Thursday

28th Mar 2024

MEPs want EU law on online music

  • Everytime a song is downloaded a small percentage goes to the rights owner (Photo: EUobserver)

MEPs have called on the European Commission to come up with binding legislation for the online music market to ensure European cultural diversity in the music sector.

Deputies in the European Parliament's legal affairs committee voted on Tuesday (27 February) in favour of an own-initiative report by Hungarian socialist MEP Katalin Levai on the cross border management of copyright for online music services, criticising the EU executive's non-binding recommendation put forward in 2005.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

The MEPs in the committee instead want an EU law to be proposed under the co-decision procedure – meaning that both member states and the parliament are involved in shaping the law.

"This new proposal should guarantee the protection of EU cultural diversity and safeguard small artists and local repertoires," the committee said in a statement after the vote.

Song-writers' and composers' rights are currently controlled by Collective Rights Management societies (CRMs) which grant national distribution licences for record labels and online shops and collect royalties of a few cents per download.

The artists are most often represented by their national CRM society - some of which date back to the 1850s - and in the other EU countries by virtue of reciprocal bilateral agreements that allow, say, a Spanish society to licence Dutch music in Spain while channelling cash from Spanish royalties back to the Netherlands.

But with the EU digital music sector set to become a €3.9 billion a year industry by 2011, the major record labels are pushing Brussels to break-open the rights monopolies system.

The European Commission therefore proposed in its recommendation to open up the copyright market to competition allowing those interested in trading music on the web to negotiate with one CRM instead of each individual CRM in the 27 different EU member states.

But MEPs are saying that although competition is good, to open the market without a set of restrictions would endanger European cultural diversity with CRMs then focusing on making money instead of diversity, hampering the developments of national and local music markets.

Diversity

The committee called on the commission to introduce controlled competition to encourage modernisation and competitiveness in the online music market while at the same time protecting local and niche repertoires by asking CRMs to provide consumers with a diversified range of music products.

"It is very much in favour of the diversity of the culture in Europe," Willem Wanrooij, public affairs manager of the Dutch Buma/Stemra collecting society, said about the adopted report.

He explained that the commission recommendation mainly benefits the big players in the industry, many of which are owned by Anglo-American interests.

"Diversity is what makes European culture interesting," Mr Wanrooij said, adding that "we have to rely on diversity to fight competition from the US and Japan."

"If we kill diversity, we kill our competition position," he told EUobserver.

The parliament as a whole will vote on the report on 12 March when they meet in Strasbourg for their monthly plenary session.

Digital market sets scene for bloody licencing battle

Explosive growth in the online music market has pushed musicians, record labels, computer firms and EU politicians into a fight over how to manage authors' rights on the internet, with one Hungarian MEP confident she has found the right model for the digital era.

MEPs to criticise 'big-bang' policy on music rights

MEPs are set to adopt a report on collective cross-border management of copyright on Tuesday shooting down a European Commission proposal and saying a 'big-bang' style introduction of competition into the collective management of authors' rights could damage cultural diversity in Europe.

"Swiftly dial back" interest rates, ECB told

Italian central banker Piero Cipollone in his first monetary policy speech since joining the ECB's board in November, said that the bank should be ready to "swiftly dial back our restrictive monetary policy stance."

Podcast

Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza

This week's Euroscopic explores the consequences of Moscow's terror attack, the convergence of public safety and border/migration policy in an EU election year, and the United Nations Security resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

Opinion

Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Rather than assuming a pro-European Labour government in London will automatically open doors in Brussels, the Labour party needs to consider what it may be able to offer to incentivise EU leaders to factor the UK into their defence thinking.

Podcast

Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza

This week's Euroscopic explores the consequences of Moscow's terror attack, the convergence of public safety and border/migration policy in an EU election year, and the United Nations Security resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

Latest News

  1. "Swiftly dial back" interest rates, ECB told
  2. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  3. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult
  4. EU unveils plan to create a European cross-border degree
  5. How migrants risk becoming drug addicts along Balkan route
  6. 2024: A Space Odyssey — why the galaxy needs regulating
  7. Syrian mayor in Germany speaks out against AfD
  8. Asian workers pay price for EU ship recycling

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  2. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  3. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  5. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  6. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us