Talking of copyright extension and it benefiting artists over labels, the Featured Artists Coalition has announced three of its top priorities and one of them is very much in that domain.
As previously reported, the Featured Artists Coalition launched at last year's In The City, and properly launched at a meeting in London earlier this month. This week they confirmed their full launch board, who will take over from the previously reported 'steering group' and run the bands' trade body moving forward. Blur's Dave Rowntree will chair, while other board members will include Kate Nash, Billy Bragg, Radiohead's Ed O'Brien, Marillion's Mark Kelly and a certain Howard Jones.
It's Jones who told reporters this week about the three big issues which the Coalition will prioritise.
First up, file sharing, an area where the artists will seemingly work alongside those on the business side of music. Although they stress that they don't want to "criminalise" kids who share unlicensed music online, they say they do want "government help to go after the people who are facilitating the illegal services". That presumably includes the internet service providers, which means the FAC, like record label trade body the BPI, wants government to force the ISPs to be more proactive in policing illegal file sharing. Though I don't think the FAC support the three-strike disconnection approach, though neither do the BPI officially.
Second up, education. Like all the other music business trade bodies, the FAC wants to educate young people about the music industry. Though they want to prioritise educating aspiring bands and artists about the danger of restrictive record contacts, and to advise new bands to avoid, where possible, signing away their rights to a record company in order to secure that first deal. I don't think such advice has ever appeared high up in a BPI 'making it as a band' guide.
And third, copyright extension. Like everyone else in recorded music, the FAC say they support extending the recorded copyright term, though they propose that after the current fifty year term is up the copyright reverts to the artist, so that all revenue generated from recording sold or licensed out after it's initial fifty year term is complete goes to the artists, even if they haven't recouped on their original record contract. A proposal which might appeal to IP Minister David Lammy who has already said "I'll extend the term for the artists' benefit", though, of course, his real concern seems to be jobbing session musicians who wouldn't necessarily benefit from copyrights returning to featured artists after fifty years.