New Featured Artists Coalition battle with industry over copyright

The Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) is a new representative body with an emphasis on challenging issues of music ownership alongside copyright laws and regulations, effectively presenting a platform for musicians to vocalise their concerns with the industry in the age of digital distribution.

A board of members, including famously politicised songwriter Billy Bragg alongside members of Radiohead and Blur are leading the high profile pressure group and they met for the first time in London on 11th March. Artists such as Kate Nash, The Futureheads and Badly Drawn Boy alongside influential industry figures such as Jazz Summers, CEO of Big Life Management, attended the meeting.

Commenting on the formation of the Coalition in an official press release, Blur drummer Dave Rowntree said:

“The digital revolution has swept away the old music business of the 1960s and changed forever the relationship between artists and fans. For companies who made their living sitting between the two, these are increasingly hard times, but for music makers and music fans this should be a fantastic opportunity".

“There has never been a greater need for the collective voice of featured artists, whose music generates 95% of revenue in the industry, to be properly heard”.

The FAC is expected to focus on engaging with the industry to challenge issues such as existing music copyright but also appeal at a Governmental level for a cohesive programme of advice and mentorship for young artists.

In an interesting development this week, the FAC clashed with industry over a proposal by the European Commission to extend copyright on sound recordings across the EU to 95 years, as it is now in the United States. This means that the owners to rights of a sound recording (typically a record label) would continue to receive royalties for 95 years after it was made, as opposed to the current 50 years that now applies to European copyright.

The proposal was blocked in a vote by the UK Government in Brussels on Friday 27th March.

The FAC responded with an official statement, supporting copyright extension but with a focus on rights reverting to artists: "Record companies would simply gain another 45 years of ownership, entrenching the terms of record contracts signed in an analogue age”.

The statement continued: “We believe that all rights in recordings should revert to the artist after 50 years”.

On the other side of the coin, a coalition of industry bodies responded with a joint statement from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), the Association of Independent Music (AIM), Musician’s Union and PPL, which is responsible for licensing sound recordings, commenting:

"In continuing to hold out for further changes, the Government has not heeded the repeated pleas of the very musicians it claims to support”.

Have Your Say! Any artists or small record labels out there? What are your thoughts on the formation of the FAC? Which side of the copyright extension argument are you on? Will this pressure group achieve its objectives and also vocalise the concerns of young emerging artists?