Following the Government's response to the DCMS Select Committee's recommendations – read its action plan for the next 12 months here – the IPO has today (September 23) published an independent academic research report on Creators’ Earnings In The Digital Age.
The report has been hailed by the Musicians' Union and The Ivors Academy for containing important data and analysis which highlights the rise of music streaming and explores various issues and arguments that have played out during the DCMS Select Committee inquiry.
It’s been a busy week for news about creator earnings, with ABBA's Björn Ulvaeus choosing the September 21 Ivors gathering in London to launch open global initiative Credits Due. A collaboration between The Ivors Academy and The Music Rights Awareness Foundation (MRAF), the scheme is designed to unite the music industry’s approach to ensuring that complete and accurate song metadata is attached to all recordings at the point of creation.
The industry steering board for the new research included the MU, The Ivors Academy, BPI, AIM, MPA, FAC and PRS for Music.
You can read the full Creators’ Earnings In The Digital Age report here.
The information made available in the report will help to fuel the debate and focus minds, as well as informing Government policy in this area
Naomi Pohl, The MU
A second report is due which looks specifically at the issue of buyouts of composer royalties in audio-visual streaming – something highlighted by the MU and the Ivors Academy with their Composers Against Buyouts campaign.
Speaking about the report, Naomi Pohl, deputy general secretary of the MU, said: “These important pieces of research are extremely timely given industry debates around creators' earnings from music streaming and our campaign to defend media composers' royalties. Thank you to the researchers and IPO particularly for their time and dedication to the extremely complex and controversial issue of creators' earnings from streaming. The information they have made available in their report will help to fuel the debate and focus minds, as well as informing Government policy in this area.”
Graham Davies, CEO of The Ivors Academy, added: “Digital continues to change how music creators are paid and yet there has been a notable lack of publicly available data and research to guide opinion and policy. The Ivors Academy has led calls for objective research and thanks the IPO, and Universities of Ulster, Middlesex and Leeds for this important report. The Academy also welcomes the Government’s commitments to further research but, if the music industry is to meet its obligations for trust and transparency, far more data must be made available by those who license, collect and distribute royalties in future.”
A BPI spokesperson told Music Week: “The report clearly shows that the market is more competitive than ever, and that artists and songwriters have seen their earnings rise much faster than record labels, taking a larger share of streaming income than previous formats.”
Pictured: Tim Moss, IPO CEO
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