Music streaming could lead to greater creativity if the growing gap between music consumption and revenues is reduced, the BPI’s Geoff Taylor has said.
The BPI chief executive made the comments as part of an address at Canadian Music Week.
According to the music industry body, streaming sites such as YouTube benefit unfairly from 'safe harbour' regulations in EU copyright law. Originally introduced to encourage the growth of online platforms, they now enable these companies to negotiate artificially low payments for using music.
While UK streams of music videos almost doubled in 2015, the revenues paid to labels flat-lined, rising by less than half of one percent during the same period.
During his speech, Geoff said that the platforms failing to pay for the use of music show ‘little respect or love for music or for the people who create it’. They use ‘safe harbours like royalty havens to avoid paying fairly for music when goodness knows they can afford to do so’.
He urged Google to ‘commit publicly that it will pay a fair market rate for music on its YouTube service, undistorted by safe harbour, as do competitors like Apple Music and Spotify, and even its own service Google Play; and to commit to take effective, responsible, voluntary action in a code of practice to prevent sites building illegal businesses using our music’.
PRS for Music is continuing to champion the rights of music creators in the digital marketplace with its Streamfair campaign. This initiative was launched to raise awareness about the need for legislative reform to ensure music creators are properly remunerated in the streaming market.
The BPI chief executive made the comments as part of an address at Canadian Music Week.
According to the music industry body, streaming sites such as YouTube benefit unfairly from 'safe harbour' regulations in EU copyright law. Originally introduced to encourage the growth of online platforms, they now enable these companies to negotiate artificially low payments for using music.
While UK streams of music videos almost doubled in 2015, the revenues paid to labels flat-lined, rising by less than half of one percent during the same period.
During his speech, Geoff said that the platforms failing to pay for the use of music show ‘little respect or love for music or for the people who create it’. They use ‘safe harbours like royalty havens to avoid paying fairly for music when goodness knows they can afford to do so’.
He urged Google to ‘commit publicly that it will pay a fair market rate for music on its YouTube service, undistorted by safe harbour, as do competitors like Apple Music and Spotify, and even its own service Google Play; and to commit to take effective, responsible, voluntary action in a code of practice to prevent sites building illegal businesses using our music’.
PRS for Music is continuing to champion the rights of music creators in the digital marketplace with its Streamfair campaign. This initiative was launched to raise awareness about the need for legislative reform to ensure music creators are properly remunerated in the streaming market.
