The Music Performance Fund, a record industry-backed charity dedicated to staging free concerts, is running out of money, the Los Angeles Times reported this weekend.

For six decades, the fund received 0.2% of all revenue from records, tapes, and compact discs, following an agreement negotiated in 1944 to end a long labor dispute between musicians and record companies. During the early 1980s, a heyday for album sales, the fund received more than $20 million annually, money that helped stage 55,000 free performances. But as record sales have taken a nosedive in the MP3 era, the Music Performance Fund has suffered, too. Last year, the fund received just $3.4 million, enough to stage only 9,060 concerts.

Contract negotiations between the musicians union and record companies are scheduled to begin this fall, the Times reported, and there is a possibility the fund’s revenue stream could be redesigned. But, with so many other difficulties facing the record industry, the Music Performance Fund won’t be very high on the list of priorities.