In May, four organisations representing more than 500,000 performers in Europe joined forces to campaign for the fair remuneration of online revenues.
The Fair Internet for Performers Campaign (AEPO-ARTIS, EuroFIA, FIM and IAO) represents musicians, actors and dancers.
On 6 May, the campaign responded to the release of the European Commission’s Digital Single Market Strategy. “We welcome the Commission’s intent to put copyright at the heart of its digital single market strategy but have the view that to consider ‘measures to safeguard fair remuneration of creators…in order to encourage future generation of content’ is not enough, lacking any concrete proposals for action. The current situation is no longer acceptable for performers who receive mostly very low royalties or no remuneration at all from legal online, on-demand services.”
Campaign supporter Nick Mason of Pink Floyd believes change must come from the EU to ensure “young people coming into our industry [have] the chance to get properly paid.”
Currently, only a few featured performers manage to negotiate the payment of royalties for the exploitation of their performances. The vast majority receive no money at all or, at best, a derisory single all-inclusive fee. Currently, all exclusive rights granted to performers are generally transferred to producers under contractual agreements.
Fran Healy from Travis stated: “The opportunity to make streaming payments equitable for the artists who record and perform...is one giant step towards a savvier, more sustainable music industry.”