UK Government responds to Parliament’s streaming report - FAC reacts
Last night, the UK Government responded to the ‘Economics Of Music Streaming’ report published by Parliament’s Digital, Culture, Media & Sport Select Committee in July.
Although calling the report a “key moment for the music industry”, ministers have accepted few of the committee’s recommendations outright. However, it will now convene a ‘contact group’ and two ‘working groups’ to further consider some of the legislative proposals, as well as the transparency and data issues that the committee raised. And it has also asked the Competition & Markets Authority to consider a study into the dominance of the music majors.
The select committee’s review of the music streaming market came on the back of campaigning by the likes of the FAC, Musicians’ Union, Ivors Academy and Tom Gray’s #brokenrecord initiative, which argued that – while the streaming boom has taken the record industry back into growth – many artists and songwriters are yet to see the benefit because of various issues with the way the streaming business and music industry are run, including our recently published White Paper.
After considering hundreds of written submissions from across the music industry – and testimonies at a series of oral hearings, including many FAC Artist Ambassadors – the committee published a lengthy report calling for a “complete reset” of music streaming. It made numerous recommendations, but the two that got the most attention were that performer equitable remuneration should be applied to streams and that the CMA should investigate the dominance of the majors. To which the Government has now responded and you can read the full report here. See our joint response below.
”In the week where recorded music companies hit stellar valuations due to the streaming boom, we are pleased to see that the systematic inequalities faced by generations of artists, songwriters and musicians, which were highlighted by this groundbreaking inquiry are now being acknowledged by the Government. It’s encouraging to see the Government agree that regulatory frameworks, including copyright laws, have not kept pace with the changes brought about by streaming.
As the FAC and MMF have continually advocated through our Dissecting the Digital Dollar work, addressing these issues will require both legislation and industry change.
On this front, we are especially pleased that the majority of arguments detailed in our recent White Paper have been acknowledged. We fully support the push for a full-blown investigation of the recorded music market by the Competition & Markets Authority building on their recent work with AWAL and Sony. We also have long called for the creation of an industry forum overseen by Government - now called the ‘contact group’ - to drive forward changes across the recorded and publishing sectors in areas such as contracts, licensing, transparency and welfare.
However, we find it a pity that the issues around royalty chains, transparency and black box distribution have not been adequately acknowledged, as current legislation overseeing CMOs is ineffective. We hope that these can be explored further within the contact group.
The Government using its influence to pressure our sector to agree to a modern code of practice covering all these issues would be a big leap forward and, as part of the contact group, both the FAC and MMF stand ready to contribute.’’
David Martin, CEO, Featured Artists Coalition & Annabella Coldrick, CEO, Music Managers Forum.