James Delahunty
3 Dec 2005 14:21
British composers and songwriters hit back at the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) yesterday in the battle over royalties from music download sales. Music downloads are just a small fraction of the overall music market currently, but in coming years music downloading will become a multi-billion dollar industry. The BPI, who's members includes big shots such as Sony BMG, Universal, EMI and Time Warner, wants to cut the royalties songwriters receive per 79p download by half.
That means instead of the current 5p per download, songwriters will get just 2.5p. Songwriters and composers were not willing to just sit back and let that happen however. The Music Alliance, a body representing some 44,000 songwriters and composers through the Performing Rights Society and the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society lodged a counter-claim yesterday demanding an increase in royalties to between 7p and 9p per download.
The group also challenged the record labels to reveal just how much money they are currently receive from digital downloads. The Music Alliance has said that if the BPI gets what it wants, then BPI members would receive 40p - 50p per download whereas composers and song writers will get just a few pennies. "We have now submitted our reasons for why the record industry should adopt fresh economic thinking in a digital age to sustain the composing community upon which they rely." said Adam Singer, head of the Music Alliance.
Source:
Independent Online