Overwhelming majority in important EU referendum
Yesterday, the European Parliament adopted a report outlining the problems artists and music creators face in the music streaming market and proposing new EU initiatives to improve the situation. The aim is to create a fairer and more sustainable system for music creators, with more cultural diversity and greater visibility for European music.
/ 18/01/2024 / Willy Martinsen– This is good news from Strasbourg, we are one step closer to a fairer market for European music creators, says Inger Elise Mey, who is the director of TONO's media department and Director of International Affairs at TONO.
The good news is that the European Parliament overwhelmingly adopted a report by Spanish MEP Ibán García del Blanco. The report addresses challenges related to cultural diversity and the conditions for creators in the European music streaming market, and describes the major challenges music creators face in the music streaming market. The report proposes legislative measures at the supranational EU level to create fairer and more sustainable conditions in the still growing streaming market.
This text is based on a press release from the Brussels-based voice of the European music rights societies (TONO and our sister societies), Gesac. You can read it here. https://authorsocieties.eu/press-release-european-parliament-adopts-its-report-on-the-music-streaming-market/
The services can offer more than 100 million tracks to their customers. Consumption is enormous, and both pure streaming services, social media platforms and user-generated content services are growing.
– For the vast majority of music creators, the streaming market, in contrast, is very uncertain and they do not receive reasonable and fair payment that makes it possible to build sustainable careers, says Mey.
The report presents a thorough analysis of current income inequality, particularly how music creators are not experiencing the growth they should expect. It addresses the manipulation of streaming media and other unfair practices that negatively impact music creators. The report also highlights the immediate threat to cultural diversity stemming from streaming fraud and the proliferation of artificial intelligence-generated content.
The report recommends that action be taken at the supranational EU level and calls on the European Commission to propose new rules to ensure transparency about algorithms and other systems used in music recommendations, and calls for an active commitment to ensuring the visibility of European musical works and the ability of users to discover them.
“We, and other European music rights societies representing songwriters, composers and lyricists, are very pleased with the result of today's vote in the EU Parliament. This means that they are taking seriously the concerns we and our members have about the balance in music streaming services, which is not in favor of music creators,” says Mey.
– Now we and the entire European community of music creators trust that the EU Commission will quickly take action and continue to work on developing proposals for concrete new legal provisions that will create a more sustainable environment for those who create the music found on streaming services.
TONO was founded in 1928 and is a non-profit cooperative owned and managed by composers, lyricists and music publishers, and which manages the economic copyrights in their musical works. TONO grants permission for the use of protected music on radio, TV, the internet, concerts, cinema, etc. for a fee, and transfers its financial results each year to the rights holders of music that has been performed publicly. TONO has more than 40,000 members, but also works for millions of authors and music publishers from around the world. TONO gives music creators an economic basis to create new music, and collects and simplifies the licensing of protected music to music users. TONO had a turnover of NOK 864,6 million in 2022.
Inger Elise Mey, department director for the Media Department and Director of International Affairs at TONO, mey (a) tono.no, mob. 922 37,982
Willy Martinsen, Communications Director at TONO, Willy.martinsen (a) tono.no, tel. +47,909 65,254