The Musicians’ Union (MU) continues to lobby at European Union (EU) and UK levels for fair remuneration for performers and songwriters from streaming.
Streaming sites like YouTube currently fall under ‘safe harbor’ legislation which effectively means they are not held responsible for user generated or uploaded content they host. This means labels and publishers struggle to achieve reasonable licence fees for use of music. This lack of income from streaming is commonly known as the ‘value gap’.
Record labels and music publishers have been very proactive in campaigning for legislation to change and pressure to be applied to services like YouTube, which is owned by Google, to pay fairly.
The MU is supporting this effort and has been lobbying in conjunction with the labels and publishers via UK Music.
There is a petition you can sign
However, addressing the value gap is only the first step in our campaign to ensure musicians are paid fairly for streaming. Along with the
Music Managers Forum (MMF),
Featured Artist Coalition (FAC),
British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA), and
Music Producers Guild (MPG) we are calling for the whole streaming value chain to be assessed by the UK government.
The MU is also closely involved in the
Fair Internet for Performers campaign through its association with the
International Federation of Musicians (FIM) and this is picking up momentum as a result of various potential legislative developments at EU level. We want equitable remuneration on streaming for performers to be paid through PPL in the same way as for radio broadcast. This would be guaranteed money from streaming for all performers including session musicians who currently receive no royalties from Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and others.
A petition for fair remuneration for performers is available for you to sign.