The MU will keep pushing for equitable remuneration; a guaranteed royalty for featured and non-featured performers provided in law. Photo: Shutterstock.
The package covers three main groups: legacy artists, songwriters and composers, and session musicians.
For legacy artists, it includes programmes to disregard unrecouped advances, and bespoke marketing tools and support to help them drive streaming engagement. It also commits record labels to providing "clarity" about how to “seek and obtain contract renegotiation” and signposting to trade organisations such as the Union.
Minister Chris Bryant has said in Parliament that he is “confident that if any legacy artist says to their label, ‘I want to renegotiate my contract,’ they will have a chance to renegotiate, although the precise terms of that renegotiation will of course be a matter for the artist and the label.
“Some people who signed a contract before streaming came into existence might have been on a rate of something like 8%, 9%, 10% or 11%. They will be able to negotiate that up to a digital right, more like 20%, 25% or 30%. That will make a significant difference to legacy artists,” the Minister added.
For the Musicians' Union and the Council of Music Makers, it is crucial that we keep track of renegotiations that take place, and those where artists request to renegotiate but are unable do so successfully. We will feed this information back to the Minister and work with him to ensure that labels are held to account.
Per diems for songwriters and composers
For songwriters and composers, the package introduces per diems at label-organised sessions. Some of the reporting has focused on the figure of £75 - this is how much Warner UK and Universal UK have committed to per day. Sony UK has committed to a Songwriter Support Programme in partnership with The Ivors Academy.
While these are welcome commitments, we will monitor to ensure the per diems are paid in practice by labels and not charged to featured artists. We will also want to see the per diem, which is a low minimum rate, increased over time.
Little change for non-featured artists
The package includes the increase in session musician rates agreed by the BPI and Musicians’ Union in late 2024. That increase brings the session fee up in line with inflation between 2011 and 2025 – which means it’s not a pay increase, it’s what record labels should have been paying all along.
It also doesn’t do anything to address the issue with royalties. Session musicians can work on tracks with over 1 billion streams and still earn £0 in royalties from music streaming.
Ultimately, the package of principles and commitments is welcome but it does not address the fundamental problems with the economics of music streaming.
We want all musicians and music makers to receive a far share of streaming revenue so that being a musician remains a viable career for musicians now and in the future.
All eyes on the major labels
It was great to see so much coverage of the announcement – and the Union’s response to it – in places like BBC News, Financial Times, Music Business Worldwide and Music Ally. It goes to show how important this issue is to musicians and music fans alike. All eyes will now be on record labels to see if they make good on their commitments.
What next for the campaign to fix streaming
We’ve managed to secure a meeting with Minister for Culture Chris Bryant on music streaming in September which will specifically look at session musician remuneration. He has rightly earned praise from all sides for his commitment to this issue and work to get negotiations this far, and we are grateful for the opportunity to keep negotiating to fix streaming for non-featured artists.
Speaking in Parliament, the Minister also committed to a review in 12 months, telling MPs in the House of Commons: “If the package has not delivered, we reserve the right to bring in legislation. I made this point several times. In the EU, there is an equitable remuneration clause in legislation, and if we felt the need for that, we could progress that.”
The MU will keep pushing for equitable remuneration; a guaranteed royalty for featured and non-featured performers provided in law.
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Next year’s artificial intelligence (AI Bill) is a historic opportunity to change copyright law and ensure that musicians get a fair deal from both AI and music streaming.
We’re calling on MPs to make the most of it – and change the law to fix streaming once and for all.
Learn more about the campaign to fix music streaming in our Fix Streaming hub.