We’ve heard from MU members, performers, songwriters and composers, about how little streaming pays.
This Tuesday, MPs on the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee heard from Chic legend Nile Rodgers, Fiona Bevan and Soweto Kinch about how the economics of music streaming affect musicians.
They also want to hear from you:
The more people who write in to the inquiry, the more chance we have of our collective voice being heard. Together we can fix streaming and keep music alive.
Artists Back Equitable Remuneration and Transparency
The idea behind Equitable Remuneration (ER) is that a share of streaming money would be collected by PPL and distributed among music creators much like radio royalties are. This would mean a guaranteed income stream for both featured artists and non-featured (session or orchestral) musicians.
“If you just apply ER to some extent to on demand, suddenly, for the first time in history, money goes directly to their pockets on the first stream – irrespective of what awful contract terms an artist has, irrespective of all this historic stuff that is out there. This produces an income from stream one for artists and an income for our entire music community,” Tom Gray explained to MPs.
It’s one of the MU’s key asks – and could make a huge difference to session players, orchestral players, and the wider community of musicians.
Read the full article.
Statistics Support the MU’s Call
Our poll in partnership with The Ivors Academy exposes the shockingly inadequate earnings of many music creators from streaming – while big companies make billions.
- 82% music creators earn less than £200 a year from streaming
- 92% said less than 5% of their earnings came from streaming
- 43% got a job outside of music due to insufficient income from streaming
“These statistics show that music streaming does not play its part in supporting the careers of the vast majority of creators and artists on whose work it relies.
“We have to make the economics of streaming fairer; improved deals for artists, a bigger share of revenue for songwriters and an income stream for the first time for non-featured musicians,” said MU Deputy General Secretary Naomi Pohl.
Check our Twitter feed @WeAreTheMU from for highlights and analysis of Tuesday’s evidence sessions by MU Deputy General Secretary Naomi Pohl.