A new campaign entitled Keep Music Alive has been launched in order to call for a reform in the payment of artists.
The economic and social difficulties the music industry is facing now is unprecedented, and the rate at which artists have lost their livelihoods is absolutely heartbreaking. Luckily, the music community and those representing the arts will always stand in solidarity with each other and fight for our rights.
While there is only so much we as individuals can do – which is much more than we may think: the incredible Bandcamp sales, as a small example, are a good indication of our individual power to support and the intrinsic need to help one another – we need to put more pressure on corporations and governments who have the incredible financial power to truly help protect musicians from losing their livelihoods.
Unfortunately, it’s no secret that streaming services – even the richest giants of all – barely provide any sort of income for musicians as live music, along with licensing in public venues and businesses is the main source of income for the majority of artists, and considering these opportunities have essentially been – cancelled – a new campaign has been launched urging an overhaul of the way that the “broken” music industry functions.
Leading UK organisations Musician’s Union and The Ivors Academy have come together to form the Keep Music Alive campaign, which according to The Guardian – calls on streaming services such as Spotify, labels and of course, politicians – to understand the real severity of the situation musicians have found themselves in.
On YouTube, the per-stream rate stands at £0.0012, while Spotify only has to pay out an average of £0.0028 per stream to “rights holders”, which encompasses both giant record companies and artists who release their own music. It’s fair to say, actual income for musicians is not coming from streaming platforms. This needs to change.
A petition has been launched for the Keep Music Alive campaign – see the embedded tweet below for more information and please be sure to sign it!
It’s time to #FixStreaming and keep music alive.
— Musicians' Union (@WeAreTheMU) May 11, 2020
Sign the @IvorsAcademy / @WeAreTheMU petition calling on Government to urgently undertake a review of streaming > https://t.co/0P51RVbuVR#BrokenRecord #KeepMusicAlive
