Hundreds of orchestral musicians from over 20 UK orchestras have joined the debate around how streaming income is shared with artists and musicians. In an open letter coordinated by the Musicians’ Union, the orchestral players urge minister for the creative industries Chris Bryant to “act now” to ensure that any performer who appears on a recording that is streamed shares in the money that is generated.
Under UK copyright law, performers are due payment at standard rates that apply across the industry whenever a recording is broadcast. This is what is often referred to as equitable remuneration or ‘ER’.
However, when it comes to on-demand streaming on platforms like Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube Music, any payment to performers depends entirely on the deals that have been negotiated between each performer and whoever owns the copyright in a recording, which is often a record label.
So called ‘featured artists’ - for example solo artists, the individual members of a band or a named collaborator - will usually negotiate a royalty. However, other performers such as orchestral musicians and session musicians - the ‘non-featured artists’ - are less likely to be offered, or be able to negotiate, that sort of deal. .
Musicians’ Union General Secretary Naomi Pohl says that despite streaming platforms paying up to 70% of their revenues to the music industry, “the majority of this money never reaches musicians. And ‘non-featured’ musicians, such as orchestral and session players who back featured artists on tracks and play on film and TV soundtracks, don’t receive any royalties”.
The open letter, signed by players from orchestras including the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Ballet Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra and Sinfonia Cymru, states, “It is our strongly held view that if musicians create an asset that someone can profit from, then surely we should be properly and fairly remunerated for that in every case”.
Going on to point out the very challenging environment faced by orchestral players, following years of cuts to arts funding, and the ongoing impact of the COVID shutdown and subsequent cost of living crisis, the letter says that “in the long term”, if all the profit from streaming “goes to streaming platforms and record labels, there won’t be a next generation of musicians to record for them. It’s clear that the government should act to save the very people who make our international industry the success it is - the musicians”.
The debate over how streaming income is shared between all the stakeholders - record labels, music publishers, artists, musicians, songwriters and the streaming platforms - has rumbled on ever since it became clear that streaming was going to be the biggest recorded music revenue stream a decade ago.
Throughout that time many organisations representing performers have argued that equitable remuneration should apply to streaming, so that at least some revenues from the streaming services automatically flow to the artists and musicians involved in a recording oblivious of any deals they may have done with a record label.
This would not only ensure that non-featured artists receive streaming royalties for the first time, but would also help featured artists who are still paying off advances and other recoupable costs to their label, by providing a revenue stream separate to any royalties being paid by that label.
It’s no secret that most record labels - major and indie - oppose the idea of ER being applied to streaming income. But there are a small number of countries, including Spain, where equitable remuneration is already applied to streaming in this way.
When the UK Parliament’s culture select committee published its big report on the economics of music streaming in 2021, one of the proposals it made was that UK law should be changed to introduce ER on streams.
In response to the select committee’s report, the previous UK government said that - while copyright reforms could still be considered - it would prefer the industry to come up with its own solutions to address the issues around music creator remuneration that had been identified by MPs.
That ultimately resulted in the formation of roundtable made up of representatives from across the industry to discuss various voluntary solutions that have been proposed, which meets as the Creator Remuneration Working Group, a committee facilitated by government officials.
When the current Labour government came to power last year it said it was committed to proceeding with the working group process, with Bryant taking on ministerial responsibility. Another meeting of the working group is scheduled for later this month with session musician remuneration on the agenda, which presumably prompted the letter from the orchestral musicians.
That letter acknowledges the ongoing government-led work. “We are aware of the ongoing Creator Remuneration Working Group and hope this will provide a solution, either negotiated with the industry or via legislation”, it says.
It then concludes, “a change here won’t cost the government or the taxpayer a penny. It will, however, go some way to help turn a corner in keeping our incredible musicians financially more secure both now and in the future, as well as providing the next generation of audiences with this remarkable form of culture made right here in the UK”.