Together we can fix streaming. Image credit: Shutterstock.
Yesterday we reported how both the Musicians’ Union and The Ivors Academy have made submissions in what is a key win for the Fix Streaming campaign.
Have your say before 17 February
If you're a songwriter, composer, featured artist or non-featured performer, you can also send in your comments to the CMA on the scope of the market study.
It is crucial that the CMA hears from as many musicians and music creators as possible to ensure they understand how issues with streaming impact you.
Please send your comments to musicstreaming@cma.gov.uk.
What the CMA should look at
To fix streaming, the MU believes the Competition & Markets Authority needs to look at six key areas:
- Growth in streaming revenue not reflected in musicians and music creators’ earnings
- Royalties paid to performing non-featured musicians by the collecting society PPL covering broadcast and public performance of their recorded performances do not apply to music streaming, leaving them unpaid for the ongoing digital exploitation of their work
- Three major labels control much of the top forty and ‘catalogue’ music on pre-streaming contracts, giving them undue influencer over the way platforms push music to consumers and how much acts on pre-streaming contracts are paid when their music is streamed
- Major labels also control the major publishers, which means it is in their interest to take a greater share of revenue on the recording side because they pay a smaller share of it to artists on the publishing side
- The impact of Google, Apple and Amazon on the music streaming market and the suppressing effect they have on pricing; as they make the majority of their money from other areas of business, such as selling products, they can afford to keep their music streaming subscription fees low and this means Spotify, Deezer and others have to follow suit
- Royalties that cannot be identified as belonging to a particular rights holder are distributed according to market share, favouring major labels and publishers even though recordings owned by major music companies are far less likely to be unidentifiable.
Fixing streaming is not going to be easy. But change in these six key areas would go a long way to keeping music alive – and supporting our world leading music industry.
Remember to have your say by emailing musicstreaming@cma.gov.uk.
Together we can fix streaming. Learn more about the campaign so far in the Fix Streaming campaign hub, where you’ll also find the latest news and updates.