Press release: ECSA welcomes European Parliament’s CULT Committee’s adoption of the report on music streaming

On Tuesday, 28 November, the European Parliament’s Culture and Education (CULT) Committee adopted its report on “Cultural diversity and the conditions for authors in the European streaming market” with an overwhelming majority. ECSA welcomes this crucial report for all music creators and warmly thanks the rapporteur and Member of European Parliament (MEP) Iban García del Blanco (S&D, Spain) as well as all CULT MEPs for supporting new rules towards “a fair and sustainable ecosystem for music streaming in the Union”. Our Alliance looks forward to a swift adoption of the report by the European Parliament in plenary session and hopes to see its recommendations put in motion by the European Commission, EU Member States, and the music industry as soon as possible.       

“ Music streaming must be fixed to become fairer and sustainable for music creators, who currently struggle to make a living from it. This report is a crucial step towards future concrete actions for an ecosystem that fairly compensates those who deliver the core product on streaming services: music.” Helienne Lindvall, songwriter, ECSA President

ECSA has tirelessly pledged for better recognition of the fundamental role played by music authors in the music streaming market by ensuring that they finally benefit from music streaming, often described as a “song economy”.  As rightly stated in the report, “the current imbalance in revenue allocation in the music streaming market disfavours both authors and performers and puts the sustainability of their professional career in the digital market at risk”. This report provides a first answer to music creators’ concerns as well as a roadmap with concrete actions towards a fairer remuneration of authors and performers, recognising the importance of their role in the European music sector.

In particular, we warmly welcome the report’s calls for improvement of authors’ identification on streaming services, notably by ensuring accurate metadata allocation from the time of creation to ensure a better remuneration and visibility of composers and songwriters. As fixing music streaming requires a holistic approach, we are also pleased to see that it calls on the Commission to assess the impact of both contractual practices and the high level of concentration in the music industry on the remuneration of authors, cultural diversity, and competition. It also rightly demands to explore fairer and alternative models to the current pro-rata system, which often encourages fraud and a "winner takes all” approach. Moreover, we fully support the demands for “a legal framework ensuring the visibility, accessibility and prominence of European works”, more transparency of algorithms and recommendation systems, and the "ethical use of AI in the music sector".

Finally, as the report calls for a comprehensive and ambitious strategy based on independent data and a structured dialogue with all stakeholders, we stand ready to work with the entire music value chain towards a fairer distribution of revenues, and support the establishment of a European Music Observatory to collect and analyse data. Our Alliance looks forward to seeing the European Commission work on such a strategy and take concrete actions to build a fair and sustainable music streaming ecosystem for all music creators.