Bee Gee Robin Gibb is today expected to become President of CISAC, the global organisation that represents the interests of authors, composers and all round creative types, and he says he hopes to use the role to help artists and songwriters maintain better control of their work, and earn the royalties they deserve.
Speaking at the organisation's Copyright Forum in Brussels this week, he said: "I want to champion the rights of all those people who aren't getting a fair share from their creative work". He recalled how the Bee Gees experienced several periods of their career where they did not control their music, but added that overall: "We were lucky because we had some good people working on our behalf, but the reality is that many do not. There are still many major writers who still don't own their catalogue. It's a moral issue that people should get a bigger piece of the pie".
Among Gibb's proposals is a programme that gives artists easier direct access to online music services like iTunes, so that artists and songwriters are not dependent on record labels to gain access to that market.
Gibb's nomination for the President role will be voted on by the CISAC General Assembly today. Director, screenwriter and producer Alfonso Cuarón has been nominated for the Vice-President role.