In June 2023, the European Parliament’s Culture Committee proposed a Parliament resolution on cultural diversity and the conditions for authors in the European music streaming market. The draft resolution proposes, amongst other things, improvements in metadata to raise the visibility of authors on streaming services, and condemns schemes which force authors to accept lower revenues in exchange for greater visibility. The resolution calls on the European Commission to propose a legal framework to ensure the prominence and discoverability of European works on music streaming platforms and to consider the possibility of imposing quotas for European works on such platforms. In respect of AI, the resolution calls for the ethical and transparent use of AI in the development, production and delivery of music, for the Commission to propose legal obligations to ensure the transparency of the algorithms and recommendations used on certain music streaming platforms, and it emphasises that the public should be informed if musical works, songs or artists have been AI generated and that authors, whose works have been used for training AI-generating applications, should receive fair remuneration.

Access to a diversity of content is a key feature of the proposal, which highlights the perceived need for greater support of and access to niche or experimental styles of music, including works in national or minority languages or published by independent authors.

On 28 November 2023, the Committee passed amendments to the original proposal. These have not yet been published, but the amendments that were under consideration prior to that vote appear generally to endorse the principles of the original text whilst seeking to expand and clarify. The final amended resolution will go to Parliament for a vote in plenary in January 2024. It remains to be seen whether the resolution will be passed and, if so, if the Commission must accept the recommendations or provide reasons why it has decided not to do so.

For more information, click here.