Tomorrow sees the first session in the UK Parliament’s inquiry into music streaming economics. Ahead of that, the chair of managers body the MMF, Paul Craig, has outlined his hopes for the inquiry, as well as his concerns about the current streaming environment.
He warned of a “dangerous disconnect” between the streaming-fuelled growth of the recorded music industry, and the struggles being faced by artists.
“The way in which DSP licensing deals and label contracts are constructed means too few have a stake in its financial success,” wrote Craig.
He outlined three changes that he wants to see: contract reform including “the writing-off of unrecouped balances after a set period of time, say 15 years, and a modern and fair artist royalty rate on all digital revenues”, and tackling ‘black box’ unpaid royalties and “for genuinely unattributed revenues to be directed to artist education and artist-focused charities such as Help Musicians”.
The third is for artists and managers to get “far greater transparency over how licensing partnerships that directly impact their income are constructed”.
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