Nonprofit Music First Sues Longmont Venue for Failure to Pay Artists

Since Becca Raccone started Music First in January 2023, the nonprofit's mission has remained the same: to benefit musicians through venue partnerships, mental-health assistance, health insurance, help providing sound equipment and production resources, and advocating for fair pay.

"Every musician who performs a service should be paid just like any other service provider, like plumbers or electricians," Raccone says. "Once a performance is rendered on an establishment, they deserve to be paid based on our agreement, and we do have agreements with all the venues we work with."

In the two years since it formed, the nonprofit has partnered with venues to showcase its 115 active member musicians. "We work with establishments from mom-and-pop breweries and restaurants all the way up to Mishawaka," Raccone notes.

Last year, Music First signed a three-month contract with Longmont Social, a brewery that stages live music. "We were supposed to have every Saturday from October until the end of December," she says, "as well as the third Wednesday of every month for our Songsmith Showdown." That weekly competition's final installment took place on December 4.

But Raccone says the venue notified her at the beginning of November that it wanted to terminate the contract. "I stated at that time that it does not circumvent them paying the musicians who already played, nor does it circumvent the fee to Music First," she recalls.

Some events were moved to Johnson's Station, which is "actually now a partner of Music First," Raccone notes. "Whenever there's a negative I try to look at the positive."

Longmont Social "did end up hosting the finals for our Songsmith Showdown, but even that turned out to be an issue: They booked another event during it," she says. "I let them know that I was contractually bound to [the Songsmith Showdown final] date, and the reason I could not move it was because not only did we have artists flying in to compete, but we had KGNU doing a live broadcast. It was not something that could easily be moved."

While the shows went on, Raccone notes that the majority of Music First musicians who performed at the venue did not receive the payment stipulated in the contract. "We had over a dozen artists play there during our contracted period," she says. "All but one of them had a pay issue."

Raccone ultimately decided to file a civil claims suit against Longmont Social for just under $1,200, enough to pay the Music First musicians' fees. However, only one of the musicians decided to join the suit. "Antonio Lopez is the only musician who is willing to go against the venue," she says, adding that the others were understandably nervous about joining the claim and chose not to participate. "But Music First is still trying to get their payments and give them to the artists through this lawsuit."

According to Raccone, venues failing to pay is a pervasive issue for musicians, particularly with smaller venues that are just starting to dabble in staging live music. "That's why Music First is so important for musicians," she says. "We provide the consultation needed to venues, and when a venue does try to pull the wool or do something negative to a musician, instead of that negatively falling solely on the musician, it is handled by Music First and our team.

"I am holding them legally accountable to the point that I can," she concludes, "but we need to figure out a way to prevent other musicians from falling into the same little black hole."

After Westword made several requests for comment, Longmont Social did not pick up for a scheduled call; we'll update this post if the venue responds.