Sumerian’s Ash Avildsen Bashes Greedy Record Execs, Matches Chappel Roan’s $25K Donation for Artists

Let it never be said that we won’t give someone props if they do something cool just because of some previous disagreements. Because even though we’ve had our bouts with Sumerian Records founder Ash Avildsen in the past, his recent decision to match a $25,000 donation to help struggling musicians after some rich asshole spouted off with a dumb ass take.

In a post on social media, Avildsen said he was making the donation in question to match a similar pledge by pop superstar Chappel Roan, whose Grammy acceptance speech raised the hackles of industry executive Jeff Rabhan. In a controversial (and ill-advised) editorial posted on The Hollywood Reporter, Rabhan said Roan’s call for record labels to “treat their artists as valuable employees with a livable wage and health insurance and protection” was misguided at best. In it, he told her to “put [her] money where [her] mouth is” That pushed Roan to make the aforementioned donation to an unknown organization and urge Rabhan to follow suit.

Though Rabhan seemingly hasn’t taken Roan’s suggestion seriously, Avildsen jumped into the conversation by matching that amount. In a video (transcribed by Lambgoat), Avildsen explained why he got his record label involved and why it was so important to support up and coming artists.

“Sumerian Records is matching Chappell Roan for 25 grand and now we got a message for this major label suit who thinks he’s really profound in how he’s denounced her Grammys speech and what she stands for. Instead of telling her to shut up and sing, why don’t we talk about the real reason we’re in this mess. How about showing us the receipts for the equity deals and massive bonuses the big three got from Spotify for selling all the artists down the river. Go ahead and show us the same thing for the Youtube deal when Chen and Hurley sold it to Google. 

“Instead of hiring execs who think young artists on exclusive contracts don’t deserve healthcare, maybe the industry should’ve hired actual forward-thinking people who understand technology. How many major labels ever computer programmers? Instead of Steve Jobs having to bail us out the first time with itunes, or Daniel Ek playing captain sailor bro the second time with Spotify, maybe the big three could’ve developed their own digital stores and streamers so that the digital money would just be split between the labels and the artists? But no, instead we’ve got Spotify worth more than every label put together and then across the street we’ve got Live Nation and Ticketmaster all as one company owning every meaningful aspect of the entire concert industry. 

“See, the problem isn’t artists like Chappell Roan speaking up for the smaller ones, the problem is that executives like you make artists scared to speak their truth, whether it’s about the music or the state of the world. Whether it’s justice for a fair share, or justice for little innocent kids getting blown up, the machine wants everyone to shut up and sing. Imagine if every touring artist said they wouldn’t book another show until Ticketmaster lowered their service fees and stopped doing dynamic pricing. Maybe this is our cue to start a true musician’s guild with every working artist who understands that the big companies are way too greedy and way too powerful, but without people just shutting up and singing, how powerful are they?”

In another TikTok post, Avildsen reminded people that artists under the Sumerian Records banner have received health insurance in the past when issues have cropped up and urging that people “start the guild”.

So good on Ash Avildsen for taking this sort of stand and fuck rich, out of touch assholes like Rabhan. Oh and whenever you can, go see a show, buy some merch, and support new artists!