Helping secure fair pay from both the use of music to train AI models and music streaming will help to make a career in music viable for generations to come. Photo: Shutterstock.
This week, Andy Burnham took office as Prime Minister of the UK. The MU was proud to support his campaign for parliament in the Makerfield by-election and, over a decade after the MU first endorsed his campaign for Labour leader, we look forward to seeing what he achieves as Prime Minister.
So far, Andy Burnham has announced a 20% cut to business rates bills for pubs, clubs and live music venues, a cut to VAT on energy bills and the re-introduction of the £2 cap on bus fares. It's part of his stated commitment to "give people more breathing space" and "bring back hope" to politics.
But what can the new Prime Minister do to support and protect musicians' jobs, and make sure that the UK is the best place to make — and a make a living from — music?
1: Strengthen copyright for musicians and music creators
Copyright law is failing to keep pace with technological change. The end result is big companies making billions from new technologies while musicians and music creators miss out.
Andy Burnham knows this. While working for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in the 2010s, he helped the MU negotiate copyright term extension from 50 to 70 years. Now we need him to change the law to strengthen those rights he helped extend.
Stronger copyright laws should require consent from, and compensation for, original human creators for the use of their work to train artificial intelligence (AI) models. Tech firms should also be required to regularly publish updated lists of works used for AI training, and introduce effective mechanisms of redress for composers and performers whose work is used without consent or compensation.
This would help us feed two birds with one scone, by securing fair pay from both the use of music to train AI models and music streaming, helping to make a career in music viable for generations to come.
2: Make it easier for musicians touring in the EU
Both Labour's manifesto and Creative Industries Sector Plan commit to making it easier for UK Artists to perform in Europe.
The Common Understanding document, agreed at the last UK-EU Summit, explicitly recognises the value of cultural exchange alongside economic, security and defence benefits of bilateral co-operation.
The next UK-EU Summit takes place in the autumn and is a real opportunity to make good on these promises. That means negotiating practical measures to make it easier for musicians to tour in the EU, and acting at home to reduce the cost and complexity of carnet and other Brexit red tape that makes it more difficult and more expensive to tour in the EU.
3: Protect the BBC's music future
The BBC is the single biggest employer and engager of Musicians’ Union members in the UK, employing over 400 contract musicians and many hundreds of freelancers.
It plays more music than any commercial radio station, which means royalties for featured and non-featured artists. It is the main commissioner of new music in the UK, supporting music writers, session players and many more. It's also home to BBC Introducing, which is a vital part of the UK's talent pipeline.
Now, the two documents that outline how the BBC is governed, regulated and funded — the ‘Charter’ and the ‘Agreement’ — are up for renewal. The MU is concerned that any change to how the BBC is funded is likely to have a direct impact on employed and freelance musicians’ jobs, pay and conditions. It will also affect opportunities for a diverse range of musicians to be heard, and for audiences to listen to music that reflects their lives and experiences.
To protect it, we want to see the BBC remain universally funded and accessible to all, with increased worker representation and fewer political appointees on the BBC Board, and gold standard employment rights that set the tone for the whole of the UK creative industries.
This is just a start — there's more work to do
This is not a comprehensive list. The MU is lobbying for increased arts funding and working to improve freelance workers’ rights more widely. But they are three things that would give our members, and the wider creative community, the hope and breathing space they need to build their own futures.