Economics of music streaming: follow-up

In welcoming these announcements, the Committee would like to see evidence of the amount of consequential royalties that are now being distributed by all three Major rights holding groups, and request that they each provide this information to us.

We commend the Government and Intellectual Property Office (IPO) for their work in commissioning and convening further research, industry contact group meetings and the two working groups on contract transparency and metadata. However, we believe that there is room for improvement regarding the scope and practice of the groups. We recommend that the IPO, at minimum, ensure that there is greater transparency around the groups by ensuring that its memberships, agendas and deadlines are made public and that the groups have reporting functions at reasonable, practical intervals (e.g., at certain milestones or on conclusion of negotiations). We also hope that Ministers and departmental officials will take a more active role in the groups where appropriate, particularly where negotiations become deadlocked or deadlines are missed. We also recommend that the IPO continue to build on the current momentum and good-faith engagement by all parties in the process by establishing working groups on remuneration and performer rights to consider the current evidence base and monitor developments in other countries in these areas.

The current approach to cultural policymaking by Government is too scatter-gun to be effective, particular in comparison to other successful countries with whom we are competing for market share. We recommend that the Government take a more strategic approach to policymaking regarding cultural production and the creative industries. Responsibilities are dispersed across too many departments, which has created persistent issues, including in international trade, visas and the ongoing skills shortage. This could be addressed by DCMS more regularly setting the overall direction by publishing its overall strategy (with reference to specific disciplines, including music, film and television, theatre, etc), with tangible, measurable outcomes, at more regular intervals, that the work of various departments and arm’s length bodies can then work in concert to implement. We also recommend that part of this work should revisit Creative Industries Forums with other markets, including South Korea, and ensure these lead to tangible outcomes that re-energise the commercial collaboration with our most important overseas partners.

We will continue to monitor developments in the sector as the music streaming market matures and as new technologies emerge.