UK Parliament slams labels and call for a complete reset of music streaming

[Teletubby 150,236]

The U.K. Government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) Committee has been running its investigation into the economics of music streaming since October 2020. 
 

“While streaming has brought significant profits to the recorded music industry, the talent behind it — performers, songwriters and composers are losing out,” said DCMS Committee chair Julian Knight MP. "Only a complete reset of streaming that enshrines in law their rights to a fair share of the earnings will do." he added.
 

In a report, MPs said royalties should be split 50/50, instead of the current rate, where artists receive about 16%, record companies receive around 41% and streaming services around 29% (acording to the Broken Record campaign) .
 

Spotify is believed to pay between £0.002 and £0.0038 per stream, Apple Music pays about £0.0059. YouTube pays only  about £0.00052 (or 0.05 pence) per stream.
All that money goes to rights-holders, this term covers everything from massive record companies to artists who release their own music.
That money is then divided up between everyone involved in making the record.  Often, the recording artist will only receive about 13% of the revenue, with labels and publishers keeping the rest.
 

The report also raises “deep concerns” about the position of the major music companies in the market, and calls on the Government to refer the case to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to launch a market study into the “economic impact of the majors’ dominance”.
DCMS Committee said: “We have real concerns about the way the market is operating, with platforms like YouTube able to gain an unfair advantage over competitors and the independent music sector struggling to compete against the dominance of the major labels.
 

The report also recommends a right to recapture the rights to works after a period of time from record labels, and a right to contract adjustment if an artist’s work was successful beyond the remuneration they received.

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[tomsches 17,435]

Yaaaas (?)

[HelloBarbara 1,529]

While I would agree that streaming needs a complete overhaul, with especially songwriters seeing peanuts for their work, it would be nice if the UK government could put this level of research, honesty and effort into tackling poverty, homelessness, child hunger, racism, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, affordable living, an adequate living wage, affordable education, human rights standard living, the NHS, mental health services, disability access and support, recognising and supporting non-binary people and legalising a third gender option, and a whole host of other pressing and debilitating issues that affect the population.