International Artist Organisation shares letter sent to the European Commission about "value gap"

International Artist Organisation shares letter sent to the European Commission about "value gap"

The International Artist Organisation – the body including the UK’s Featured Artist Coalition – shared a letter it has sent to the European Commission to support the wider music industry’s campaign on the "value gap", but stresses that the need to equitably share the value of digital music goes beyond what user-upload sites like YouTube pay the labels.

IAO’s stand into the value gap debate can be summarised as follows: there is a value gap and it is a problem that needs to be resolved. But not in a way that means only the major music rights companies benefit.

IAO and FAC chief Paul Pacifico wrote:

It is difficult to argue against the value gap and the headline figures are stark. Usage on YouTube is indeed vast and in terms of functionality it is all too close to services which pay up to ten times more. [And] in spite of the unique promotional opportunities given by YouTube as a platform, the proportion of commercial content usage on YouTube is difficult to reconcile against the proportion of revenue that usage delivers back to artists. [...] It is interesting to observe the labels now making very similar demands from YouTube that artists have been asking of all stakeholders in the digital market. When we have made our demands previously, the majors have consistently stated that care must be taken here not to allow the legislative process to be hijacked as a proxy for commercial negotiations between counterparties. [...] However with digital, we have entered into a world of value-share business models as opposed to the buy-sell world of physical retailing and this requires a level of trust that has changed the dynamic in the market and that needs legislative help to build. If we are sharing the value we collectively generate then neither platforms nor labels should be able to use contractual gymnastics to remove value from the table and deny the stakeholders further down the value chain their fair and legitimate share from the use of their works.

And he added:

We have recommended to artists across the globe that they support the labels in their quest to review value gap legislation on safe harbours both in Europe and the USA. However, we must be careful to make sure that this review includes the whole value chain and that the results are not just to pass value one link down the chain where it stops with the majors.

Read the IAO letter in full HERE.