Source · Select Committees · Culture, Media and Sport Committee
Recommendation 2
2
Accepted
Paragraph: 12
We commend the Government and Intellectual Property Office (IPO) for their work in commissioning and...
Recommendation
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.
Government Response Summary
The IPO shared the membership of the working groups on metadata and transparency and will publish agendas and minutes for the meetings of the transparency working group and agendas for the meetings of the metadata working group on the Government’s webpage. Ministers will also be hosting a roundtable on music streaming with industry stakeholders.
Paragraph Reference:
12
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
After the Committee’s follow-up session on music streaming of 15 November 2022, the IPO wrote to the Committee on 24 November 2022 to share the membership of the working groups on metadata and transparency. The Government will also soon publish agendas and minutes for the meetings of the transparency working group and agendas for the meetings of the metadata working group (as no minutes were taken for these meetings). This information on the working groups is already available (in the case of group memberships) or will shortly be made available (agendas and minutes) via the Government’s webpage dedicated to its work on music streaming, published recently: https://www.gov. uk/guidance/the-governments-work-on-music-streaming. The draft agreement on metadata has recently been shared with members of the music industry Contact Group and certain other industry representatives. Aspects of the draft code of practice on transparency remain under discussion at technical expert level but we aim to share this with the same industry stakeholders shortly. Once these outputs are finalised among industry, the Government will publish them. We will also publish the agendas of these technical level meetings (and any further such meetings) on the transparency code of practice. The membership of the Contact Group, a forum of senior representatives from across the music industry convened by the IPO, was published in a letter of 22 May from Minister Lopez and Minister Freeman to the Committee. Both Ministers and officials have played an active role in this work and will continue to do so. The two working groups have each been chaired by officials from the IPO, and the development of the two products have involved extensive engagement between officials and industry experts. Ministers will also be hosting a roundtable on music streaming with industry stakeholders to discuss these and other issues, which is due to take place in the near future.