September 19, 2016

Further to the European Commission’s announcement of its proposed Copyright Directive, the BPI has welcomed the Commission’s acknowledgement of the Value Gap and urges the EU and UK Government to act on its proposal to fix the distortion in the music market and the resulting mismatch in consumption and revenues brought about by User Generated Content platforms, such as YouTube.

Geoff Taylor, Chief Executive BPI & BRIT Awards, said: “Record labels are the key investors in new music and welcome the clear acknowledgement from the Commission that we need a level playing field for digital music.  UGC platforms such as YouTube are building huge businesses using music and other content while paying only a fraction of the royalties paid to artists and labels by services such as Spotify and Apple Music.  This is not only unfair to artists, it distorts the growth of the music streaming market and undermines the ability of labels to invest in brilliant new music.

“The explosion of music streaming offers the prospect of a new era of sustained growth for British music, but this potential will only be realised if the EU and UK Government fix the fault-line that lies at the very heart of the digital music market. It is very encouraging that the EU has begun the process of doing so”.  To read BPI’s press release, click here.