Paul McCartney and Kate Bush lead call for change to music streaming payments

Open letter to Boris Johnson signed by 156 musicians including Led Zeppelin and Annie Lennox aims to reword 1988 Copyright Act
British musicians includingPual Mc Cartney , Kate Bush and Chris Martin have signed an open letter calling on Boris Johnson to enforce changes to the economic model of streaming.

“For too long, streaming platforms, record labels and other internet giants have exploited performers and creators without rewarding them fairly. We must put the value of music back where it belongs – in the hands of music makers,” begins the letter to the prime minister – signed by 156 artists.

Their proposal centres on a suggested change in wording to the 1988 Copyright Act to bring royalty payments more in line with how those in radio are paid, while acknowledging the very different on-demand nature of streaming. The change in the law, the signatories argue, would mean that streaming companies would have to make “equitable remuneration” to artists via a rights collection company, a method already enshrined in British law for music played on the radio.

UK radio stations purchase a licence from a rights collection company, which then uses that revenue to distribute royalties to songwriters and performers based on how often their songs are played. With streaming, revenue from users is pooled by each streaming company, such as Spotify orApple Music. Royalty payments are distributed by each company to the rights holder – usually a record label, who take their own share depending on their deal with the artist – according to the number of plays and other undisclosed formulas. The royalty rates are set by each company.

The signatories complain that the level of agency afforded to streaming companies needs to change, and a UK regulator also be brought in.

Their statement complains of “multinational corporations wielding extraordinary power and songwriters struggling as a result. An immediate government referral to the Competition and Markets Authority is the first step to address this … we need a regulator to ensure the lawful and fair treatment of music makers.”

Other signatories include Sting, Gary Barlow, Noel Gallagher, Annie Lennox, Damon Albarn, and Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page and Robert Plant.

www.theguardian.com/music/2021/apr/20/paul-mccartney-kate-bush-law-change-music-streaming-payment

 

Successful businesses are able to pivot when there is an industry disruption. Those who don't are usually sore losers. That's what we see here. I greatly respect and admire many on here (McCartney, Page, Plant, are living legends) but the reality is, times have changed on the business side of music.

The market should decide who gets paid what and the value. <-

 

The market regulates nothing at all.
All large tech corporations need to be regulated by the states.

 

Fuck Spotify - never used it!

If posseble buy Vinyl, CDs or Flac format directly from the artist <----- that´s the way to pay respect a make sure the money goes to the right people - the artists!
Daniel Ek is just another parasite!
Great some musicians has begun to take action. At best, it will also benefit lesser-known artists?!?

 

Always the richest musicians calls for stuff like that!

 

Because people listen to the famous stars and the newspapers like to print it, Paul Cartney and Co speak for all of us!
Many have an opinion, but only a few have influence.

 

Last edited: Mar 11, 2022

Hey superstars:
You have finally figured out who the real bandits are (and no: they are not teens who exchange your music in mp3 format)
You have always had the mafia around you, sitting at you table: record companies, copyright agencies, lawyers, etc.
You never realized that they were the real bloodsuckers, now that the big money is gone you finally opened your eyes

Welcome into the real world

 

So, artist life wasn't like this before?
Why has it changed then? And when?
"Big musicians" complain because prices for hotel rooms going up up.

 

Last edited: Mar 11, 2022

...... all I have to say is:

Fuck Spotify and their likes!!!
Support the artists directly and stop using parasite music streaming!

NB: If you see youself as an artist on Spotify you´ll have to accept the fact you´ll have to get several millions of listeners before you can pay even (eg) a meal for 4 persons on a restaurant......!
this is a pervert and not a liberal market model .... it is theft!

 

Oh yeah, and we have world peace right now!

 

A musician told: that he only earns enough money to pay his living, if he gives live concerts and sells his CD's at the booth!
The record companies give him only 1 EUR per sold CD/LP.

 

To sum up what Paul McCartney and co says: if someone put her/his song on a streaming platform, he/she have to be fairly paid, in direct relationship with the income $$$ he/she generates for the platform (and - optionally - for the producer / label / manager and other bloodsucker, which are absolutely dispensable and facultative).

If I have 1000 people listening to my songs in streaming, I wanna receive at least 50% of the ads and other earnings that the platform have generated during the listening.

If I sell 100 albums, let's say at 10€ each, I wanna receive at least 50% of the total money received, result: 500€.

There's a thing, in my country we call: justice. If ever one day I have the incredible luck to be listened by real people on a streaming platform, I become a source of benefit$. So I should receive the half of everything, that's what I call: fair.

No need to call PmC and other famous artists that have launched this call with useless names. They simply defend everyone involved in music creation, including all of us.

 

Last edited: Mar 11, 2022

I will respond by this (some will understand ... some not)
"Music business" is a class exploitation ... like everything else

 

Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr support the David Lynch Foundation initiative.
Fundraising - One million young people with learning difficulties are taught meditation.

Vienna (OTS) - The David Lynch Foundation provides
a scholarship for 10,000 young people in Austria. Young people with learning problems and ADHD are given special support

A) "Change Begins Within" benefit concert on Saturday April 4th at Radio City Music Hall in New York.

Performers include: Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Sheryl Crow, Donovan, Eddie Vedder, Ben Harper, Moby, Paul Horn, Bettye LaVette, Mike Love and Jim James.

B) Press Conference, Friday, April 3 at 12:00 p.m. at Radio City Music Hall in New York (equivalent to 6:00 p.m. CET). Featuring Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, filmmaker David Lynch, hip-hop producer Russell Simmons and an expert panel of medical professionals and educators will be there.

Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr will publicly present the David Lynch Foundation's initiative to teach 1 million youth the technique of Transcendental Meditation. Fundraising for the meditation initiative will take place during the benefit concert "Change Begins Within" on Saturday, April 4th at 7:30pm (local time New York) at Radio City Hall.

Transmission of a special film report on the educational projects of the David Lynch Foundation

David Lynch Foundation Television will exclusively broadcast a 45 minute film which will include live interviews with David Lynch, the participating musicians and special concert guests. Video reports of school projects supported by the David Lynch Foundation will also be shown.

These projects include learning the technique of Transcendental Meditation according to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, as well as special advanced yoga techniques. Extensive scientific study material confirms that this reduces the potential for stress and aggression in young people and that factors such as creativity, intelligence, as well as attention and learning behavior in the classroom are encouraged (see enclosures).

The transmission of this special film report begins on Sunday, April 5th, at 0.30 am CET (or on Saturday, April 4th, at 6.30 pm local time in New York) on DLF.TV. For legal reasons, this broadcast on the Internet will not contain any excerpts from the concert.

www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS_20090403_OTS0016/paul-mccartney-und-ringo-starr-unterstuetzen-die-initiative-der-david-lynch-foundation

 

Everything too big becomes corrupted by time.
I don't trust everything too big.

But to explain why, I had to open the political pandora box of breaking the rules here.


Maybe this is a non-political explanation why this will either ways be a problem.

The Disturbing Link Between Psychopathy And Leadership

Snakes in Suits - An excellent book, Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work, by Paul Babiak, Ph.D., and Robert Hare, Ph.D., published in 2006, is the foundational work on the subject and offers a comprehensive look at how psychopaths operate effectively in the workplace. To quote a few portions:

Several abilities – skills, actually – make it difficult to see psychopaths for who they are. First, they are motivated to, and have a talent for, ‘reading people’ and for sizing them up quickly. They identify a person’s likes and dislikes, motives, needs, weak spots, and vulnerabilities… Second, many psychopaths come across as having excellent oral communication skills. In many cases, these skills are more apparent than real because of their readiness to jump right into a conversation without the social inhibitions that hamper most people… Third, they are masters of impression management; their insight into the psyche of others combined with a superficial – but convincing – verbal fluency allows them to change their situation skillfully as it suits the situation and their game plan.


The authors also note that many psychopaths, of course, are not suited for the business environment:

Some do not have enough social or communication skill or education to interact successfully with others, relying instead on threats, coercion, intimidation, and violence to dominate others and to get what they want. Typically, such individuals are manifestly aggressive and rather nasty, and unlikely to charm victims into submission, relying on their bullying approach instead. This book (Snakes in Suits) is less about them than about those who are willing to use their ‘deadly charm’ to con and manipulate others.


https://www.forbes.com/sites/victor...bing-link-between-psychopathy-and-leadership/

 

Last edited by a moderator: Mar 11, 2022

Exactly Polomo it is a gang of psychopaths and criminals.

 

you mean the unwitting accomplices?

 

To answer your questions, there was no internet back then, Google, YouTube, Spotify etc were not invented yet.
Every person on this planet has the right to complain.

 

"We must put the value of music back where it belongs – in the hands of music makers."

The value of music never ever was in the hands of music makers. In the medieval it was in the hands of the knights, kings or whatever, at times of Tin Pan Alley it was in the hands of the sheet music companies and later in the hands of reproduction & manufacturing & distribution companies, now it is in the hands of... you guessed it ... distribution companies.

So... of course I am for everything that raises the income of musicians, everything. And to take it from the ones who are in between the musicians and their audience. The distributors between musicians and audience are needed, how else should the music come to the audience. So the question is how to get the money, the distributors cut too much (and how much is too much), to the musicians.

And I love Paul McCartney and of course Kate Bush. But this letter - and its a letter to Boris, the idiot - lets them appear as stupid naive little dreamers with no clue. And they are millionaires. Whiny millionaires. That lets them look even stupider.

 

Please, keep on being cynical and crushing any hope of the new generation of creators. Look at the eyes of young musicians or DJs and tell them: "There is no hope. Stop making music, and stop hoping anything from life, because life will always be an eternal disappointement. Don't try to live from your music, just be like me, a cynical accountant".

"Above all, never try to improve a situation, whatever the situation is. Never write petitions. Don't fight against the global warming. Please hate everything and everyone, and vote for the most cynical, mean, disturbed and lying candidate. Don't try to fight for women's, children or minorities' rights. Don't invent, don't create, don't hope, don't do anything, it's stupid, stupid, stupid! Please, just die."

 

Last edited: Mar 12, 2022