GMR
ISRC
11th September 2018
The 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), from across all 28 EU Member States, are set to vote on Wednesday to close the Value Gap which deprives creators and artists of a fair deal.
The 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), from across all 28 EU Member States, are set to vote on Wednesday to close the Value Gap which deprives creators and artists of a fair deal.
IFPI, IAO, IMPALA, and EMMA – representing producers, performers, independent music labels and European music managers – have called upon MEPs to deliver a solution to the Value Gap that sees music and other creative content undervalued online.
Online services, such as YouTube, allow users to upload music onto their services, place adverts against it that generate huge profits and then refuse to return a fair share to the producers and artists who create the work in the first place.
The European Commission was quick to spot the problem and tabled a copyright proposal in 2016 to create a fairer playing field in Europe.
The proposal has been with the European Parliament since 2016, but no-one could have foreseen the scale of the cynical and manipulative behaviour of some platforms to protect their interests. Some in the Parliament are concerned that such disinformation campaigns, if allowed to succeed this time, would set a bad precedent for the European elections in the spring.
The current text of Article 13, as tabled by the Rapporteur, Mr Axel Voss MEP, is the minimum required to address the Value Gap.
The choice is clear – do we allow ‘big tech’ to bully and subvert this vote, or do we do the right thing and give European culture a fair deal? This Wednesday, the choice is with MEPs.
IFPI – IFPI is the voice of the recording industry worldwide, representing over 8,000 record company members across the globe. We work to promote the value of recorded music, campaign for the rights of record producers and expand the commercial uses of recorded music around the world.
IMPALA – IMPALA is the European association of independent music companies. Its mission is to grow the independent music sector, return more value to artists, promote cultural diversity and entrepreneurship, improve political access and modernise perceptions of the music sector.
The IAO is the umbrella association for national organisations representing the rights and interests of Featured Artists in the Music Industry. The IAO is a not-for-profit organisation based in Paris that was officially founded in 2015 by its six founder-members: FAC (UK), GAM (France), CoArtis (Spain), Domus (Germany), Gramart (Norway) and FACIR (Belgium). For more information: www.iaomusic.org.
The European Music Managers Alliance (EMMA) brings together music manager representative bodies from the UK, France, Sweden, Netherlands, Poland, Norway and Finland – with links to similar organisations in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa.
In total, EMMA collectively represents over 800 managers across Europe, and another 600 worldwide.
For further information please contact:
johnny.phelan@ifpi.org / press@ifpi.org / +32 (0) 490 11 49 83
John.blewett@ifpi.org / press@ifpi.org / +44 (0) 20 7878 7979
@IFPI_ORG