Sign for the music creators

The EU's work on the new copyright directive is at an important stage. TONO and Europe's other collecting societies are therefore encouraging TONO members to sign a campaign calling for a fair internet economy for those who create music.

More and more music consumption is taking place in digital channels. Unfortunately, there are still gross imbalances in the internet economy. Service providers, typically user-generated platforms such as social media, can currently earn large amounts of revenue from the consumption of music on their platforms without these companies having to share fairly and equitably with those who have created and own the music. Now, music creators across Europe, and the world at large, are hoping that the EU will redress this imbalance and set an example for the whole world.

You can now contribute concretely by lending your name to the signature campaign. makeinternetfair.eu, which is initiated by Gesac, the European "TONO" companies' spokesperson in BrusselsThe signatures will be presented at an event organized by Gesac in Brussels on March 6. Jean-Michel Jarre, President of the CISAC, the global umbrella organization for the world's collective management organizations, will participate. The campaign will also be presented in Strasbourg in mid-April.

Read the petition, and sign it, here.

The EU's work on the directive is at an important stage
The European Commission presented its proposal for a new copyright directive in September 2016. Since then, four out of five committees in the European Parliament have issued opinions on the proposal. The final opinion from the Legal Affairs Committee, which has the greatest influence on the final text of the law, is now awaited. The Legal Affairs Committee is expected to vote on this at the end of March. In parallel, the Council of the European Union is also working on the directive. The next stage in the process is for the three main bodies of the EU – the Commission, the Parliament and the Council – to meet in so-called trialogue meetings for further discussion and work on the text. We want the three parties to have a good understanding of "Transfer of value"-thematics when they enter the trialogue meetings, which are expected to start before the summer and continue throughout the autumn.

Is it useful to have signatures?
Yes, Gesac says that the campaign in late summer 2016, and which collected 22,000 signatures (of which more than 700 Norwegian) (please note that more signatures were added after the article was written) was noticed by key EU politicians, and contributed to a better directive proposal than had been feared. It is also important to remember that composers, lyricists and other artist groups have strong counterparts. The power relationship between artists and the large service providers is skewed. The service providers have lobbying apparatuses and resources that far exceed those of artists. That is why it is so crucial now that TONO and the other European management companies get help from our members through signatures.

Sign on makeinternetfair.eu. Thank you in advance!