Songwriters of Northern America (SONA) is a not-for-profit trade organization for songwriters' rights. It was founded by

Michelle Lewis Michelle Robin Lewis (born ) is an American singer-songwriter who has released two solo albums. She has since worked as a songwriter for artists including Cher, Shawn Colvin, Hilary Duff, Kay Hanley and Kelly Osbourne. Biography Michelle Le ...

and

Kay Hanley Kay Hanley is an American singer and songwriter. She is best known as the vocalist for the alternative rock band Letters to Cleo. Life and career Hanley grew up in Dorchester, Massachusetts across the street from the Wahlberg family. She atte ...

in January 2015, in order to advocate for fair remuneration for songwriters in the era of streaming digital music services. The organization allows songwriters to organize to lobby for better licensing rates for music creators with digital streaming companies like

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

and

Pandora In Greek mythology, Pandora (Greek: , derived from , ''pān'', i.e. "all" and , ''dōron'', i.e. "gift", thus "the all-endowed", "all-gifted" or "all-giving") was the first human woman created by Hephaestus on the instructions of Zeus. As Hes ...

. In 2016 the band sued the Justice Department who they claim "overstepped its authority and that its ruling violated the property rights of songwriters by potentially nullifying private contracts between writers who have worked on the same song." SONA also pressed for fair pay for songwriters within other music legislation including crafting, lobbying and working to pass the

Music Modernization Act The Orrin G. Hatch–Bob Goodlatte Music Modernization Act, or Music Modernization Act or MMA (, ) is United States legislation signed into law on October 11, 2018 aimed to modernize copyright-related issues for music and audio recordings due t ...

. In addition to advocacy, SONA hosts "Back To School" nights and public speakers in order to educate songwriters at all levels on the complicated and ever-changing digital music industry. In 2020 the group, led by

, Jess Furman and Sarah Robertson organized to offer emergency grants to songwriters facing economic hardship because of the COVID pandemic. In addition, SONA successfully lobbied for independent contractors to be included in the CARES Act and continued to lobby for fair inclusion of mixed earners in relief aid.

Overview

SONA is almost entirely run by volunteers with leadership coming from their Board of Directors, made up of songwriters and music industry professionals.

Board of Directors

* Adam Dorn *

Adam Gorgoni Adam Gorgoni (born 16 December 1963 in New York City) is a prolific composer of film and TV scores and has composed music for over 20 films, including '' Candyman: Day of the Dead'', '' Waiting...'', ''The Dead Girl'', '' Breakable You'', ''Sta ...

Autumn Rowe Autumn Rowe (born May 25, 1981), is an American singer-songwriter, TV personality, DJ and activist from South Bronx, New York, United States. In 2010, she helped write the song "Happiness" by Alexis Jordan, with producers Stargate and Deadmau5, w ...

* Brendan Okrent *

Dina LaPolt Dina LaPolt is an entertainment lawyer and artist rights advocate based in Los Angeles, California. After an early career in the music industry, she became an entertainment lawyer in 1997. She is the founder and owner of LaPolt Law. Early lif ...

* Jack Kugell * Jared Brenner * Lauren Hancock * Mark Pariser * Michelle Featherstone *

Pamela Sheyne Pamela Sheyne is a British songwriter, producer, mentor and singer best known for co-writing Christina Aguilera’s global smash debut single "Genie in a Bottle". She has achieved 50+ million record sales and over 100 RIAA Platinum, Gold and Sil ...

Priscilla Renea Priscilla Renea Hamilton (born September 14, 1988), known professionally as Muni Long (pronounced "money long"), is an American singer and songwriter. Under her birth name, her solo debut studio album, ''Jukebox'', was released through Capitol R ...

* Shay M. Lawson *

Shelly Peiken Shelly Meg Peiken is an American songwriter who is best known for co-writing the US No. 1 hits " What a Girl Wants" and " Come On Over Baby" by Christina Aguilera the US No. 2 hit "Bitch" by Meredith Brooks, "Almost Doesn't Count" by Brandy, and ...

References

External links

Official site
Music industry associations Music organizations based in the United States {{music-org-stub