got here when the AMPTP sweetened its supply. The studios initially supplied to pay residuals that might kick in after a streaming unique film or TV program was bought to a “secondary market,” which means after the rerun rights to a title have been bought to a distinct platform. In streaming, nonetheless, these second-window offers may be few and much between as a result of streamers usually maintain on to library rights for years after a title’s debut.

“We did really feel that musicians have been being undervalued — our work was not being revered in the identical because the actors, writers and administrators and that wanted to alter,” Gagliardi mentioned. “We made it clear that we might do something we wanted to do to make that occur.”

After some arm wrestling throughout the desk, the AMPTP moved to supply gamers residuals on the first-run airings (aka the “main market”) that begins after the preliminary 26-week exhibition interval. Morever, the AFM secured the “efficiency bonuses” alongside the traces of the WGA, SAG-AFTRA and the Administrators Guild of America that generate further funds on well-liked sequence that hit pre-determined viewership benchmarks.

“They did supply us secondary residuals however that was not going to significant for us,” Gagliardi mentioned. “They completely have been very reticent to just accept the thought of a set residuals in a main market.”

The opposite burning situation for AFM was to attain protections for musicians towards the specter of AI instruments getting used to interchange human gamers on soundtracks and scores. Gagliardi wouldn’t reveal a lot in regards to the specifics within the proposal however mentioned it was related in idea to the protections secured by SAG-AFTRA in November after a five-month strike.

“We don’t need our product being put into an AI engine to create a musical line or rating from complete fabric,” Gagliardi mentioned. “We don’t need a sax solo from certainly one of our members being thrown into an AI engine to have one thing created artificially.” Gagliardi, who labored as a trumpet participant in New York earlier than changing into worldwide president of AFM in 2018, noticed that whereas “musicians have been coping with instrument alternative know-how for years,” the present wave of generative AI instruments current an unusually extreme menace to the livelihoods of AFM members.

The extent of disruption throughout the trade coupled with AI-fueled nervousness made for tense moments within the negotiations room. However in Gagliardi’s expertise, the bargaining course of this time round went extra swiftly than he anticipated, with a deal reached after a dozen negotiating periods held since January.

“For the AFM, these negotiations have at all times been a slog. To have the ability to accomplish what we wanted to with 12 periods is, in and of itself, a victory for us,” Gagliardi mentioned. “It often takes a number of months.”

Gagliardi credited AMPTP president Carol Lombardini with partaking in “give and take” that moved the needle for the union. Gagliardi, Lombardini and different key gamers labored all night time Thursday and into Friday in particular person at AMPTP headquarters till the three a.m. accord was reached.

“The method itself I imagine was extra collaborative than it has been up to now,” Gagliardi mentioned. “It was getting a bit edgy…however I imagine the businesses got here collectively to appreciate the significance of our contributions” to movie and TV packages, he mentioned. The AFM tentative settlement was clinched a couple of week after the AMPTP reached a cope with SAG-AFTRA masking animated movies, with none fireworks.

“On the conclusion of the negotiations, Carol and I had a really nice trade,” Gagliardi mentioned. “We need to strengthen our relationship. It’s all about relationships.”

(Pictured: Tino Gagliardi, worldwide president and chief negotiatior for AFM, addresses a Writers Guild of America rally in Occasions Sq. in June 2023.)