The music community was abuzz two weeks ago when a short list of potential Super Bowl performers was released.
But everyone did a double take when they noticed the other aspect of The Wall Street Journal's report: The NFL was asking performers to pay in order to perform.
Obviously, this did not sit well with artists or their representatives, and the league has received quite a bit of backlash since the report was published.
Tuesday, the opposition ramped up.
The AFL-CIO's Department of Professional Employees just joined the American Federation of Musicians in condemning such a plan, according to Deadline.
"No one should ever pay to work. No organization should ever get a kickback from a worker they employ," the labor organization said. "The Department of Professional Employees, AFL-CIO, its affiliates in the entertainment industry, and the other unions, 22 in all, will stand with the AFM in condemning and will fight back against any attempts to make workers pay to perform."
Last week, AFM president Ray Hair said: "It's not like the NFL and its Super Bowl organizers don't have any money and can't afford to pay for halftime show performances, it's about the insatiable thirst for profits at the expense of great musical entertainment and those who create it. You can find kickback schemes like this coming from unscrupulous bar and nightclub owners, but for the NFL to descend to such depths would be unconscionable."
The league typically does not pay its performers (Bruno Mars and the Red Hot Chili Peppers had the pro bono honors this past February), and has a long history of squeezing pennies.
Take, for instance, the league's do-it-or-else tactics when the Super Bowl comes to town.
When Minneapolis was granted the 2018 Super Bowl this June, the Star Tribune revealed the NFL's borderline-unfair policies (keep in mind the Super Bowl, valued at $470 million by Forbes in 2012, is not exactly bleeding money for the league):
The National Football League had a long and expensive list of confidential requests before it awarded the 2018 Super Bowl to Minneapolis.
Free police escorts for team owners, and 35,000 free parking spaces. Presidential suites at no cost in high-end hotels. Free billboards across the Twin Cities. Guarantees to receive all revenue from the game's ticket sales — even a requirement for NFL-preferred ATMs at the stadium.
Those requirements and many others are detailed in 153 pages of NFL specifications for the game. An official on the host committee that successfully sought the game - Minneapolis beat out Indianapolis and New Orleans - said the panel had agreed to a majority of the conditions but would not elaborate.
